It's opening day for back-to-school shopping
Staples Inc., the Framingham office-supplies retailer, has declared today as "the first official day of the 2008 back-to-school shopping season."
According to a survey commissioned by the company, more than 70 percent of parents polled said they would welcome an official start for the back-to-school shopping season to help them identify when they can expect to start finding school supplies in stock, Staples said.
The winter holidays have Black Friday - the day after Thanksgiving - to signal the start of that season, and Staples decided that it was only fitting and just, based on its two decades of experience in tracking and analyzing back-to-school shopping habits, that it should step in and unilaterally declare July 8 as the official opening day of the 2008 back-to-school shopping season.
By establishing an official start to the back-to-school shopping season, which parents deem to be a stressful time, "Staples is giving parents a clear road map of where and when to the find the best products and deals this season," the company said in a press release.
To promote back-to-school shopping, Staples said it is teaming up with Dosomething.org and American Idol winner Jordin Sparks (pictured above); as part of a campaign titled "Do Something 101," Sparks will be encouraging teens to collect school supplies and drop them off at the nearest Staples, or make a $2 donation, to help out needy students.
(At right is an image taken from the Staples website. The company believes that this stylish lunch bag is something that many trendy students will crave this school year.)
For much of the year, Staples focuses on customers with home offices or small businesses; the back-to-school season is the one time of the year when the company sees a surge of business from mainstream consumers.
Staples recently agreed to buy Corporate Express of the Netherlands for $2.6 billion.
That deal will give Staples a bigger presence in the segment of the business that delivers office supplies to large corporate customers, and that's likely to mean that the back-to-school shopping season will account for a smaller portion of the company's total sales than back-to-school seasons have in the past.
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)
