The business of ‘Back to School”

The countdown is over, school is back. For many parents, that means the additional expense of kitting out their offspring for the term ahead. Although few children will have outgrown their old school clothes there will be a need to refresh the wardrobe: last year’s kit will be moldy, torn or somehow ‘left on the bus’.

The BBC reports that any of the best bargains – like ASDA’s uniform for £4 have long since sold out. Time has also run out for internet shopping for deals, given the wait for delivery. The good news sees to be that a price war amongst retailers has broken out. That makes a refreshing change from soaring price rises for food and fuel over the last year.

Test results released by the consumer group Which? suggest that uniforms that cost less were not necessarily short on quality. “It is great news for parents that they can kit the kids out for school on a shoestring budget without worrying that their new uniform will be in tatters by the end of the first week,” says Jess Ross, editor of the Which? website. “More expensive school clothes might well be more comfortable, but that does not mean they’ll be more durable.”

Retailers see the school uniform market as a key battleground in price wars. Over the last four years or so, supermarkets have been prepared to take a hit over profits to tempt food shopping families to the clothing section with cheap uniform deals.

It’s clear that the retailers – particularly the supermarkets – have plenty of clever marketing ploys to combine product, prices and promotions in ways that can capitalize on ‘back to school’, even as the economic news gets grimmer by the day.