The Hidden Value of Back-to-School Shopping

It’s easy to dismiss our collective consumer ritual as another marketing season. Yes, it was invented by department stores selling school uniforms in the 1800s, and then turbocharged with seasonal catalogs and sales by retailers like Montgomery Ward and Sears in the century that followed. And it is a sort of pre-Halloween ritual in which we all foist new costumes on our children.

But all those new backpacks, sneakers, pencil cases, and lunch boxes do something else. They help turn our children back into students.

For two glorious summer months, we released our children from the routines and identities of school. They’ve spent a culturally sanctioned rumspringa at pools, beaches, and camps, in the woods, or on a Nintendo. Then, almost overnight, we thrust them back into desks, routines, homework, and a social world that is often new and uncertain.

A handful of new pencils can help.

We usually think possessions express who we are. Possessions send identity signals. Some are obvious. Owning a home makes you a homeowner. Owning a dog makes you a pet owner. A Prius says you care about climate change as much as a Ford Raptor pickup says you’re ready to let the world burn.