Bells Are Ringing

Back to school, back to business

 August – the most dreaded month of the year for students as summer comes to an end and school bells start ringing. It is also one of the most anticipated months of the year for businesses as the ringing of school bells aligns with the ringing of cash registers. Back to school shopping represents the second largest consumer spending event after the holidays, and just like holiday season, consumers wait till the last minute to stock up on needed merchandise.

In favor of last minute shoppers, e-commerce has made shopping easier and more efficient for both the consumer and the retailer. According to a recent survey by the National Retail Federation/BIG Research, parents who shop online spend an average of $266 more than those who only shop in stores. That’s a huge advantage for online retailers for many reasons. The ease consumers feel while shopping online from the comfort of their own home is irreplaceable. This works out great for businesses because consumers end up spending more money online for the same reasons people spend more with credit cards in comparison to cash. It’s much less threatening to spend invisible money than the green that you see disappearing right before your eyes.

Moreover, companies are taking full advantage of online deals and promotions to entice and trick consumers into spending even more money than usual by offering the “best deals for a limited time only.” These deals showcase how much consumers will save individually but when lumped with associated promotions, consumers don’t realize they end up spending more than they bargained for.

This ploy has become much easier to implement these days because back to school shopping isn’t just about school supplies and clothes anymore. Electronics make up 31 percent of K-12 shoppers’ budgets and 36 percent of college students’ budgets. In today’s generation, electronics are the “must-haves” for every school going individual, and fortunately for retailers, they are the big ticket items.

With purchases of electronics, companies promote related products with more ease than they do with apparel and school supplies. For example, a company would promote a laptop purchase with a free printer and printers with discounted ink cartridges and so on. The idea is that consumers will rationalize their big ticket purchase by capitalizing on the “need from association” of all items included in the deal.

Everything I like starts with 'C': The church bells are ringing, quite ...

I went to bed at six o'clock yesterday morning and woke back up at 9am because I'd drank the coffee equivalent of the effects of a defibrillator- and then carried out what I can only describe as some sort of transient tribal dance (which was actually me trying to do my laundry still wired off my tits). I couldn't find the washing line, so there was a lot of aimless walking around my kitchen with damp clothes in circles whimpering, because I'd ran out of kitchen chairs and garden furniture to hang them on the back of. Then I got back to my phone and had about twenty missed calls, none of which I could return because orange are maintaining their love/hate stance with my bill paying techniques. I wont pay it until they ring me at 9am persistently and I answer without checking the number and then they ask if I'm alive and then guilt trip me into paying it in installments over the phone- (I'm simply flattered that they care enough to take the time out of their day. It's my own fault if I chose to pay for a service that I can't use.) They haven't even turned my phone back on. I'm going out tonight, which would usually be a nice thing but I'm quite frankly alarmed. Did you know that if you coop a city girl up she turns into a wild feral animal when she's given alcohol and music? I don't know how to explain my behavior on my past few nights out- they've been vaguely few and far between but it's literally a case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. I am praying- PRAYING- I don't pull any of the stunts that have occurred over the past few weeks- which I really don't feel like I can tell you about, other than it started with me screaming "SAMBUCA?" at everybody I saw and buying everybody in the vicinity shots on my bank card. That's how it started . That night I was still in a bar when the sun came up, swanned out of the taxi and carried on the night in the park over the road in laddered tights and broad daylight. My mum waved on her way to work and I felt about fifteen. PLEASE STOP ME. On a sentimental note- you can go for years or months, judging people or avoiding people because you've been listening to the opinions from those you value. But we all have different relationships with each other- and we have these puzzle piece personalities. You're only going to click with the pieces you match with, and we can't all click- or the puzzle wouldn't work. On the same note- when the piece doesn't fit, you can't force it to.

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