Overview

• Sixty-seven percent of shoppers began back-to-school buying by early June, with over half citing tariff concerns for accelerated purchases.
• Major chains including Target, Walmart and Amazon have frozen price points on key items and rolled out deep discounts to ease budget pressures.
• June Consumer Price Index data shows stationery and supplies costs rose 3.4% while textbook prices jumped 10.2% year over year.
• Retailers front-loaded inventories to delay tariff impacts; analysts warn that cost pass-through may intensify by late summer.
• Families are budgeting an average of $858.07 this year, down from 2024 even as total national spending nears $39.4 billion.