Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Debunking the School Supplies Conspiracy Theory

For those of you who have been lurking here since this time last year you might remember the horrid school supply shopping experience I had. So this year I decided to do my shopping early to avoid the crazy rush. First plan of action was to not shop at 'sounds like Shmaples' this year. Also ~ I didn't place a time constraint on my shopping excursion ~ no racing off to pick kids up from camp ~ thus eliminating the panic factor.

All thinks considered my experience was quite as enjoyable as shopping for school supplies can be ~ true story. Although it took me longer than the average person would take ~ I took my time, compared prices. Making decisions is quite a daunting task for me ~ not only am I uber indecisive when it comes to picking out notebooks, folders, composition books ~ there are way too many choice for a Libra like me ~ not to mention my brain tail was going haywire. PINEAPPLE! PINEAPPLE! I made some disturbing observations while shopping. You see, the supply list doesn't exactly match up with what's available. For instance, 8 Colored Pencils ~ OK, easy enough, but wait, they only offer packages of 12 colored pencils. Did they just throw in 4 extras? What is going on here ~ and ~ the packages that say 'Teacher Recommended' are inflated in price ~ almost double! So ~ hey ~ I didn't fall for that gimmick :).

So ~ take this as a warning to you all who haven't ventured out into school supply buying bliss ~ BEWARE OF THE PENCIL SCAM! Seriously ~ they had pencils that have latex free erasers, earth friendly, smudge proof, scented, etc. OK ~ I get the latex free eraser option being available to the public ~ but seriously ~ what are these kids going to do with the erasers? Rub them all over their bodies? Eat them? My point is, these special pencils go for about $3.50 for 12 of them. Walk right past them ~ go down the aisle in the store where they have office supplies, gift wrapping stuff and u will find regular pencils ~ 12 for $0.99!

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Black ops will show up at your house now, you debunker.

Debbie said...

I always NEVER go by the "recommended" items. Seems they just want us to spend more money.

Lisa said...

Luckily, our school's PTA collects money, orders everything on the supply list for each grade level(from Target this year), marks everything with the child's name, shrink wraps the supplies and puts them in the child's classroom, where they are neatly waiting for the first day of school! Last year was the first year we took advantage of this and found it was well worth the money to save what little of our sanity we have left!!!! ;) Check it out with your PTA...maybe they would consider such a program???

Anonymous said...

Impressed..! I really like the way you are thinking about school supplies.

Jenn Ann said...

You're lucky I like you! I work for Schmaples Corporate :)

You won't catch me in a store this time of year though :)