The return to school of thousands of Portuguese students is fast approaching. However, and before the start of classes, it is necessary to purchase a whole paraphernalia of material for this school year. For parents and carers, faced with extremely high inflation and loss of purchasing power, the scenario seems neither rosy nor saving.
And that’s because a basket of primary school supplies is 15 euros more expensive compared to the month of August 2021. This value represents an increase of 16.54% compared to the same period last year, KuantoKusta announced to DN/Dinheiro Vivo. According to the analysis of the online price comparator, in August last year, a basket for a second cycle student, with pencils and ballpoint pens, notebooks, backpack, pencil case and scientific calculator, cost 92.12 euros. In August of this year, the same basket cost 107.36 euros, which is 15.24 euros more than last year (see infographic).
KuantoKusta also analyzed the prices of the most sought-after items within each category and found that the biggest increases were seen in cases (+42.86%), A4 notebooks (+26.54%) and backpacks (+10.81%) . The pencils and ballpoint pens selected by the market were the items that did not undergo any changes.
The company says that “inflation and rising costs for many materials impacted the prices of items such as mechanical pencils and mines (with an average price increase of 205%), A4 paper (+160%), hole punches and staplers (+115 %) ) and pencils, sharpeners and erasers (+105%)”. On the other hand, school backpacks, calculators and suitcases fell in their average price.
Despite the peak of the decline in these items in the second and third week of September (between 13 and 23 of that month in 2021), the demand for school supplies and office supplies was already palpable at the beginning of this month. KuantoKusta found that the highest consumer demand was for school supplies, which grew by 93.5%. Notebooks (+187.5%) and school backpacks (+287.5%) stand out in this category.
As we are in an atypical year, the commercial director of KuantoKusta, André Duarte, says that there are several factors that can explain consumer behaviour. “The variation in inflation has a direct impact on the ability of stores to keep up with campaigns and promotions from previous years. On the other hand, consumers have lost purchasing power and are more interested in comparing prices and making informed purchases, because of the need to stretch the budget”. The official added that there is a higher number of searches for low-value products, such as writing materials.
In turn, Ricardo Pereira, marketing director of KuantoKusta, advises families to anticipate some purchases, “to avoid possible price increases due to inflation”.
Save on textbooks
When returning to school, it is also necessary to have textbooks. For public school students, the free use of books is no longer new, it is even possible to reuse them and, according to data from the Ministry of Education quoted by Lusa, from the more than five million school manuals distributed by students during the past school year. of compulsory education, 2.3 million were reused until the beginning of August. This equates to “approximately 65% of manuals are reused”.
But for parents whose pupils are in private education, this situation does not arise unless their children’s school does so on its own initiative. To fill this gap, the online bookstore Book in Loop sells used textbooks, as well as used school supplies and refurbished graphing calculators.
“In the beginning, Book in Loop was responsible for reusing textbooks and nurturing a circular system that could relieve families of the high costs associated with buying books,” said Manuel Tovar, co-founder of The Loop Co. .
Books were bought for 20% of the retail price (PVP), refurbished and then sold at a 60% discount. This resulted in a combined saving of 80% for families.
Over the years, Book in Loop – which was born in 2016 – is proud to have revived more than 300,000 books in Portugal and helped Portuguese families save around three million euros. Currently, it is mainly private school families or supporters of more sustainable models that most resort to purchasing these textbooks.
“The reuse of textbooks has been gaining more and more supporters in recent years and this option is mainly due to the savings it means for Portuguese families. The considered book can be used by a number of students,” emphasizes Manuel Tovar, referring to the fact that the purchase of second-hand textbooks currently allows a saving of 50% compared to the market PVP. “As with graphing calculators, you can save more than 50% on this electronic equipment, properly tested and certified,” he assures.
Source: DN
