Why You Should Shop Early for Back-to-School Supplies

While the summer months are relaxing, fun and without schedule, they are also the time to stock up and restock for the following school year.

We have always found that it is much less stressful to do our shopping over the summer versus the week before school starts.

Let’s start with clothing. The stores tend to begin getting in their fall clothes midway through summer. When you shop early you and your children have your choice of both styles and colors. In addition, you’ll also have your choice of sizes. Often, stores get only one or two items in a particular size.

If your child will need a uniform for school or for a sport/physical education, summer is the only time to guarantee you’ll get what your child needs. Over the years, I’ve seen kids have to wait a month to get uniforms and they end up wearing old hand-me-downs that the school offers them.

Next are the actual school supplies, such as pens, pencils and paper. We do a lot of our shopping at Staples and we’ve found that in the summer we have lots of choices in notebook sizes and colors, and as many choices in pen styles. By the beginning of school, the shelves at Staples always look half-bare and many items are now on backorder. We often overbuy to make sure we have everything we need. If we find we don’t need it, I take it back quickly so that those who need it will have the opportunity to buy it. I would much rather make a return trip than to have my child be upset without the proper supplies.

When your kids get older and enter junior high and high school, there are often non-school textbooks they’ll need. This can happen in advanced classes, in honors classes and in AP classes. The books used in the classroom are not provided by the school. Often those books must be bought through a college bookstore (we did this often with math courses). If you don’t purchase these books early, it can take six weeks to receive them. And the bookstores don’t want leftovers so they do not overbuy what they believe they don’t need. In the advanced English classes, there are times the teachers will request additional books that are not provided by the school be read. If the teacher has two classes of 34 students, there are now 68 students needing one book and the local Borders might have 15 copies on hand. While they can order, this too can take a few weeks. If you know you’ll need the book and you shop early, your child will have the book and will not have to borrow or make copies from a friend’s book.

Finally, we always shopped for our lunch boxes early so that the kids would have their choice of all available styles. If your child has their heart set on a specific character and that lunchbox is no longer available, you’re looking at possible tantrums and tears, especially when their friends show up the first day of school with that exact lunch box.

Shop early and avoid the crowds, the empty shelves and the disappointed kids.

Audrey Okaneko is mom to two girls. She can be reached at audreyoka@cox.net or visited at www.todays-parent.com

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