Our school is doing this for the 1st time. We'll be sending home the order forms in March. It'll be interesting to see what kind of response we get. The parents order their supply boxes this spring and then they are picked up at Meet the Teacher. They come prelabeled with the child's name and color coded handles for each grade level. I'm excited to see how it goes! I'll let you know!
Thanks for all the advice and ideas. In breaking down the cost, this company is comparable to the stores close by. I'll do some more research and bring it to the board.
We used school kidz for our back to school supply boxes for this school year--this was optinal for the parents to take part in--ordered them over the summer and had them picked up at open house. The cost was about the same as if you went to walmart and purchased the items--they were brand name products. This was the first year the PTO has done this and we plan to do it again for next school year--the company offers discounts if you have orders turned in by such date and delivery scheduled by a certain time. So many parents at our elementary liked this idea that they requested we do it at the middle school next school year too--so we are.
We have three Walmarts within an hour of us and this past school year, our intentions were to divide up the Walmarts and shop all their GREAT back to school prices. They had a 2pk glu stix for .25, elmer's glue for .25, Crayola markers for .86, 12 pk pencils for .59,and lots of very cheap pricing on name brand items. We wanted to purchase 700 of each and stock a supply closet at each of our two schools. Realistically, the three of us could not make it the the stores at the sales time. I was the only one making purchases, but we still ended up with alot of the supplies. We let teachers now that they were welcome to use the items. If you can organize a team to do the shopping and the pricing is that good, I think it's cheaper to go this route than the packs.
In Michigan, the school has to purchase all supplies, so parents here aren't doing all the buying that other parents might have to. My son still likes to have a few new items, so I generally buy crayons, markers, and color pencils, things he can use at home anyway.
I don't know anything about that particular company, but I do know that several years ago when my son's school did this sort of thing, (1) I found it to be a HUGE convenience, and (2) a friend of mine who was in charge of the project did all the research/legwork and found the prices charged to be almost identical to those at local office supply & discount stores. Now these were brand name items, so you could save money shopping on your own if you got the store brands, but in most cases the teachers were so specific in their lists that you had to go with brand name items anyway. As you noted, it wasn't a fundraiser (I don't remember it offering much in the way of profit anyway) but a convenience for the parents--most of whom chose to take advantage of it.
That makes sense. I don't think I would do it for a fundraiser, just as a service to parents. I personally don't enjoy shopping for supplies and neither do my kids, they'd rather shop for the clothes and fun stuff. I got a quote for example for a 1st grade pack for example. It was $15.66 for 3 folders (1 with prongs), 2 Marble Books, 24 pk Crayola Crayons, 8 pk Crayola Markers, 4 oz Elmer's Glue, 2 Elmer's Glue Stix, 1 pk fiscar scissors, 12 pencils, box of baby wipes and a plastic scool box. When broken down, the individual prices were pretty good.
I actually liked the idea of doing it and paying for it now and then at the end of the summer when money's tight, not worry that I have to get supplies too. I usually buy double of everything anyway. Plus our PTO buys 1/2 the supplies for the kids also. I'll have to break it down and do some more research.
Thanks for the note back though. I'll take that into consideration when I talk to the board about it. They may actually enjoy it too and not want to do it.
