Time flies when you're having fun; seems like just last week that school got out

By adamg on Tue, 07/03/2018 - 10:37pm

But apparently, it's time for the local stores to start stocking their back-to-school supplies. Why, the Rite Aid on East Broadway in South Boston is even advertising back-to-school savings, Eileen Murphy reports.

Neighborhoods:

South Boston

Topics:

Parenting

Free tagging:

Rite Aid

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Comments

Next week - Halloween candy

By merlinmurph on Wed, 07/04/2018 - 7:21am.

You know

By cybah on Thu, 07/05/2018 - 8:30am.

You know its coming.. by the end of the month at least. We know there's some pre-boxed candy displays in some supermarket's warehouse just waiting to be put on display.

July 1

By FlyingToaster on Wed, 07/04/2018 - 11:25am.

... has been the rollout for back-to-school clothes since at least the 90s. But the other stuff (school supplies, backpacks, lunchboxes) used to wait until about the 15th.

I've been buying WarriorGirl's backpacks and lunchboxes in the July sales since she started needing them (2010). I just bought her a new camp backpack and lunchbag so that she doesn't have to carry the ginormous school-year backpack all summer.

I can't buy her pants for fall, alas, as she'll likely outgrow them before school starts. Those will have to wait for the Back-To-School clearance sales in September.

National Chain Retailers

By poster on Wed, 07/04/2018 - 12:14pm.

vs. regional school calendars.

The Northeast has a pretty standard Back to School time of Labor Day to end of June. But in the SF Bay Area, school goes back the 2nd or 3rd week of August, and gets out the first week of June, and in the South, schools run August 1- Memorial Day. And that's not to mention colleges, whose students run on a calendar ranging from early-August to end-of-April or early October to mid-June.

So a Rite Aid shopper in Boston will be confused as to why the Back to School stuff is out so early, while parents in Atlanta are scrambling because school starts in 25 days, and parents of college students on the trimester system will find stores swapped dorm supplies for Christmas decorations before their students even move into their dorms.

It would make sense if national retailers followed local schedules and weather patterns, but alas, the Northeast will have back-to-school sales before school even gets out while warm parts of the country will be stocked with hats and gloves while it's still warm enough to lounge by the pool while the stores complain that online sales are cutting into their profits.

It would make sense for ALL retailers

By anon on Wed, 07/04/2018 - 3:22pm.

to recognize that, despite what was drilled into their heads continually during those mid-1980s, they are NOT making more profit by continuing this silly-ass practice of forcing the next season onto the public earlier and earlier every year.

And if their suppliers are forcing this idiocy on them because of the lame "we can't ship it to you any later than X" excuse, then perhaps they need to use different suppliers or shipping companies.

BTW, back to school season didn't use to start until August 15th, not July 15th. Even then, the heavy duty sales weren't in play until the fourth week in August.

It's all just one big thing

By anon on Wed, 07/04/2018 - 8:22pm.

If you think that's bad, the Hallmark Channel has already been running a "countdown to the countdown to Christmas". I'm not kidding. And in October they start running ads with jack o lanterns wearing Santa Claus hats. It's all just one big thing now.