Price Comparison Shows: Significant Savings Possible on School Supplies

Notebooks, pens, folders - all of these impact the family budget at the beginning of the school year. The consumer protection of the Chamber of Labour (AK) Upper Austria has examined the prices of school supplies and shows that targeted shopping can save a lot of money - five euros, for example, on colored pencils or compasses. Sample shopping baskets for primary and secondary schools were also compared - price ranges from 75 to 134 euros and 110 to 195 euros - at ten providers.

AK Price Comparison: Save Five Euros on Individual School Supplies

The basis for the survey was school supply lists for the first grade of primary school and a secondary school, reported the AK in a press release on Wednesday. Prices were compared in stationery stores, supermarkets, and larger chains. Affordable alternatives to brand products like "Jolly" or "Dürer Hase" were included. The interest group recommends inquiring about price advantages from providers before shopping.

Significant savings can be made on more expensive individual items, such as up to four euros on fountain pens and up to five euros for 24 Jolly colored pencils or compasses. The same Pelikan pen costs 8.99 or 12.99 euros. The brand colored pencils are available for 18.79 euros - in the most expensive case, however, you have to pay 23.99 euros, quick-adjust compasses are available for 4.79, but also for 9.99 euros. Cheap colored pencils in a pack of 12 are available for as little as one euro, but also for 7.99. For inexpensive wax crayons, 2.99 euros is enough, but they are also available for 7.99 - that's also what you pay for the cheapest brand product. With cheaper products, quantity matters: for example, if you buy ten notebooks and pay one euro less per notebook, you also save ten euros in total.

Cheapest Brand Packages Cheaper Than Most Expensive Alternatives

Buying everything in one store saves time. To this end, the AK compared sample shopping baskets and indicated whether additional purchases are necessary. For primary school students, the cheapest brand shopping basket was 108.22 euros, the most expensive was 133.61 euros, for the no-name alternative, 74.96 euros was enough for the cheapest and 122.75 euros for the most expensive provider. For a secondary school child, the brand package costs between 153.98 and 194.98 euros, the affordable alternative comes to 110.34 to 183.99 euros - in each variant, the cheapest brand shopping basket is available for less money than the most expensive no-name alternative.

Professional advice is offered by stationery stores, and you can also hand in the shopping list in the store and pick up the package later - at one provider, the list can be processed on-site with the staff. The interest group recommends also thinking about the environment when shopping. High-quality products for which spare parts are available are longer usable and thus environmentally friendly, and in addition, sustainable money savings can be achieved.

(APA/Red)

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