Teachers, students, parents get ready to go back to school

The Teacher's Lounge, a new South Locust store, opened on Aug. 1, just in time for back-to-school shopping.

"I knew teachers would be getting back to school and getting school supplies," said owner Dawnita Buck, who said an opening on the first day of August was actually later than she preferred.

"I would have like to have opened a week or two earlier, but I knew that wasn't going to happen," said Buck, who noted it just was not physically possible to get the new retail space ready any sooner.

Buck noted that she taught for 14 years so that she knew late June and early July would be prime shopping time for teachers.

She said parents also have been coming into her store, buying educational games for their children, as well as "homework books" and other school supplies.

"Lots of teachers have been coming in -- they all miss Stephenson's (School Supply)," she said. "They're buying posters and bulletin board materials."

Most people are aware that holidays such as Christmas, Valentine's Day, Halloween and others are definite retail seasons.

Jerry Shuey, buyer for Skagway, said that back-to-school also provides a boost for retailers, although certainly not on the scale of Christmas.

"It's a little short season," said Shuey, who noted that people come in to Skagway both to buy school supplies for their children as well as school clothes.

Even though some schools are starting this week, Shuey said that has not really pushed back-to-school shopping to an earlier date on the calendar.

"It's still late July and early August," he said.

But Brad Koza, manager of the South Wal-Mart Supercenter, said early school starts have moved up the season in his store.

"We set our counters (with back-to-school supplies) on July 1," he said. People immediately began buying school supplies. In fact, Koza described early sales as "gangbusters."

He noted that people were buying everything from clothes to school supplies such as notebooks. He said the store has done a steady business on calculators for older students. Other items proved more popular.

"We had a good deal on notebooks and people were buying them by the case," Koza said.

After that initial rush, back-to-school buying plateaued a little bit, but Koza said the approach of the first day of school means people are buying things to get ready for school.

He said he even sees a different pattern in food buying. During the summer, people like to buy foods for the grill.

As school approaches, Koza said, people are buying foods that can be prepared as quick meals and also prepackaged "lunchables" that kids can take to school in case they don't like the meal the school cafeteria is serving that day.

Not all back-to-school shopping takes place before the first day of class.

For example, Buck's own son, Jackson, does not have his school shopping done. Jackson, an eighth-grader, will wait until this week's first day of school at Central Catholic, which is this Wednesday.

Buck noted her son does not need to shop for school clothes because he wears a uniform at Central Catholic. As for school supplies, she said, her son will wait until the first day of school and find out the specific supplies each teacher wants students to have. He'll learn precisely what he needs for each on Wednesday.

"He'll go shopping that night," Buck said.