Staples Inc., the US office supplies retailer, has today announced that as "the first official day of the 2008 back to school period shopping season."
According to a new survey commissioned by the office supplies and stationery products retail giant, more than 70% of parents who took part said that they would welcome an official start for the back to school shopping season to help them see when they can expect to start finding school supplies and kids stationery in stock, Staples said.
The winter holiday season has Black Friday - the day after the Thanksgiving celebration - to signal the start of that particular season, and the Staples team has decided that it was only fitting and just, based on over ten years experience in tracking and studying back-to-school shopping trends, that it should step up and officially declare July 8 as the new opening day of the 2008 back-to-school shopping season.
By clarfiying an official start to the new back-to-school stationery shopping season, which most parents deem to be quite a stressful time, "Staples office products is giving parents a clear road map to the find the best office products and deals this season," the office equipment company said in a press release.
According to a new survey commissioned by the office supplies and stationery products retail giant, more than 70% of parents who took part said that they would welcome an official start for the back to school shopping season to help them see when they can expect to start finding school supplies and kids stationery in stock, Staples said.
The winter holiday season has Black Friday - the day after the Thanksgiving celebration - to signal the start of that particular season, and the Staples team has decided that it was only fitting and just, based on over ten years experience in tracking and studying back-to-school shopping trends, that it should step up and officially declare July 8 as the new opening day of the 2008 back-to-school shopping season.
By clarfiying an official start to the new back-to-school stationery shopping season, which most parents deem to be quite a stressful time, "Staples office products is giving parents a clear road map to the find the best office products and deals this season," the office equipment company said in a press release.
To help publicise the back-to-school shopping period, Staples said it is teaming up with Dosomething.org and American Idol competition winner Jordin Sparks (pictured here); as part of a great and worthwhile campaign called "Do Something 101," Sparks will be encouraging teens to collect school supplies and stationery and drop them off at one of hundreds of Staples office supplies stores around the US, or make a $2 donation, to help out needy students.
For much of the year, Staples generally focuses on customers and small businesses with home offices or business units; the back to school season is the one time of the year when the company sees a surge of customers coming into the store froma non business perspective.
Staples recently agreed to buy the commercial stationery giant Corporate Express of the Netherlands for a figure thought to be around $2.6 billion.
That deal will give Staples office products a bigger presence in the segment of the business that delivers office supplies and office furniture to large corporate customers, and that's likely to mean that this back-to-school shopping season will account for a smaller portion of the company's total sales than back to school seasons have in the past.
