Gone are the days of begging your mom to go to the mall and shop at Justice, Children’s Place or American Girl Doll. Today’s youth prefer to shop at Lululemon, Aerie, Free People, etc. From cosmetic products to retail stores there’s a shift happening. This drastic change leaves us with one question, why are children’s stores fading away?
Infants all the way to six year-olds are still wearing clothes from children’s clothing stores because physically they have no other choice, and they may not have been exposed to adult retail stores the way other kids have. While working in retail, I’ve noticed it’s the kids with access to a phone or social media, typically ages seven to 11, that are breaking away from the normalcy of wearing children’s clothes.
Social media trends have made their way into the hands of children, and this isn’t a good thing. Like some adults, kids are trying to emulate what they see on TikTok or Instagram, but a lot of these trends aren’t child appropriate. For example, the Drunk Elephant bronzing drops and retinol cream swept through TikTok. The viral product was disappearing off the shelves, but its main consumer was not the target audience.
Kids flocked to Sephora and sold out this product for weeks on end. This phenomenon prompted beauty creators on TikTok to educate their viewers on chemicals like retinol and how it impacts the skin. While ignoring this warning, kids still went on to buy and use these products. Eventually, Drunk Elephant released a statement saying that people 12 and younger should not be using their products.
The increased consumption from children has spilled over into clothing stores. Other viral trends like the Aerie crossover flares and Free People’s carryall bag have caught the attention of kids nationwide. As a retail worker, it’s quite odd when an eight year old asks, “Do you have this in an extra extra small?” and the piece of clothing is three sizes too big for them.
Both Justice and Children’s Place have filed for bankruptcy in recent years. 10 years ago those stores were the most popular for kids ages 6-12, and now they are fading away. This could be another reason why kids are flocking to other retail stores. Even if these stores made trendy clothing that appealed to kids, it’s not guaranteed that their products would be as popular as the new brands that kids have been exposed to. There seems to be such a rush to escape childhood, but what happened to kids just being kids?
In my experience, kids walk into these stores with a credit card and no parental supervision. They rummage through all the clothes in the store and leave a massive mess for the employees to clean when they’re done. In the end, the children walk out with an item that’s ill-fitting and inappropriate, but it follows a trend, so they’re happy.
It’s important to note that the children are not at fault for this massive shift, but their overconsumption is a side effect of bad parenting. Kids wouldn’t have access to any of these things unless their parents provided it to them directly or indirectly. Simply handing your kid money to go shopping does more harm than good.
Parents aren’t able to monitor the items being bought, and it also diverts from the average shopping experience. Most kids go into clothing stores with an adult who helps them pick out, try on and get the clothes they want. There’s quality time that’s missing when kids are allowed to roam stores freely, and follow any trend that has their attention.
If stores such as Lululemon, Aerie, etc. wanted to further capitalize on this new demographic, they should include sizes for kids. However, considering that most of these brands don’t have adequate sizes for plus-size consumers, this change is highly unlikely. On the contrary, child specific brands could try to bounce back by following social media trends and doing influencer brand deals to market to a child-friendly audience.
This increase in child-consumership is changing retail as we know it. A change needs to be made and it starts at home.
Jemiah Clemons is a 20-year-old kinesiology junior from Miami, Florida.
