TAMPA, Fla. — “The back-to-school sales are live and in the wild right now,” said Kristin McGrath, editor for RetailMeNot.
Back-to-school deals are rolling in from retailers like Kohl’s, Macy’s, Target, Walmart, Best Buy and Overstock.
“Just across the entire retail spectrum. We’re seeing a lot of early deals on some of the things that college students need,” said McGrath.
Shopping experts suggest people start their back-to-school shopping by taking inventory of what they already have.
“We may forget that maybe your child’s backpack just needs a good wash. Or have your kids try on all of their clothes and make sure you know what fits, what doesn’t. Because you certainly don’t want to buy things you don’t need,” said Trae Bodge, smart shopping expert for TrueTrae.com.
Doing this can help manage back-to-school budgets.
Experts recommend looking up items online by using a phone while shopping in-store to make sure that retailers’ prices aren’t lower online.
“If they are, you can often at checkout say, ‘Hey, on your website, this is cheaper. Can you honor that price?’ And most retailers will do that,” said Bodge.
She suggests utilizing online shopping to compare prices from several retailers.
“I like to use either Yahoo Shopping or Google Shopping for this. You just enter the name of the item, then you’ll see where it’s available and for how much. That’s a good way to make sure that you’re getting the best deal,” said Bodge.
“I think the biggest advantage of online shopping though is that you can take advantage of these online cash back rebate offers where if you shop online, through a certain retailer, you get a percentage cash back of what you buy,” said McGrath.
Anyone can take advantage of the savings retailers are offering right now, whether they have a child going back to school or not.
Shopping experts recommend buying certain items like electronics right now because prices won’t be this low again until Black Friday.
“Electronics are a very smart buy even if you’re not a student right now. Then, of course, clothing goes on sale for back-to-school. Office supplies go on sale. So if you need a new desk chair or new shoes, it’s also a really strategic time to shop,” said McGrath.
“Apple offers special back-to-school deals where they’ll give you like a gift card if you buy a certain thing. Electronics retailers slash prices because they know that everyone is looking,” she added.
For people with multiple kids, Bodge recommends organizing a clothes swap with other families to save some cash.
“Simply because kids grow so fast and they may have a beautiful pair of pants that they’ve only warn once that you can then use and you can swap those items, so think about that and then think about buying secondhand as well,” said Bodge.
Florida’s tax-free holiday ends on August 6.
