Back to school (marketing)
{{short description|Period in which students and their parents purchase school supplies}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2015}}
File:Back-to-school sale at Wal-Mart, Newburgh, NY.jpg|alt=Several people shopping in an area with high shelves on the right stacked with spiral notebooks and other stationery products in open yellow boxes. At the top of the shelves are several blue signs with a small stylized starburst logo in yellow and "Everyday Low Price" in white text, on a red background. Strip fluorescent lights on the ceiling illuminate the scene; a yellow sign hanging from the ceiling has an octagon with "back to school" and text in English and Spanish beneath it. On the left are shelves reaching camera height; a sign in the front bottom says "$9.97".]]
In merchandising, back to school is the period in which students and their parents purchase school supplies and apparel for the upcoming school year.{{cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/markavallone/2017/08/05/8-financial-tips-for-the-back-to-school-season/|title=Back to School Financial Tips|work=forbes.com|accessdate=August 14, 2017}} At many department stores, back-to-school sales are advertised as a time when school supplies, children's, and young adults' clothing go on sale. Office supplies have also become an important part of back-to-school sales, with the rise in prominence of personal computers and related equipment in education. Traditional supplies such as paper, pens, pencils and binders will often be marked at steep discounts, often as loss leaders to entice shoppers to buy other items in the store.{{cite web|url=https://nrf.com/resources/consumer-data/back-school-headquarters|title=Back to School Data|publisher=nrf.com|accessdate=August 14, 2017}} Many states offer tax-free periods (usually about a week long) at which time any school supplies and children's clothing purchased does not have sales tax added.{{cite web|url=http://www.passionforsavings.com/back-to-school-tax-free-weekend/|title=Back To School Tax Weekends|publisher=passionforsavings.com|accessdate=August 14, 2017}}
Timing
The back-to-school period of time usually starts and ends in August{{cite web|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/07/13/if/472241001/|title=Back to School Season|publisher=usatoday.com|accessdate=August 14, 2017}} before the school year starts in the United States, Europe, and Canada. In Australia and New Zealand, this usually occurs in February,{{cite web|url=http://retail.org.au/news-posts/back-school-sales-ramp-retail/|title=Back to School AU|publisher=retail.org.au|accessdate=August 14, 2017|archive-date=15 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170815025728/http://retail.org.au/news-posts/back-school-sales-ramp-retail/|url-status=dead}} while in Malaysia, this period lasts from November to December. In India, the back-to-school sales traditionally start in June when schools are about to open. In Japan, which is unusual in that it starts its school year in spring, back-to-school sales are traditionally held in March.{{cite web|url=https://www.city-cost.com/blogs/City-Cost/Gyv7w-living_food_shopping_fashion_tokyo|title=Japan Back to School|publisher=city-cost.com|accessdate=August 14, 2017}}
In Canada and the United States, back-to-school shopping is associated with Labor Day, which falls on the first Monday of September. While Labor Day is a widely observed holiday, it has no official celebration. Labor Day has since become symbolic of the unofficial "end of summer". Most schools and colleges begin their school year around this time, so the holiday has become a back-to-school shopping tradition – much as Memorial Day and Victoria Day, and Canada Day and Independence Day are associated with summer and patriotic products, respectively, and American Thanksgiving has been associated with the impending start of the Christmas shopping season.