Back to school (marketing)

Office supplies have also become an important part of back-to-school sales, with the rise in prominence of personal computers and related equipment in education.

Traditional supplies such as paper, pens, pencils and binders will often be marked at steep discounts, often as loss leaders to entice shoppers to buy other items in the store.

[2] Many states offer tax-free periods (usually about a week long) at which time any school supplies and children's clothing purchased does not have sales tax added.

In Japan, which is unusual in that it starts its school year in spring, back-to-school sales are traditionally held in March.

[6] In Canada and the United States, back-to-school shopping is associated with Labor Day, which falls on the first Monday of September.

Several people shopping in an area with high shelves on the right stacked with spiral notebooks and other stationery products in open yellow boxes. At the top of the shelves are several blue signs with a small stylized starburst logo in yellow and "Everyday Low Price" in white text, on a red background. Strip fluorescent lights on the ceiling illuminate the scene; a yellow sign hanging from the ceiling has an octagon with "back to school" and text in English and Spanish beneath it. On the left are shelves reaching camera height; a sign in the front bottom says "$9.97".
Back-to-school sale at a Walmart