TORONTO – On a Labour Day long weekend in a Walmart parking lot, Shakeel Ansari loads his vehicle’s trunk with colourful backpacks and lunch boxes for his three kids, ages eight, 10 and 12.
He knows the new school supplies are stretching his Toronto family’s budget, but he doesn’t want to put a price on his kids’ education.
“Last year when I did the same purchase, I see (that) this year, the prices have gone up, and I see the real effects of inflation in everyday purchases,” Ansani told CTV News on Sunday.
“This year, I’ve had to scale back on the kids’ shoes. Usually, every year, I buy new shoes for the kids. But this year, I just bought the essential school supplies.”
It’s a feeling that resonates with many parents, including the Farrell family, who have completed their back-to-school shopping, but have also had to make sacrifices.
“It’s definitely a big expenditure, I find the prices are at least 20 per cent higher than they were last year,” said Todd Farrell, whose son, Aiden, is going into Grade 10 this year. “Basically, we don’t dine out as much as we used to, so that’s probably the biggest consideration point.”
Data released by Statistics Canada shows prices for school textbooks and supplies have increased by 24 per cent from June 2015 to June 2026. Other reading material, excluding textbooks, have risen by more than 25 per cent.
Another poll released through Boston Consulting Group Canada (BCG) revealed that among 1,200 Canadians surveyed, 56 per cent of parents said back-to-school spending does not fit within their normal household budget, highlighting that families are stretched thin financially.
“Every year, prices may go up three to five per cent – but that’s compounding on the previous year – so it starts to get away from customers after a while,” retail analyst Bruce Winder told CTV News over Zoom on Sunday. “You have several years of inflation like we’ve seen before the (COVID-19) pandemic, and suddenly you start to see some pretty big increases in price points on items.”
Winder points out that there are a multitude of pressures that have resulted in school supply prices increasing – including the U.S. trade war and the war in Iran – resulting in higher costs for production and transportation.
“Those are affecting prices of oil and prices of resin and plastic that go into some of these items,” added Winder. “You’ve got a lot of uncertainty, and when there’s a lot of uncertainty, companies tend to hedge their bets on price, so they might take a bit more price than they normally would and increase prices a bit more.”
Moshe Lander, an economics professor at Concordia University, says the lack of competition on school supply products, like Hilroy, also contributes to increasing costs.
“So many industries in Canada are lacking competition, and that gives pricing power to those industries where there are oligopolistic or monopolistic,” Lander said in a Zoom interview with CTV News Sunday. “Every Canadian student is familiar with the Hilroy notebooks that you take to school. They have tremendous pricing power because they are mainly the name.”
Lander says his advice is to try and use as much of the school supplies from past years as much as possible.
