Prices of school supplies “are through the roof”

Santo Domingo, DR.
As the new school year 2022-2023 approaches in September, dozens of parents went to different shopping centers yesterday to buy school supplies for their children with a common complaint: “the prices are sky high.”

Some of the tutors specified that uniforms, shoes, notebooks, lunch boxes, and backpacks are the most expensive supplies they have seen in the stores, unlike in other years.
During a tour made by a team of Listin Diario, Zunilda López said that “the time has come to divide the notebooks as it used to be in the past.”

“When I was a student, the pets were divided in two and now is the real time to do that, because they are expensive,” said Lopez while dealing with the noise of the two children and the bustle in the store.

She instantly devised and instructed her companion to reuse the notebooks in their homes.
“Hey, the pets that are there (in his home) with two or three dirty leaves are going to be cut with a scissors by the trunk, so that it is not seen,” said Lopez in order to save money and be able to buy other things.

He also pointed out that he had bought school shoes for approximately 800 and 900 pesos in other years, and now they are “almost double, they cost up to two thousand pesos.”

“You have to buy them however you want, because if not what are you going to do?” she said in the company of her eleven and seven-year-old grandchildren, who were choosing their favorite pets.

Another mother, identified as Natalia Santos, pointed out that in the end, they have to buy what the student needs because “there is no other way”; however, she stressed that she would only buy the “most urgent and primordial.”

“Imagine a low-income family with three or four children and pets costing 65 pesos, which I have found cheaper. In just two I have already spent about 4,000 pesos and I still haven’t bought almost anything,” he said, adding that he went from Los Frailes to the “Garrido” store on Duarte Avenue because he is “looking for economy.”

He specified that he had bought some materials and two pairs of pants; this time, he would only buy notebooks.

Other parents alleged that “they are not cheap.”