Value comes to the fore during 'scavenger hunt' for school supplies

Shoppers dash from store to store with lists in hand ready to take part in what has become a scavenger hunt for adults - shopping for school supplies.

Now that August is here, discount store aisles are devoted to crayons, colorful folders, glue sticks and graph paper. Organized parents know that if you shop now, crowds are lighter and the selection is greater. And frugal shoppers know retailers hold sales right about now.

However, no matter when you shop for backpacks and the stuff to fill them, finding the exact items on school lists is still a challenge.

"I can't find a 3-inch binder. They only have 2-inch binders," Loreliei Pace-Perry said while shopping at Wal-Mart in Lake Zurich. "I guess I'll have to go to OfficeMax next," said the Hawthorn Woods mom.

At the school supply section at Target, Amy Hoffmann's four children each had their own shopping carts. The Barrington Hills mom tried to keep track as her children, going into fourth, sixth, seventh and eighth grades, held up supplies before dropping them in the red carts.

Hoffmann said she was joking with her girlfriends that they should have a martini bar at Target during the back-to-school shopping season.

"There's always something I can't find. Last year, it was the big glue sticks," she said.

Kim Gross of Lake Zurich adds that while shopping for school supplies, she recalls a story of a dad who had a tough time finding a purple plastic folder. After going from store to store, he bought a yellow folder and in frustration wrote the word "purple" across the front.

As shoppers hit the stores trying to track down supplies, they are also keeping a closer watch on their pocketbooks. Coupons and discounts are in style this back-to-school shopping season.

So stores are doing more than ever to win business this back-to-school season: lengthening it; focusing on more T-shirts, lower-priced jeans and other basics; and promoting 50-cent boxes of pens and outright giveaways to get people in the door. The high hopes come as retailers work through one of the bleakest years in memory, beset by a steep consumer pullback amid the recession.

"It's very much a back-to-basics season," said WSL Strategic Retail President Wendy Liebmann. "There's not going to be excessive spending going on, people are still very unsure about what their job situations are and trying to do more saving."

Stores are banking on a longer shopping season. Most back-to-school merchandise was on store shelves by mid-July, similar to last year, but this year Labor Day falls one week later. And many will keep back-to-school products on shelves through September, particularly clothing retailers, rather than clearing out items after Labor Day.

"I'm a bargain hunter. I always stock up now when I know everything is on sale," said Christine Eng of Buffalo Grove. She noted that she shops in Lake Zurich in Lake County in an effort to save on sales tax.

The depressed economy is expected to cause 85 percent of Americans to make changes in their back-to-school plans this year, according to a survey done by the National Retail Federation trade group.

The average family with students in kindergarten through high school is expected to spend $548.72 on merchandise for school this year, a decline of 7.7 percent over last year.

The retail federation expects total back-to-school spending to reach $17.42 billion.

• Daily Herald wire services contributed to this report.