Spending less for supplies

Although school doesn’t start for several weeks, many parents are doing their children’s back-to-school shopping early.

Josetta Hines of Kinston decided not to wait to do her shopping for her three children this summer. She visited K-Mart on North Queen Street on Tuesday, where she bought school supplies for her children.

Hines has two children who will attend Kinston Charter Academy and another who will attend Northwest Elementary School during the fall.

“I spent about $100 on supplies this year,” Hines said.

Hines said she decided to spend about $75 less on school supplies this year and do her shopping earlier, as compared to 2008. She also bought items on sale.

Hines isn’t finished yet with her family’s back-to-school shopping. She will finish her shopping during mid-August.

“I still haven’t bought any new clothes for my children to go back to school,” Hines said.

Hines isn’t alone on her quest to get her shopping done early and spend less. K-Mart manager Cynthia Fields said students’ parents first visited her store two weeks ago looking to buy school supplies.

“Parents are shopping earlier this year,” Fields said. “A lot are also waiting for sale items.”

The most popular items so far have been backpacks, pens, and pencils, Fields said. As with K-Mart, Staples at West Vernon Avenue is also prepared for the shopping season.

Staples manager Richard Vanmeter said his store began back-to-school sales July 4. Since then, shoppers have been sporadic with their purchases.

“It’s really hard to predict what’s going to happen,” Vanmeter said. “People are spending more wisely this year.”

Vanmeter said business will likely pick up from Aug. 7-9 when the tax-free incentive is available on all purchases.

Parents and students who aren’t sure what they will need to meet back to school supply needs can visit the Lenoir County Schools Web page, which has each school’s suggested supply list. The site is located at www.lenoir.k12.nc.us.

Contentnea-Savannah K-8 School Principal Kay Blizzard encouraged parents and students to check the online list.

The school system also sent out a list of required supplies with students on the last day of school in June.

“We want our students to shop smart,” Blizzard said. “The economy is not in the best place right now. Students should look for bargains.”

Back-to-school shopping nationwide is expected to be less this year, as compared to last year. According to a National Retail Federation report, four out of five Americans said the economy will affect their back-to-school and college spending.

“The economy has clearly changed the spending habits of American families, which will likely create a difficult back-to-school season for retailers,” National Retail Federation President Tracy Mullin said. “As people focus primarily on price, strong promotions and deep discounts will ultimately win over back-to-school shoppers this year.”

The NRF predicts that back-to-school and back-to-college spending combined will reach $47 billion nationwide in 2009.

The average family will likely spend about $548 for students in K-12 this year for their needs. Last year, families spent nearly $600 each.

According to the NRF survey, 56 percent of shoppers will look for sales more often, 41 percent will buy more store brand or generic products, and 40 percent plan to use more coupons to buy school supplies.

“This year, many parents hope to begin back to school shopping early to spread the spending out over a longer period of time,” BIGresearch Executive Vice President Phil Rist said.

BIGresearch conducted the NRF back-to-school and college shopping survey from June 30-July 7. The poll included 8,367 people nationwide.

While K-12 students and their parents expect to pay less this year, college-bound students and their parents said they actually expect to pay more to get ready for a new academic year.

College students and their parents in the poll said they plan to spend $618 each this year, as compared to $599 last year.

“The economy is forcing young adults to make hard decisions about which schools to attend, where to live, and what’s really a necessity for college,” Mullin said. “This year, college students are just as focused as their parents on finding good deals and making smart choices with their money.”

Chris Lavender can be reached at (252) 559-1078 or clavender@freedomenc.com.