Parents face tech price hike

AUSTRALIAN parents are set to be slugged with higher back to school costs for popular technology items, which will set them back an average of $320 per child.

New data from BIG W’s Back to School report, conducted by YouGov, has found more than half of all parents will buy new technology items, with computers (35 per cent), headphones (23 per cent) and iPads (16 per cent) topping the list. Last year, parents spent just $284 on technology per child.

But their overall budget on other essentials is set to reduce by 11.1 per cent — down $66 from $592 to $526 on average per child. This is largely attributed to the fact millions of parents bought items while homeschooling during Covid-19 lockdowns.

Other expected costs for regular back to school items include school uniforms ($158), shoes ($101), stationery ($76), school bags ($56), lunch boxes and water bottles ($48), sporting gear ($82) and other items ($87).

BIG W’s Head of Commercial – Toys and Leisure, Christine Faulkner said the report reflects shoppers’ sentiment to avoid shopping at the last minute.

“They’ll be more cautious, reflecting the financial impacts of Covid-19, coupled with back to school shopping directly following the Christmas period,” she said.

She said BIG W is keeping costs low, starting with an exercise book for 15 cents, glue for $1 and two polo shirts for $5.

Tech retailers are prepared despite some delays on items due to ongoing supply chain issues.

Now that many schools have a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program, JB Hi-Fi has Chromebooks for under $300, tablets for younger students under $200 and laptops for older students from $499.

“There’s a lot to consider when buying, like what size screen a child needs, battery life is often overlooked … weight, dimension and will it fit in their backpack,” a JB HiFi spokesperson said.

Officeworks is offering Lenovo Chromebooks under $400 and an iPad 9th Generation for under $500.

Officeworks managing director Sarah Hunter said they also offer a free online school list service to help parents, and will beat the price on identical items by 20 per cent.

Mother-of-three Kelly Forster plans to spend about $100 on essentials for each of her three children Taj, 9, Zahlia, 7, and Billie, 5.

“The older ones have trashed their things like bags, pencil cases and lunch boxes,” she said. “I don’t budget as such but I do look for good value,” she said.

“It’s a total headache going through the technical requirements but also finding a decent value notebook,” she said.