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The students want low prices, but at the same time, they seem to be discovering the relationship between price and quality. “If a shirt costs $10 but then rips every month or so, that’s a lot of T-shirts,” Ms. Kaplan said. “It adds up. Whereas if you buy a shirt that costs like $30 but it doesn’t rip, you can have it for as long as you want to wear it.” That sentiment may explain why some teenagers are gravitating to the Gap, which is trying to pull off a turnaround. November same-store sales at Gap were unchanged from the same month last year, when they fell 10 percent. That is a better performance than most of Gap’s competitors. “That’s your confirmation that teens are much more practical-minded,” said Mr. Morris, the BMO analyst. “You know you can just go in and get basic things and that the price is right. That to me is the confirmation that for them it’s not all about status labels and chasing trends. It’s more about enduring quality.
