What: Teen-clothing retailers aren’t just catering to high schoolers anymore. As family budgets get tighter across the country, stores like Aeropostale and Buckle say they’re focusing on making shopping a better experience for mom’s too. Wider aisles, brighter lighting, and softer music are all recent changes the retailer’s say they are making to encourage parents—who control the checkbooks—to come shopping with their teens.

What They Say:
“You need to make that mom feel comfortable, because ultimately she’s writing the check,” said Richard Jaffe, managing director of apparel and softlines retail at brokerage firm Stifel Nicolaus & Co. “She is the one who is responding to the economic uncertainty, the employment uncertainty.”

What We Say: We’ve never been fans of dark, loud retailers anyway—we’re looking at you, Abercrombie & Fitch—so these changes sound good to us.