Strapped shoppers put pens, pencils(Basic School Supplies) on layaway

[RamboLiberal]

Source: MSNBC/AP

NEW YORK - To gauge consumers' strain, look no further than the rows and rows of plastic bags awaiting layaway payments at Kmart. They are filled with back-to-school basics — not just T-shirts and jeans but notebooks, magic markers and pencils.

It is unheard of for layaway rooms to be so packed at back-to-school time and for the packages to include relatively cheap school supplies.

A record number of shoppers, shut off from credit and short on cash, are relying on Kmart's layaway program to pay for all of their kids' school needs, said Tom Aiello, a spokesman for Kmart's parent Sears Holdings Corp. Layaway allows shoppers to pay over time, interest- free, and pick up their merchandise when it's paid in full.

"It's a sight. In the past, we would see layaway start to pick up around Halloween" as people get a jump start for Christmas, said David Travis, manager of a Kmart store in Conover, N.C.

Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corp. said its layaway business is stronger than a year ago. And e-Layaway.com, which offers online layaway services for about 1,000 merchants, has seen its business double from the same time last year. Customers are setting aside even $25 calculators and $30 backpacks.



Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32541689/ns/business-consumer_news/

[XemaSab]

1. My response to this is

How can I help? :shrug:

[mamaleah]

2. Some schools may have a program to help families.

Perhaps call around and see? That would be a good idea - a program to help families with school supplies by just donating those supplies to the school and letting the school hand them out to families that need them.

[blm]

5. Over 60% of students in my daughter's school are low-income. I give the teacher extra supplies

to distribute and bring in healthy snacks each week, as well.

Even the smallest help is appreciated in these times.

[mamaleah]

20. I totally agree. This is where acting locally comes in.

I am sure many of us live not too far from a school with many low income students.

If you have a little extra money to spare, by some supplies and donate!

[JerseygirlCT]

24. Towns, too

I know our social services dept. runs a drive. And it's easy to help with, since so many back to school sales make much of what's needed really inexpensive. (I always stock up on notebooks for myself this time of year, too).

[RamboLiberal]

4. I know Staples stores with DoSomething101

till Sept 19th are supposed to have donation boxes where you can drop off school supplies.

http://www.dosomething.org/dosomething101/home

http://www.dosomething.org/dosomething101/staples#ds101container

[Tanuki]

12. Rambo, thanks so much for that link!

I was not familiar with dosomething.org, but I am bookmarking it for future reference and will be passing it along to others as well. There was even a place to click so that Kraft would donate 10 boxes of mac 'n' cheese per click to Feeding America.

[Gormy Cuss]

7. Does your local newspaper do school supply backpack fundraisers?

The local one here does. One can either donate fully loaded backpacks or donate money or supplies.

Another easy way to help is to ask the staff at a local school. The teachers often buy simple supplies themselves because they can't get enough through regular channels. When I worked on projects in city public schools I always brought pencils and pens and gave them to the kids. More than one teacher thanked me for that small gesture.

[likesmountains 52]

9. I just spent about $80 last week on pen, pencils, paper, markers, glue,scissors

rulers...kleenex (!) etc. and dropped it off at the elementary school in my neighborhood. The office staff was very excited to have the extra stuff for kids who can't afford the basics. If you watch for sales it is easy to pick up things for pretty cheap.

[Luciferous]

27. That's a great idea

I ended up buying the neighbor's kids school supplies because they couldn't afford them this year...

[LisaM]

3. While I do think it's a disgrace that parents have to lay away basic school supplies

I do think that lay away, as an option for things you want, is a better option for many than credit.

Note: I DO NOT mean that these poor kids should have to worry about their basic supplies. Far from it (and we are collecting for those at my work, too). But I do think it would behoove us to use layaway more for big purchases like TVs, couches, etc.

[debbierlus]

6. My parents were generous enough to pop for high school age daughter

175.00 for school supplies. Unreal.

They also got her some back to school clothes. Fortunately, my daughter likes the thrift stores, so she got a ton from the second hand shops and just a few new things to mix in.

It was a small bundle when they got done.

I am really lucky to have family members that can do that sort of thing for her. And, there is only one of her. I can't imagine having a bunch!

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

8. Layaway? Why shop at K-Mart? Prices are lower at the "other" store.

:sarcasm: :sarcasm:



Still, I'm sad for people having to do this.

[Lorien]

16. They should give Big Lots a shot

it's much cheaper than Kmart or the other store.

[prostomulgus]

10. This is what they do in someplace like Peru

Thanks for ruining our country, Bush!

[Strong Atheist]

21. Welcome to DU!

:toast:

[jwirr]

11. The churches in our community are collecting school supplies for the

Salvation Army to give to needy students in the community. It would work in any community and would not have to be the Salvation Army - any non-profit would work.

But just think if the schools in our fairly well to do community are having troubles imagine what is happening in schools in poorer districts.

[quakerboy]

28. My hesitation

comes from the fact that my old Salvation army corps-leader friends are all pushing the dirtier versions of Anti-Obama crap big time.

From such a diverse church, who gets so much of their resources from the government, the Anti-government, anti healthcare, anti Obama shtick is a bit ridiculous. I remember visiting corps, and being amazed to learn from the local officers that these new buildings had been paid for mostly by Govt money, for the purposes of their other community projects(after school, homeless, summer camps, etc). And this was BEFORE the whole faith based initiatives thing.

At the same time, its hard to find a church that provides as much actual return to the community, pound for pound. So I find myself torn every time I consider the fundraisers and donation drives that I keep seeing from them lately.

[Chemisse]

13. I thought stores did away with layaway

I'm glad it's back (or never left). Times are tough and a lot of people can no longer use credit cards due to deep debts.

[Liberal_in_LA]

23. Kmart is the queen of layaway. They never did away with it.

[kath]

14. Whatever happened to the concept of the public schools providing basic supplies?

They can buy in bulk at MUCH lower prices than what parents have to pay. Poor families shouldn't have to strain their budgets to send their kids to PUBLIC school.

When I went to elementary school in Pennsylvania back in the 60s, our parents didn't have to buy **anything**. The school issued you a lined tablet (w/ a map of PA w/ the names of all the counties on the front :-). spacing of the lines varying depending on what grade you were in.)a pencil or two (or a pen if you were old enough to be writing in ink) once every grading period or so, and you were expected to take care of them and not waste them. I think if you wasted your paper and your tablet ran out too soon, or if you lost too many pencils, you might have had to buy new ones, but waste was strongly discouraged. Paste, scissors, crayons, colored pencils, construction paper, and the like were handed out during art class or when otherwise needed, then gathered up when the art period (or map coloring project or whatever) was finished (some of these kids in older grades may have been issued at the start of the year and kept in their desks).

We moved to Ohio when I was halfway through 6th grade, and our parents were surprised when our new school issued them a list of supplies they would need to buy (there was a little school store that carried a lot of them, IIRC.). When my parents said that at our old school supplies were provided by the school, the principal got a little snotty and sniffed, "Well, that must have been a POOR district". It wasn't, though - we're talking 2 separate PA districts in small towns outside of Pittsburgh (yep, I'm a Yinzer by birth!) -- not wealthy, but hardly impoverished.


(Yinzers take note - that principal was a bee-yotch. She really pissed my parents off when she said that one of my sisters should have speech therapy ***because of her Pittsburgh accent***!)

[awoke_in_2003]

17. Don't know about up your way...

but if an initiative was put forth to slightly raise property tax so that schools would have the supplies for the kids, it would get voted down by a big majority here. We no longer value education in this country.

[texanwitch]

18. The Houston Public schools didn't give supplies at any time from K to 12.

We bought our own.

We had to buy the workbooks for each subject.

If you lost a textbook you had pay for it, or you wouldn't get your report card.

The was from 1960's and early 70's.

[WestSeattle2]

19. Now THAT is funny, I mean about the speech therapy. I tease

my Texas cousins about their need to learn English. Their response? "Why in the world would we want to sound like you?!".... :)

[The abyss]

15. Rambo, thanks for posting this story!

I can’t think of a better example of just how far down the hole this nation has gone.

[JonQ]

22. Didn't they just give away 400 bucks for school supplies

to the lower income bracket in new york?


I wonder where that money went.

[quakerboy]

29. Not 400, if i read articles correctly, got deposited in accts

It probably went to rent, car repairs, electric bills, food, etc for people living at a subsistence level. And some school supplies. How about the other 49 states? and the people not at a food-stamp level, who are still having trouble making ends meet?

Perhaps we should federalize schools. It seems pretty ridiculous that school supply availability is held hostage to local tax approval. And that Texas can control textbooks for the nation. And any number of other ridiculous situations.

[seabeyond]

25. i just dont think you NEED a notebook for every class, different paper, binder with dividers for

every class. markers adn colored pencils adn special pens for every single class.

why these teachers are not conscious of what they are asking for and doing without, instead of an "ideal" list i do not get

just have gone thru two kids and four days of getting supplies

[llmart]

26. I'm with you on that one......

Teachers seem to want the kids to have more and more each year. They need to be more considerate of the parents' situations.

Another good suggestion would be just stop in your local K-Mart and go to layaway and ask if you can pay for someone's supplies.

[LWolf]

30. We went through our supply list and cut it drastically

last spring. So did every teacher in our district. Our list, for our 6th - 8th graders, now includes:

a binder
paper
pencils
a calculator
Kleenex

That's it.

There is a separate list of supplies for parents who want to donate stuff, but they don't have to.

Our family action network representative will supply any families that can't manage the basic list, as well as supplying shoes, winter coats, and eyeglasses when necessary.