Parents in France Shop Secondhand as Back-to-School Costs Soar

As a new term begins in France, school supplies are estimated to cost over 11 percent more this year because of high inflation.

In one Paris suburb, RFI met parents turning to charity shops to pick up stationery, sports kits, school bags and other essentials for less.

At the Emmaüs charity shop in Ivry-sur-Seine, on the South-East outskirts of Paris, a stick of glue sells for 50 centimes – a fraction of what you might pay in the supermarket.

“It’s a real bargain to get supplies for cheap, especially with this crisis,” one mother told RFI as she browsed for stationery.

“We can treat ourselves here. You can find almost everything they need for the year,” she added.

As children across France prepare to go back to class after the summer break, it’s up to parents to buy everything on the exhaustive list typically sent out by French schools before la rentrée, the annual September return.

This year, the bill for the various pens, notebooks, sports kit and other supplies that pupils are expected to show up with is markedly steeper: 11.3 percent more than last year, according to household consumer association the Confédération Syndicale des Familles (CSF).

The group estimates that the average cost of buying school supplies for a child in primary school is €233 in 2023, over €40 more than in 2022. Costs for pupils in middle and high school have also climbed to €371 and €427 respectively, though the rise is less steep.

The chief factor is inflation, which has been running high in France for the past year, peaking at 6.3 percent in February.

“The prices are very affordable,” shop manager Pepin Assi told RFI’s Sylvie Koffi.