To the last minute back to school shoppers:

[Bright_Star]

My Mom always had to wait cause sometimes the teachers would list things that don't exist.

What kind of things that don't exist?

[Aethian]

What kind of things that don't exist?

Had teachers two years in a row that were using way old lists that had used year after year after year. Well the year I had that teacher the manufacturers had changed sizes of glue, notebooks, and the like. Another thing is this teacher INSISTED that we could get the number of different color folder/notebook combos. So we got what we could and I got in trouble for not having the right things. Until the next person got in trouble, and the next, and the next, all up to the one who managed to get the right number of combo of folder/notebooks and had taken the labels OFF of the other items.

[MoonCat]

Well, young'uns, back in the Olden Days we had to wait until the first day of school for the teacher to tell us what we needed. We didn't have no internetz or e-mails back then, we had to write down the list ourselves! Then we all had to go off into the wild to shoot our own...er, I mean, go to Woolworth's or some such place to buy notebooks, folders, paper, pens and whatnot.

And every year, some teacher would insist we needed a five subject notebook, and then we'd only use about a fourth of it for her class.

[EvilEmpryss]

What kind of things that don't exist?

The things that the teachers make up names for.

Like the "Quadratic Composition Notebook" that my daughter is supposed to buy. Three office supply stores have no idea what one is. Can't even find it on Google.

I'd buy it, but I can't find it.

Now if she means a graph composition notebook, where the top part is graph paper and the bottom of the sheet is lines paper, that's different. Or the ones where the top half is unlined but the bottom half is lined, but neither are called a "Quadratic Composition Notebook".

[Merriweather]

Maybe she just decided to come up with her own fancy name for your basic four-section composition book? Cause, you know, that would just be way too "common" for her marvelous special class?

[Dadeo]

The things that the teachers make up names for.

Like the "Quadratic Composition Notebook" that my daughter is supposed to buy. Three office supply stores have no idea what one is. Can't even find it on Google.(

This is the first thing I thought of. It's basically a book of graph/grid paper.

http://www.amazon.com/Top-Flight-Com...5516307&sr=1-3

[EvilEmpryss]

Yup, but there's two kinds of those: ones that are *just* graph paper in a comp notebook style, and ones where they have the half-sheet grid/half-sheet lined composition notebook style.

And it's a guarantee that even if I buy BOTH to cover my bases, it'll be something completely different that she's referring to.

I've decided to wait and have the little Evil Princess get clarification from her teacher.

[simplyanother]

I have a weird love for school supplies. Last year, somehow, my then 6th grader used up all the pencils. Because he had to take like 5 new ones to school. Every day. I dunno why. I think he might have eaten them.


I make sure the boys have the basics. Anything too fussy, it'll have to wait. Their supply lists aren't that bad, but my nieces and nephew who live in the same city, but attend different schools--are super specific. My sons lists ask for glue sticks, theirs asks for some specific brand of glue stick. My sons asks for crayons, theirs asks for 16 count crayons (I've had that. I get the 24 packs for cheap [20-50 cents a pack], if they don't like them, I'll take out the extra crayons...).

Most teachers, I've found---are pretty lenient. They want kids to have the necessary supplies, but they're not going to freak out if you haven't got exactly 24 pencils by day 2.

Regarding lists of things that don't exist. People brought them into GH constantly. Lists that their art teachers typed up back...I dunno, back when people used mimeograph machines all the time. They'd have brand names that have gone out of business, forms of paper that Gh hadnt carried in years. Price ranges that were at least a decade off....

Fun times. So sad I don't work there anymore.

[Carsomyr]

I honestly don't even remember when we got our lists when I was a kid. My mum would stock up on stationary in the Back to School sales since it could all get so cheap (and yes, we DID end up using them all, all gone now. A lot of writing was done in this family, apparantly). Whenever we did get our lists it was just a matter of pulling them off the shelf, covering them, and buying the one or two things we didn't already have.

In most states-- or at least, most of the states I've lived in-- the date gets set by the local school boards, and can change with new board members and/or new concepts or fads about what good schooling is. Also on (not joking) what condition the schools' heaters and air conditioners are in, and what their operating costs are.

And also for rugby games. No joke. It was a messy year. Same year we were screwed out of one or two public holidays (second one fell on a Sunday, so I didn't miss out >: D )

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Well, I'm dealing with the last part of Back To School Hell--trying to find space in the backroom for all the school supplies the DC sent to us in bulk, because corporate overbuys that stuff ridiculously, figuring it can just be carried over to the next year.

Seriously, we must have notebooks, looseleaf paper, pencils, pens, etc that have been in the store for three years now. It gets pushed out to the floor for BTS, doesn't sell, gets returned to the backroom to sit for 10 months, and then the DC sends us more.

Shit, we had bottles of Elmers glue that were so old the glue separated into liquid at the top and glue at the bottom. Management's solution? Take the bottles of glue to the service desk, and have the service desk people spend their down time shaking up bottles of glue so it reconstituted. No lie.

Oh, and to our buyers, query: Why do we need to invest in any and all things Angry Birds related? You really thought we could sell 10 cases of plush Angry Birds pencil toppers? Five cases of three different kinds of Angry Birds pens for ten bucks a pop? Notebooks and folders? I could crap out a turd vaguely shaped like an Angry Bird, and corporate would put in a purchase order for 100,000 more.

[EvilEmpryss]

I could crap out a turd vaguely shaped like an Angry Bird, and corporate would put in a purchase order for 100,000 more.

If you really could, then you'd be able to get out of customer service!

[wolfie]

Well, I'm dealing with the last part of Back To School Hell--trying to find space in the backroom for all the school supplies the DC sent to us in bulk, because corporate overbuys that stuff ridiculously, figuring it can just be carried over to the next year.

O/T, but this should cause you nightmares - I was at "Canuckistan rubber donut" to get a few hardware items, and saw that they had Haloween merchandise out - and marked as clearance. WTF were they thinking? After all, we need to get through both Back To School and Thanksgiving before we get to Haloween.

[downforit2008]

Don't all of you wish we still had the glory days where in our youth, all you needed for back-to-school was a backpack, a couple of folders, notebooks, and pencils? Now the lists for what every parent needs to buy for their "cupcakes" is long and completely overwhelming. Seriously, a $100 calculator? No, thank you!

[fireheart]

Don't all of you wish we still had the glory days where in our youth, all you needed for back-to-school was a backpack, a couple of folders, notebooks, and pencils? Now the lists for what every parent needs to buy for their "cupcakes" is long and completely overwhelming. Seriously, a $100 calculator? No, thank you!

Thankfully the ABSOLUTE minimum we needed in terms of calculators was a scientific one. And that was around $50. The Year 11 and 12 mathematics folks who were doing the pure maths and whatnot, needed the graphics calculators. (So freaking happy I did Maths Apps since it had RELEVANT information for day to day life)

We actully discovered by Year 12 that the booklists provided, were not always the ones we needed. I managed to get away with a 5-subject notebook, a music book (one with staves on one page and lines on the other), the usual pencil case crapola and some extra notebooks as backup. (the only thing I ended up forking out for was the study guide for psychology)

[ShinyGreenApple]

Well, I'm dealing with the last part of Back To School Hell--trying to find space in the backroom for all the school supplies the DC sent to us in bulk, because corporate overbuys that stuff ridiculously, figuring it can just be carried over to the next year.

Seriously, we must have notebooks, looseleaf paper, pencils, pens, etc that have been in the store for three years now. It gets pushed out to the floor for BTS, doesn't sell, gets returned to the backroom to sit for 10 months, and then the DC sends us more.

Shit, we had bottles of Elmers glue that were so old the glue separated into liquid at the top and glue at the bottom. Management's solution? Take the bottles of glue to the service desk, and have the service desk people spend their down time shaking up bottles of glue so it reconstituted. No lie.

Oh, and to our buyers, query: Why do we need to invest in any and all things Angry Birds related? You really thought we could sell 10 cases of plush Angry Birds pencil toppers? Five cases of three different kinds of Angry Birds pens for ten bucks a pop? Notebooks and folders? I could crap out a turd vaguely shaped like an Angry Bird, and corporate would put in a purchase order for 100,000 more.

No kidding! It's been a while since I was in the backroom, but when I was working remodel back in '10, I remember seeing a lot of old BTS junk hanging on the moving racks. It was a pain in the butt because it was pretty much just sitting there getting counted every year when the inventory crew came in. Then got to sit there for months again, every now and then getting knocked onto the floor and under the racks.

And ugggh to Angry Birds. Ok people, this game is NOT that great. I've tried it a few times and I always get bored after a few levels. Slapping these strange, leg-less characters all over t-shirts, lunchboxes, and backpacks is just tacky at this point.