By Sanaa Elcock
With just under five weeks left before the September 8 start of the 2025 school year, local retailers are sounding the alarm: the back-to-school rush is officially on – and early shopping is key.
From uniforms and socks to textbooks and stationery, Barbadian families are beginning the annual scramble to prepare thousands of students for their return to nursery, primary and secondary schools. And retailers are urging parents and guardians not to wait until the last minute, warning that delays could lead to missed supplies and unavailable stock.
Eddy Abed, managing director of Abed’s, one of the island’s largest uniform suppliers, is leading the charge in encouraging early preparation.
“Historically, we try to stock most of the uniform requirements for Barbadian primary, secondary and even nursery schools,” Abed explained.
“But as good as we think we are, we make mistakes. And when it comes down to the last week of August,
we’re short.”
Abed said all three of the company’s locations were already seeing a steady stream of customers, and he hoped the expanded reach would help ease the burden on shoppers who typically flock to the Bridgetown location.
Though some price increases have been recorded due to rising shipping costs, Abed assured customers that most prices had remained “relatively the same” and the store would continue offering discounts throughout this month.
Over at Woolworth, managing director Martin Bryan echoed similar sentiments, noting that business tended to pick up quickly once the Crop Over season ended.
“Normally, what happens is that after Crop Over, parents get in back-to-school mode,” Bryan said. “As you get closer and closer to the date, it gets busier and busier.”
Bryan stressed that waiting too long could lead to disappointment, especially when it comes to finding specific uniform sizes or colours.
“In the past . . . those parents who wait to the very last minute, sometimes they’re disappointed because a particular size is sold out or a particular colour is sold out. Since we have full stock right now – well, almost full stock – I would recommend that parents or guardians shop earlier rather than later,” he advised.
Textbooks are also flying off the shelves at Cloisters Bookstore, where deputy general manager Robert
Griffith reported an uptick in both traffic and sales compared to last year.
“I would advise [parents] to come and get the items as soon as they can because some schools are not supplying the requirements that they would need and some books are running kind of low,” he said.
“In fact, there are a few titles that we are out of already and as we get closer and closer to the end of the summer, we are going to run out of more and more items.”
Griffith added that some parents were still waiting on school-provided book lists, which had created additional challenges for early shopping.
In response, Cloisters had stepped up efforts to inform and assist shoppers with book recommendations and availability updates.
Griffith also noted an increased presence of local authors on school reading lists.
“There are some specific titles, like the Processes Of Learning and then there are some local books on the book list as well and the demand for those is heavy,” he said.
Sanaa Elcock is on an internship with The Nation Publishing Co. Ltd.
