Back to School: These Are the Most Affordable (and Expensive) Stores for Back-to-School Shopping

As summer comes to an end, students and parents are prepping for the start of a new school year. Buying new school supplies is a major event for anyone with school-age children, and stores around the country heavily advertise their back-to-school deals as the fall approaches.

While back-to-school supplies and deals can be found at many different stores, some retailers offer better pricing and savings than others.

To help consumers save money on educational essentials this year, the FinanceBuzz team researched the costs for a variety of common school supplies at 10 major retailers to find the best and worst prices.

Key findings

• Walmart had the cheapest back-to-school supplies. Prices for 20 common school supplies came to just $54.21 (47% below average).
• Dollar General ($72.75) and Target ($80.56) were also among the most affordable options. Walmart and these two retailers were the only stores with costs under $90.
• Michaels had the most expensive school supplies — our shopping list cost a whopping $184.03, just over three times the price for the same items at Walmart.
• The average cost of buying our full list of back-to-school supplies was $102.87. That is 8% cheaper than the costs for the same supplies last year ($111.36).

The cost of back-to-school shopping

To learn which retailers offer the cheapest school supplies, we collected common back-to-school supply lists for elementary, middle, and high school students. We then collected prices online for each of the 20 items from different retailers. We also compared the costs for those items to data from last year.

While prices for things like fast food, theme park tickets, and eggs have surged in recent years, school supplies are one area where parents can catch a break, as costs for many standard school supplies have remained stable or even gone down in the last year.

Walmart was the most affordable store for school supplies in 2024, and the retailer is even kinder to wallets in 2025, reducing costs for school supplies by 20%, the largest price decrease of any store.

Kroger is a close second, reducing costs by 15% year-over-year. Three other retailers cut prices by at least 10% between 2024 and 2025, with Staples (12%), Meijer (10%), and Office Depot/Office Max all hitting double digits in this regard.

Across all 10 retailers we examined, prices dropped by 8% on average.

In fact, there are only two stores where costs didn't go down in the last year, though even in those instances cost increases were minimal. Prices at Walgreens remained remarkably stable, rising by less than 25 cents, while Dollar General raised prices by just 3%.

The least expensive retailers for back-to-school shopping

#1 - Walmart

Walmart offered the highest savings of any retail chain we analyzed. With a total cost under $55 and availability of every item on our list, the largest retail chain in America is also our No. 1 pick for back-to-school shopping.

Costs for:

• Elementary school: $27.07
• Middle school: $38.15
• High school: $30.51
• All items*: $54.21

#2 - Dollar General

The cost for all 20 school supply items at Dollar General is a little over $18 more expensive than Walmart, making it one of the best options available this school year. Of note, Dollar General is selling rulers at the lowest price of any store this back-to-school season.

Costs for:

• Elementary school: $36.50
• Middle school: $52.25
• High school: $45.75
• All items*: $72.75

#3 - Target

Target joins Walmart and Dollar General on the list of stores where the cost for our full supply list came in under $85. The popular store offers better prices than competitors on three items: lunch boxes, folders, and pencils.

Costs for:

• Elementary school: $31.55
• Middle school: $52.07
• High school: $53.28
• All items*: $80.56

#4 - Staples

Staples is a giant in the field of office supplies and a "staple" of back-to-school shopping for many customers around the country. It's also the last retailer on our list with costs under $95 for the full list of back-to-school supplies.

Costs for:

• Elementary school: $44.89
• Middle school: $61.85
• High school: $62.64
• All items*: $90.08

#5 - Kroger

Kroger started as a grocery store and evolved into an "everything" store with a significant national footprint, operating more than 1,200 locations across the country. Kroger stores offer the best prices for construction paper and glue sticks.

Costs for:

• Elementary school: $42.14
• Middle school: $77.46
• High school: $64.08
• All items*: $97.21

#6 - Meijer

Located mostly in the Midwest, Meijer started as a grocery chain but eventually developed into a superstore concept long before Walmart was on the scene. Customers can find every item on our list at the chain, although they may want to find backpacks elsewhere, as Meijer's price for that item was the highest of any store on our list.

Costs for:

• Elementary school: $49.83
• Middle school: $76.35
• High school: $65.17
• All items*: $98.99

#7 - Amazon

Amazon is the largest online retailer in the world, and a quick and convenient way for millions of Americans to have items shipped directly to their homes at an affordable price.

However, shipping costs can exceed the value of certain products, leading Amazon to increase prices on those items to turn a profit. As a result, school items like crayons, folders, and rulers are more expensive to buy from Amazon than any other retailer.

Costs for:

• Elementary school: $53.10
• Middle school: $75.51
• High school: $69.99
• All items*: $109.09

#8 - Office Depot/OfficeMax

Office Depot, another leading name in the world of office supplies, merged with OfficeMax in 2013. It's also the first chain on our list with physical retail locations where school supply prices crack triple digits.

Costs for:

• Elementary school: $50.79
• Middle school: $75.86
• High school: $68.18
• All items*: $109.40

#9 - Walgreens

While known as a pharmacy, Walgreens also sells toys, groceries, and school supplies, among other items. While Walgreens did not stock backpacks and lunchboxes last year, both of those items are available for purchase in 2025 according to the company's online inventory.

Costs for:

• Elementary school: $58.31
• Middle school: $98.95
• High school: $85.67
• All items*: $132.37

#10 - Michaels

Michaels, one of the largest arts and crafts stores in the country, is the most expensive store overall, regardless of age level. It's also the only retailer that did not carry all the items on our back-to-school supply list, as the chain doesn't stock tissue boxes or combination locks, meaning shoppers will have to find those items elsewhere to complete their school shopping.

Costs for:

• Elementary school: $65.14
• Middle school: $147.34
• High school: $141.37
• All items*: $184.03

*Includes items that overlap between school levels, so the overall totals don't reflect the sum of each grade level.

Stores where back-to-school supplies are most and least expensive

While several stores were affordable, no single retailer had the best price for every item on our list. For back-to-school shoppers, we identified the stores with the best and worst prices for each item.

Walmart had the best deals on half the list, offering 10 of the lowest-priced items (including instances where it had the same price as another retailer), while Kroger and Target had better prices than any other store on three items.

On the other hand, prices were highest for eight supplies at Michaels, while Amazon was the most expensive place to buy four items.

How to save this back-to-school season

• Earn credit card rewards at checkout. To get the most out of your shopping trip, use one of the best store credit cards to get rewards on your purchases.
• Maximize your shopping. Walmart has the best prices of any retailer for back-to-school supplies, but following some shopping do's and don'ts can take your savings even further.

Methodology

We collected common items from elementary, middle, and high school supply lists and researched prices at each retailer online. All price data for individual items comes directly from the official website of each store.

Prices represent active sales and back-to-school pricing in effect when data was collected between July 2 and 8, 2025. In limited instances where a given retailer didn't sell a certain type of item, we added the average cost for that item across the remaining stores to their total. The full list of items and quantities is as follows:

Elementary school

• Backpack - 1
• Lunch box - 1
• Notebooks - 5, wide-ruled single-subject notebooks
• Folders - 5
• Crayons - 24-count
• Glue sticks - 3-pack
• Construction paper - 96-sheet-count
• Markers - 10-count
• Safety scissors - 1 pair
• Pencil box - 1
• Tissue box - 1

Middle school

• Backpack - 1
• Pencil pouch -1
• Notebooks - 2 college-ruled 3-subject notebooks
• Ruler - 1
• Pencils - 10 mechanical pencils
• Pens - 10 ballpoint pens
• Calculator - 1
• Binders - 5, 1-inch three-ring binders
• Loose-leaf paper - 5 reams, 100-count
• Lunch box - 1
• Folders - 5
• Dry-erase markers - 4-count assorted colors

High school

• Calculator - 1
• Binders - 5, 1-inch three-ring binders
• Loose-leaf paper - 5 reams, 100-count
• Backpack - 1
• Notebooks - 2 college-ruled 3-subject notebooks
• Pencils - 10 mechanical pencils
• Pens - 10 ballpoint pens
• Highlighters - 5-count assorted colors
• Combination lock - 1
• Folders - 5