Frankly, I gave up trying to keep up with what a backpack costs about ten years ago. My nephew sent me a text last August showing a $79 receipt for a single composition notebook bundle, and I thought my phone was broken. It wasn't. The National Retail Federation pegged 2025 K-12 back-to-school spending at an average of $858 per family, and college parents at $1,326. That's a mortgage payment in some parts of the country, and it's all going to glue sticks, sneakers, and a laptop the kid will drop in November.
So if you're a grandparent chipping in, or a parent trying to keep the August damage under three figures per kid, here's where I'd actually look. I ran a small office-supply shop in Quincy for the better part of forty years before I sold it to my nephew in 2019, so I have opinions on what a No. 2 pencil should cost (about a nickel, in bulk, and don't let anyone tell you different).
What's actually changed since the last time anyone updated this list
Two things to flag up front, because the original 2018 version of this article is showing its age. First: Sam Ash Music, which used to be on every back-to-school list for kids picking up a first guitar, filed Chapter 11 in May 2024 and shut all 42 stores by that summer. The brand and e-commerce got picked up by Gonher and the website still works, but the corner store with the patient kid behind the counter is gone. Second: prices on basics are up across the board, but the discount catalog channel is mostly holding steady. Heartland America even got bought out by an investment firm in March 2025, so somebody with a calculator thinks there's still money in the mailbox.
With that out of the way, here's where I'd spend the back-to-school dollar.
Ten places worth a look
1. Heartland America — the everything catalog for tight budgets
Heartland is what I'd call a closeout-style operation. Electronics, sneakers, a calculator here, a desk lamp there, all priced like they need to move it before next quarter. Forty-plus years in the mail-order game and they still ship a printed book if you ask. Not glamorous, but you'll find a $39 tablet that does what a $200 one did in 2019.
2. Howard Computers — laptops without the Apple tax
Howard Technology Solutions is mostly known for selling to schools and government, which means their consumer-facing site is light on marketing fluff and heavy on spec sheets — my kind of catalog. If your kid needs a Windows laptop for homework and Zoom and not much else, you can land one in the $400-$500 range without paying extra for a logo. Twenty-four-hour tech support is included, which is worth something when the kid calls home at 11 PM the night before a paper is due.
3. Art Supply Wholesale — bulk prices for the art-class drawer
If your kid has art class, theater, or a sketchbook habit, retail prices on supplies will eat you alive. Wholesale clubs price brushes, sketch pads, and acrylics at maybe forty percent under the chain-store mall rate. Buy the multi-pack. The cap dries out on one or two anyway — that's the price of doing business.
4. 3B Scientific — for the science-track student
This one's a niche pick, but if you've got a kid headed for AP Bio or a college pre-med track, 3B Scientific sells the anatomical models, microscope slides, and lab basics that schools used to provide and now mostly don't. Not cheap, but cheaper than the alternative, which is the kid borrowing a $300 textbook from the library twice a week.
5. Therapro — therapy and learning tools that actually help
For families with a kid who has occupational therapy, speech therapy, or sensory needs, Therapro is the kind of catalog you bookmark. Weighted lap pads, fidget tools, fine-motor kits. Schools and parents both buy from them. They run sales and run a coupon — sign up for the email if you don't mind the inbox traffic.
6. Company Kids — bedding for the dorm or the upgraded bedroom
The Company Store's kids' line. Twin XL sheets for the dorm, comforters for the bedroom that's no longer a kid's room. Frankly, you can do worse than waiting for one of their three big sale weekends a year — Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and the back-to-school window itself. I've seen sheet sets at twelve bucks off list during those windows.
7. Sam Ash Music — with an asterisk
I mentioned the closure above. The website is still up under new owners and you can still order strings, picks, a beginner clarinet reed, that kind of thing. But before you buy a $400 student trumpet sight unseen, check return policy and shipping carefully — a brand under new management is not the same as the family-run chain my generation knew. Also worth a phone call to a local music shop before you commit; supporting the kid down the street has its own value.
8. Discount Dance Supply — for the dance-class family
If you've ever priced ballet shoes at a studio boutique, you know they don't come cheap. Discount Dance ships tights, leotards, tap shoes, and warmups at prices that, last I checked, ran a third under the studio rack. Order a half size up if you're buying for a growing kid — ask me how I learned that one.
9. Just For Kix — cheer and competition gear
Same logic as Discount Dance, but with more emphasis on team uniforms, competition costumes, and cheer accessories. Useful if you're outfitting a squad and not just one kid. The unit pricing on team orders is where the savings are; one-off retail isn't always a bargain.
10. SF Cable — the boring catalog that saves you the most
Last but, frankly, the one I'd recommend first to most people. Every kid with a laptop needs a charger, an HDMI cable, a USB-C dongle, a long extension cord for the dorm bed. Buy these from the chain electronics store and you'll spend $25 on a $4 cable. SF Cable sells the same thing for what it actually costs — usually three to seven bucks, plus shipping. Order what you need for the year in one box and pay shipping once.
A few rules of thumb after forty years behind a counter
Three things to keep in mind whether you're shopping these catalogs or anywhere else:
- Free shipping isn't free. It's baked into the price. The honest catalogs charge a flat shipping fee — usually six to nine bucks — and price the item lower. Do the math, not the marketing.
- Buy the boring stuff in bulk in July. Pencils, pens, looseleaf, index cards, batteries. The price never goes down once school starts. I'd rather have a year's supply in a drawer than pay convenience-store rates in October.
- Don't buy the laptop in August. The deals on laptops are in late November and again in late January, when the back-to-school inventory has to clear. If you can stretch the kid's old machine through the fall, you'll save a couple hundred bucks easy.
And one last thing — if you're a grandparent chipping in for school supplies for grandkids, ask the parents what they actually need before you order. My five grandkids think I'm cheap. I call it thrifty. But I've also bought the wrong-size gym shoes more than once because I didn't ask first, and that's not thrifty — that's just twenty-eight bucks down the drain.
