TRAVERSE CITY -- Instead of extras, Heather Pollington's daughters will return to school next week with just the basics.
Some new supplies, a pair of shoes, jeans and a few shirts.
There isn't room for much else.
"We are cutting back a lot," said Pollington, of Marion, who helped Kennedy, 8, and Klaire, 5, try on shoes at Target in Traverse City. "We're just getting essentials this year and making do with what we've got at home."
Families across the region -- and, for that matter, across the nation -- face similar choices during the inevitable back-to-school shopping season: Do they tap the wallet to replace everything their child needs or spruce up the year-old backpack and partially used notebooks?
Many parents are opting for the latter this year, as Michigan's economy stagnates and disposable incomes shrink.
For many people, discount retailers, such as Wal-Mart or Target, have become more popular than specialty stores like Staples.
And the penny pinching has been a boon to secondhand shops and nonprofits, several of which reported higher traffic this summer than a year ago.
"With the increasing cost of everything from food to fuel, everyone from what we're seeing is really trying to stretch those back-to-school dollars," said Robert Randall, retail director for Goodwill Industries of Northern Michigan, where clothing sales are up nearly 10 percent compared to last August.
"It's affecting everyone."
More teenagers, for instance, are shopping at Goodwill than before.
Sales at Children's Orchard, a resale shop in the Logan's Landing shopping center, are up 23 percent from 2007, a rate higher than in any other year, owner Tracey Gabel said.
And the Women's Resource Center Thrift Shop in Traverse City fills, on average, between eight and 10 clothing vouchers a day, manager Carol Rose said.
But donations haven't kept pace with demand. Rose said the shop's reserves of school supplies are gone, and staffers refill a small desk with paper and pencils whenever they are donated. That's not often.
Some donors used to stock up on extra items while shopping for their own children, Rose said. She thinks fewer can afford to now, particularly as families make their own cutbacks.
Pete Jenema shopped for clothes for his son and daughter last week at discount retailers Wal-Mart and Old Navy.
"It used to be JC Penney and Younkers," said Jenema, of Traverse City.
He said his children will have all they need before school starts, even though it means buying fewer outfits and filling their backpacks with office supplies from home.
And Jolie King, of Kingsley, visited nonprofits and garage sales to gather items for her four elementary-age children.
"You got to do whatever you can," she said.
Cutting costs for back-to-school isn't just a Michigan trend.
Nearly three-quarters of the 5,035 customers polled last month by professional services firm Deloitte LLP don't plan to spend as much this year as they did last year, according to the study.
At 88 percent, most shoppers will choose discount retailers, with just 32 percent visiting office supply stores. At least 90 percent will shop differently this season, including by scouting for sales and buying just what's needed.
A similar trend was revealed by the National Retail Federation, which conducted its own study last month of 8,361 consumers. Discount stores won in that poll, especially since it showed an average family will spend more this year -- $594.24, or $30.75 above last year.
"We've always made it a priority to be price-competitive," Target spokeswoman Hadley Barrows said. "In the current economy, one of the main things we're doing is through our marketing."
Store executives are hoping an emphasis on certain back-to-school promotions will translate into added sales of other items, Barrows said.
That one-stop shopping approach is exactly what Holly Sigafoose wanted.
Sigafoose, of McBain, shops more often in Cadillac than in Traverse City. But here, daughters Adri and Ally can pick up outfits at the Grand Traverse Mall at the same time as their classroom supplies.
"We try to do it all in one," Sigafoose said. "I know it's been tough for people."
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