Retailers Woo Paycheck-to-Paycheck Parents With Back-to-School Deals

As budget-strapped consumers seek deals to help alleviate the financial burden of their back-to-school shopping, brands are rolling out lower-priced and/or discounted goods to win over these customers.

On Thursday (July 18), Walmart announced that it is offering thousands of under-$10 school supplies, including backpacks, apparel and lunch boxes.

“At Walmart, we are proud to offer a back-to-school assortment that will excite our customers — enabling them to find everything on their list at the prices they know they can trust us to deliver,” Julie Barber, the retailer’s executive vice president of general merchandise, said in a statement.

During Amazon’s Prime Day event last week, July 16 and 17, the eCommerce giant touted a wide range of back-to-school deals. The company continues to offer a limited range of discounts in its back-to-school hub as well as low-cost private-label school supplies.

It is not only retailers that sell school supplies seizing on the season to capture bargain-seeking parents’ spending. Nike, for instance, is in the midst of a back-to-school sale on sportswear and shoes, per CNET.

Best Buy, for its part, is looking to have its cake and eat it too, aiming to win over bargain hunters without doing any additional discounting on its own part by making shoppers aware of tax-free back-to-school shopping holidays in their area.

“This year, multiple states will have tax exemptions on select products, including laptops, tablets, computing accessories, and more,” the retailer stated, adding, “2024 tax-free sale savings stack with Best Buy’s back-to-school deals, so keep an eye out for discounts on tech from brands you love, like Apple, Microsoft, Dell, Lenovo, HP, Samsung, and others.”

These moves come as financially constrained consumers look to rein in their spending. For instance, one PYMNTS Intelligence study found that 69% of those who earn less than $50,000 annually and 66% of those who earn $50,000 to $100,000 annually said they cut down on nonessential spending due to retail product price increases. Plus, further research reveals that an inordinately high share of consumers is currently living paycheck to paycheck.

Certainly, parents are already spending on school supplies. One survey from LTK in March, for instance, revealed that two-thirds of back-to-school shoppers anticipated having already started their purchasing by late July.

In the back-to-school season, those who are married with children spend dramatically more on retail purchases than do other consumers. The recent PYMNTS Intelligence study “The Last Transaction: Family Spending Habits Reveal Merchant Opportunities in Retail and Travel” drew from surveys of thousands of U.S. consumers to understand different kinds of households’ spending behavior. The results revealed that in September of 2022, for instance, those who are married with children in their households spent $153 on retail purchases — nearly twice as much as the $81 spent by those who are married without kids.

Plus, additional PYMNTS Intelligence research finds that households of three or more are significantly more likely than those of only one or two people to live paycheck to paycheck with issues paying their bills.

For all PYMNTS retail coverage, subscribe to the daily Retail Newsletter.