Back-to-school shopping trip not too painful

Back-to-school shopping trip not too painful

Columns

By: Tracy Kibble

It happens every year.

I sit my kids down and tell them I will buy them each one new outfit for back to school, but I am certainly not going to drain my already straining back account for the occasion.

They look at me and nod. Good. They understand.

So, I continue.

It’s not Christmas and I am not going to buy bags of clothes, supplies and gadgets just because their summer-long vacation is finally over and school is, thankfully, on the horizon.

My husband reminds them, too, mom is not a bank machine and it’s crazy to treat going back to school like some sky’s-the-limit shopping extravaganza where the flow of money never seems to stop. (I secretly wish this would SO happen for me.)

Then he tells me not to go overboard.

I shoot him the look — the one that says, “I have everything under control and you’re just lucky to have the whole house to yourself for the entire day”.

The kids and I jump in the car and head down the street.

Then it happens.

It usually starts as a casual conversation.

“You know, I have no T-shirts, my shoes are blown open at the toe and I haven’t had a new pair of jeans in I don’t know how long,” my son, 17, tells me, pointing to a sock poking through the side of his shoe.

“Yeah, and mom, I need supplies and stuff for school this year. Grade 6 is a lot harder than Grade 5, you know. Plus, I have no tops at all,” my 11-year-old daughter pipes up from the back seat.

OK, we’ll buy two shirts and two bottoms each, but I’m only getting the bare bones as far as school supplies because you always lose them, I warn them in my stern mother voice. (I secretly practise this tone when I’m alone.)

And despite the fact at least one economist announced this week Canadians are still paying way more than Americans for retail items, even though our dollar values are basically on par, my dollar seemed to stretch a lot further this year.

For example, Crayola coloured pens and markers were under $7 for a pack of 40, paper was dirt cheap and we found pens, pencils and other basic supplies at good prices.

But, according to a BMO survey, Canadians are still paying 18-per-cent more for retail items than our American neighbours, an “extraordinarily large” price gap, said Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Capital Markets.

Derek Nighbor, senior vice-president of National Affairs at the Retail Council of Canada, however, said American retailers are dramatically slashing their prices in a desperate attempt to hang on to market share, which creates “artificially low U.S. prices”.

Whatever price wars are going on, I was pleased with the deals we snagged during our “basics-only” shopping spree.

My son went searching on his own and joined us several hours later with two pairs of popular-brand jeans, two pairs of cotton shorts, two hoodies and two T-shirts for about a $130, tax included. I thought that was fairly darned reasonable.

If shoppers in the States are getting items cheaper than this, the price difference certainly wouldn’t be enough of a spread to have me spending $100 in fuel to shop across the border.

It seemed everywhere we went last weekend, clothing was priced “two for one” or “buy one, get one half off” or “buy two, get the third free.”

These were great deals that had me — gulp — telling the kids to pick up extra items.

“You might as well get two, after all, they’re are two for $20,” I told my daughter, who didn’t hesitate to snap up a different colour of her favourite style.

Some may view Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s stance on the issue as noncommittal: he said it’s up to shoppers to put pressure on retailers to bring down prices.

I tend to agree.

After all, when shopping for anything, from cars to houses, consumers should always be educated about what they are buying.

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