Back-to-School season is inescapable. Even one month ago it was difficult to avoid! If readers have recently been to Walmart, Kohl’s, Walgreens, or Hy-Vee, they understand. They also could have powered on their television just to hear “Perm” by Bruno Mars, watch children pose in Cat & Jack backpacks, and read, “Back to School…But First, [Target logo].”

Kids can grumble as much as they please about backto- school shopping advertisements interrupting their summer vacation. Their families will be responding to the marketing strategies of retailers this summer anyway. In fact, it is predicted that they will invest more money than ever. In a press release that was published on July 19, 2021, the NRF’s Senior Director of Media Relations Danielle Inman wrote, “Consumers plan to spend record amounts for both school and college supplies as families and students plan to return to in-person classrooms this fall, according to the annual survey released today by the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics.”

In the week preceding Labor Day, most students of South Washington County Schools (SoWash-Co Schools) will return to in-building learning. Elementary (K-5) and secondary (6-12) students will attend school five days a week during regular school hours. Children in the Virtual Learning Academy for grades K-6 will not enter a school building for instruction. Rather, they will log in. An explanation for these alterations was issued by SoWashCo Schools on their official website: “With the expiration of the state’s Safe Learning Plan, most health and safety precautions are no longer required. SoWash-Co Schools will return to many of the pre-pandemic protocols and procedures with schools back to 100% capacity.”

Contrarily, Americans will not match their pre-pandemic spending on school supplies. They will exceed it.

During the back-to-school season of 2019, American households planned to invest $26.2 billion on K-12 learners and $54.5 billion on college attendees in total. Phrased in a different way, each household set aside a mean value of $696.70 for elementary and secondary school students. $976.78 was the average projected amount that families would use on their post-secondary students.

One year later, predicted back-to-school spending spiked by around $8 billion among all K-12 families and around $13 billion among all college families. In August of 2020, the Director of Digital Content for the NRF Jennifer Overstreet identified that unfamiliar schooling models led to the increase. “Electronics and items for virtual learning are driving a lot of that projection, and as school plans become clearer, consumers might adjust their spending,” she estimated. “At the time of the survey earlier in the summer, consumers said they planned to spend close to $790 on average for grade school or high school students and over $1,000 on average for college students.”

It is forecasted that households will pay more than ever while preparing for the 2021-2022 school year. This remains true even though the uptick between 2020 and 2021 is not as drastic as the one between 2019 and 2020. American families, in total, are setting aside $37.1 billion for K-12 learners and $71 billion on college attendees. Each household will invest around $848.90 on elementary and secondary school students. $1,200.32 is the projected amount that every household may use on their post-secondary students.

All of the estimates noted above were calculated by the NRF and Prosper Insights & Analytics. The NRF is stationed in Washington D.C. as “the world’s largest retail trade association,” claims Inman. “[It] passionately advocates for the people, brands, policies and ideas that help retail thrive.”

Prosper Insights & Analytics is detailed to be a “global leader” as well. Their specialty is collecting statistics on consumer intent. Prosper observes economic, behavioral and attitudinal data. Then, they share this information with businesses. Companies can estimate the next steps of their customers as a result of Prosper’s labor.

The associations conduct a survey for back-to-school shoppers to participate in annually. Throughout the week of July 1 to July 8, 7,704 consumers engaged with the 2021 form. Their responses became record-breaking projections for a season in which many will take in-person classes for the first time in 1.5 years.