Dubai: Bags and pencil cases bearing popular children’s cartoon characters top the list of back-to-school items whose prices have increased this year.
Popular with students, however poor their quality, the bags quickly wear out and parents say they find themselves revisiting the malls in the middle of the year to buy new ones.
With the new academic year just around the corner, Gulf News visited malls and stationery shops to talk to parents who were busy stocking up on back-to-school essentials for the academic year 2013/14.
A Gulf News survey showed that there was an increase in prices of certain items such as bags, which rose by 48 per cent and pencil cases which went up 18 per cent compared to last year.
Some parents told this newspaper that, in addition to the increases in certain items, revisiting the malls in the middle of the academic year to buy the same products doubled the costs by the end of the year.
They attributed this to children wanting new supplies at the beginning of every term, items getting lost or worn out and a host of other reasons.
“I have noticed some increase in the items but to me the bigger problem is that my children see a bag that they like and they would want to buy the whole set,” said Emirati stay-at-home-mother of two Umm Obaid.
“They even want more than one bag and they keep changing their bags throughout the year because their favorite cartoon characters change.”
An employee who works for Dubai Library Distributors, a popular stationery chain that has branches across the UAE, said that the company is aware of the demand for cartoon character-based items.
“Every year we prepare for the customer rush during the back-to-school season by stocking up on children’s favorite cartoon character items because we know that though parents have a say in their children’s choice the final decision is made by the children,” said the employee.
Another mother, Noora Nada, an Egyptian, who was shopping for her only child, said that she has to buy two bags a year because they are not durable.
“I pay around Dh500 for my only child’s bag, lunchbox, pencil case and stationery which I do not mind because I only have one child,” she said.
“The problem is we need more than one backpack because by the beginning of the third term the bag is ruined. Book prices are also an issue because they increase as the child grows.”
For this reason mother-of-five Mariam Ali, an Emirati, advised parents to not buy back-to-school items in bulk.
“You think that there is no harm in buying extra items here and there but by the time you reach the cashier you find that you are paying hundreds of dirhams on stationery. Bags alone cost me around Dh700 so when it comes to stationery I prefer only buying the essentials,” said Mariam.
“I also advise parents to look at quality to make sure that the items last,” she added.
