Believe it or not it's not too early to start thinking about back to school for the Fall. At least not for teachers since they can grab a cool $25 freebie for their trouble. Staples is starting a program in which teachers supply a list of the supplies their students will need and parents can buy them as one bundle instead of hunting out each item. Teachers can refer their school for the program and if the schools signs up the teacher and the school each get a free $25 gift card.
Check the Staples site for more details.
What do you think of this program? Is there anything unethical about bribing the teachers and schools to essentially "lock in" to a particular supply store and encourage parents to shop there? Please weigh in with your comments.
Comments
I don’t think its a bad idea. We usually buy our school supplies at Staples anyway since they have all of the stuff we need. If I go to a “big box” store they will have some of the items but not all and we end up at Staples anyway. In particular teachers ask for certain sizes of binders now and the only place I have ever been able to find the odd sized ones has been there.It saves us time to just shop in one place. If people don’t want to shop at Staples they don’t have to go there!!!
Also, since Staples doesn’t make the teacher promise to use only Staples, but rather just does something itself that makes it more convenient for others, I don’t think making or accepting the offer is unethical.
I think that since teachers usually buy classroom supplies with their own money, it is nice that Staples can offer them a little something. I am all for this program. Let the teachers keep a little bit of their money in their pocket.
Teachers need all the help they can get! Maybe other stores will join in and offer gift cards, discounts, etc.
I understand the concern, but so long as their prices are competitive, it seems there could be a lot of advantages to this. For people looking to donate school supplies for low-income students, this would be a very easy way to buy them pre-bundled for convenience.
I don’t see any problem with teachers giving out this info for something in return especially since our districts already provide stores with lists for all of the supplies anyway. Most people don’t shop like we freebies fans, so let them pay the higher prices. I personally shop for all of the great bargains over several weeks at several stores (Target, STaples, OfficeMax are some of my favs). I love the clearance aisles at Target after school starts. Last year I bought 100 boxes of 24 crayons, 20 pens, notebook paper & more for 8 cents each! I buy for my grandkids & give to families that others tell me about that won’t ask for help. I’m on SSI, so don’t say you can’t afford it!