OK, I have just spent an hour in Staples armed with a 5th and 7th grade school supply list. I figured that since Staples rakes it in at 'back to school' time that they would find an organised way in which to take our money. But no. Despite it surely being the case that everyone is coming in with much the same list, the whole organisation of the place was just as it always was and I had to search high and low for the few graphed paper spiraled notebooks that there were. Sure there were some displays with some of the stuff but that was not what I needed. I needed organisational sense and marketing saavy.
If you are in a local area, surely they could contact the school district and have collected some boxes with all of the supplies needed and then charged us for them. It must be easier than the search we had to go through. I'd also have been happy for a web site where I could have simply sent through our lists of needs and bought the lot. The Staples website, for one, seemed so unsuitable for this that I figured going to the store was better. Sounds like I got that wrong.
I'd be very happy for anyone to report and advertise common sense approaches that they have heard of in the comments.
