30 thousand for a student: enrollment by September 1 has seriously risen in price

Disaster without China

– As shown by a survey of a large personnel service, conducted in million-plus cities, the cost of getting a child to school increased by 9% over the year. This is twice the current average annual inflation. Do you agree with this figure and what factors lead to higher prices?

Anfinogens: — There can’t be an average cost, because for each family the “school set” has its own content. First of all, we need to understand what and with what we are comparing, as well as the social preferences of the family. I have a 12-year-old daughter, and like all parents, I gather her to school every year, so I know this question not only theoretically. So, people with an average income can buy everything they need on the websites of well-known marketplaces. But if the parents or the child himself have any special requests, then the cost of school fees can be very high.

Vovk: – The standard set of a schoolchild, if we take the average value, could really rise in price by 9%. But if you look at the dynamics of prices, for example, for stationery or clothing, you can see a much more serious increase – from 20 to 40%, depending on the category of a particular product. Parents themselves decide what amount is acceptable to them and calculate their budget. Prices also vary from region to region. It’s about the cost of logistics, delivery of goods. Take, for example, the Far East or Eastern Siberia – they are closer to China, so logistics will cost a little less, since the bulk of the goods are produced in China. Therefore, 9%, of course, is a beautiful figure, but each family has its own increase in the cost of school fees.

— Have Russian manufacturers of school uniforms, stationery and other components of the educational set coped with the difficulties due to sanctions, or have their costs increased?

Anfinogens: – As I see it, there are few goods of domestic production in the school set. These can be, for example, textbooks or specialized notebooks that are printed in a typographical way. Everything else – clothes, shoes, sports uniforms, stationery, backpacks and albums – is supplied to us by friendly China. If these deliveries had not been, probably, a catastrophe would have happened. Parents now have a wide range of colors and styles to choose from. And there are many products that cost quite reasonable money.

Vovk: Let’s take an assortment of pencils. If you go to any store now, you will see many foreign manufacturers, mostly China. If there are Russian goods on the shelves, then literally in a few quantities. The situation is similar with pens and erasers. Paper and notebooks – yes, our production. But covers, files, inserts – not always. We still have a huge field for import substitution.

Get your notebooks ready in spring…

– Parents think about what they should do: buy a school set in the summer or already at the beginning of the school season, because after September 1, a number of items will probably become cheaper?

Anfinogens: – Firstly, this market, like many others, depends on seasonality. Secondly, it has changeable (clothes, shoes) and unchangeable (pens, notebooks) parameters. In general, if we talk about school supplies, then it is better to buy them in advance – say, in the spring. That’s when the whole stationery is cheaper. But in the summer, closer to September, you can spend money on clothes and shoes. I think this approach is correct. It must be understood that the school supplies market, like any other, is always striving to earn as much as possible from the pre-season hype. Accordingly, all the prices that we see now will drop slightly in mid-September.

Vovk: – It is necessary to take into account such a moment as the consumer preferences of the family itself. There are people who like to buy the necessary goods in advance, and there are those who do it at the last moment, which creates a rush. But let me return to the fact that the bulk of the goods to Russia comes from abroad. It doesn’t matter whether they buy goods in dollars or yuan, prices in rubles are creeping up dramatically anyway. Naturally, it is impossible to stock up on everything in advance, but some stocks must be made in the spring. As for clothes and shoes, they should be bought for a child at the last moment (a week or two before the start of the school year). Many children grow up quickly and their clothing and shoe sizes quickly become obsolete.

– If you buy the bulk of the necessary goods in the spring, how much can you save on a school set?

Vovk: – It will be exactly 10-15% cheaper than if you buy the same thing in August.

– One of the most expensive items, according to analysts, this year was outerwear, as well as a school backpack. Why? What other products will become the leaders of the anti-rating in terms of availability in 2023?

Anfinogens: – It is not easy to talk about this topic, since the prices for backpacks vary from several hundred to many thousands of rubles. It is also necessary to take into account the ambitions of the family, the preferences of the children themselves. Some will think that a cheap backpack is not cool and you need to buy exactly the same as a classmate from a wealthy family. Others will prefer the budget option. But outerwear – yes, it will cost more than anything else. Meanwhile, when we talk about the set of a student as a whole, we must understand that it often includes a smartphone. The gadget is needed, firstly, because it is the 21st century, and secondly, because it can be used to protect the child. And in such a set of students, the smartphone will be the most expensive item.

Vovk: – It is hard to disagree with the fact that outerwear is one of the most expensive items. As for backpacks, it’s hard to answer. The backpack is bought not for one season, it is a long-playing school subject. Yes, and in Russia now they sew a lot of backpacks: the assortment on the market is mostly domestic, not foreign. As for the goods that are leaders in price growth, I would also mention shoes. During this year, prices for it have grown very much – by 30 percent.

September money cycle

Every year it becomes more and more expensive to send a child to school. What can the state do to ease this parental burden? Maybe some cash payments by September 1 or preferential coupons for stationery, for example, should be fixed at the legislative level – at least for certain categories of citizens?

Vovk: – It would be good, of course, to secure some benefits, but the implementation of such programs in our country is not always effective. During covid, there were significant one-time payments in Russia. It was a mass support: it was not necessary to belong to the preferential category, it was made for everyone. But this is a one-time deal. If we talk about legislative norms, then for those segments of the population that require social protection, now there are guarantees only in terms of school meals. Maybe there are some free or preferential additional classes, after-school. That’s all. If we are talking specifically about preparation for the academic year, then it would probably be right to form a standard set of stationery and purchase it at the state level. By the way, this would also fit into the import substitution program. Additional jobs would be created, which would be guaranteed to be provided with demand. This would create a circulation of money within the country and an additional gross domestic product.

— Are similar projects being developed?

Vovk: — No, there are no such projects yet. I think that such documents should be made public by those structures that are responsible for childhood, for the rights of the child, for social protection. That is, it should be public organizations and active representatives of social services that can initiate such a process. But so far there are no such initiatives.

Anfinogens: – The satirist Zhvanetsky had a phrase: “We need to fight not with mold, but with dampness.” So, we have a catastrophic problem with demography, and the state must develop a strategy that should solve this problem. As part of this plan, there should be a “child in school” section, which will spell out how the state will help parents collect children for the new school year. The issue needs to be approached strategically.

— Question from our reader. Is it worth buying a stationery in Moscow or is it better to order in the region? Will it be cheaper?

Vovk: — The fact is that prices on electronic platforms practically do not differ from region to region. As for chain stores, the cost of goods does not vary much, by 3-5%.

– Another reader is wondering: is it safe to buy school goods on marketplaces?

Anfinogens: — All marketplaces work in the legislative field of the Russian Federation, and everything that is sold on these sites is certified. There are declarations and the entire set of necessary documents that fall within the area of ​​responsibility of Rospotrebnadzor and other regulatory authorities. Therefore, you should not be afraid of marketplaces.

“Budgeting begins”

– How can you save money when sending your child to school? Give practical advice to parents.

Vovk: – First of all, you need to make a list of everything you need and understand what you need to buy, and what, let’s say, you already have. Some schools themselves send such a wish list for the new academic year, or the parent committee takes care of this and buys supplies for the whole class (notebooks, covers, pencils, pens). Next, you need to focus on the price-quality level. You will have to take the time to get your children involved so that they can also look for products that they like. In practice, it will turn out to be a kind of family market research, the results of which will show what it costs and where it is better to buy. In this case, there will be a real opportunity to save.

Anfinogens: “It is clear that the cost of food for a tenth grader is more than the cost of food for a first grader. How to optimize these costs so that a tenth grader fits into the budget of a first grader’s food? This is impossible. Why did I give this example? Naturally, the simplest thing is to gather a first-grader who does not yet know what he wants, and perceives everything with joy. Having spent the first year at school, having observed peers, older comrades, the child will already begin to say: “I don’t need such a pen”, “I don’t want such a pencil”, “I only need such a pencil case”. The promotion of the parents’ budget begins, and this process is difficult to optimize, since there is an emotional zone here.

– You talked a lot about the fact that the total amount of school fees depends on the emotional factor, as well as on the wealth of a particular household. And if we discard these nuances, how much will the enrollment of a schoolchild cost an ordinary average Russian family?

Vovk: – Without a gadget, I think it will turn out an average of 17-20 thousand rubles.

Anfinogens: – Gadget gadget strife. There is a chic market for used smartphones on various trading floors. This can be bought for 10 thousand rubles. And for everything else, I think you can try to meet up to 15 thousand rubles.

Table

The cost of a school set in 2023

Backpack 2370 rubles.

Notebooks, 4 pcs. 68 rub.

Handles, 4 pcs. 80 rub.

Album 30 rub.

Form 4700 rub.

Socks 100 rubles.

T-shirt 700 rub.

Sports suit 2200 rub.

Sneakers 2200 rub.

Warm boots 3000 rub.

Smartphone 10,000 rubles.

Total: 25,448 rubles.