These Are the Most Affordable (And Expensive) Stores for Back-to-School Shopping [2026 Data]

As summer comes to an end, students and parents are prepping for the start of a new school year. Buying new school supplies is a major event for anyone with school-age children, and stores around the country heavily advertise their back-to-school deals as the fall approaches.

While back-to-school supplies and deals can be found at many different stores, some retailers offer better pricing and savings than others.

To help consumers save money on educational essentials this year, the FinanceBuzz team researched the costs for a variety of common school supplies at 10 major retailers to find the best and worst prices.

Key Findings

• Dollar General had the cheapest back-to-school supplies. Prices for 20 common school supplies came to just $73.25 (41% below average).
• Walmart had the second-lowest cost for school supplies at $74.84, less than $2 more than Dollar General. Walmart was also the only other retailer where school supplies cost less than $100.
• Michaels had the most expensive school supplies — our shopping list cost a whopping $210.67, nearly three times the price for the same items at Dollar General and Walmart.
• The average cost of buying our full list of back-to-school supplies was $123.70. That is 20% higher than the cost for the same supplies last year ($102.87).
• Costs rose from 2025 to 2026 at every retailer we looked at. The largest price increase was at Staples, where school supplies cost 41% more this year compared to last year ($90.08 to $127.08).

Back-to-school shopping costs by retailer, 2026

To learn which retailers offer the cheapest school supplies, we collected common back-to-school supply lists for elementary, middle, and high school students. We then collected prices online for each of the 20 items from different retailers. We also compared the costs for those items to data from last year.

Prices for things like fast food, theme park tickets, and holiday candy have surged in recent years, and unfortunately for parents and students, school supplies have gone in that direction as well. Year-over-year costs for school supplies increased at every single retailer we examined, rising by 20% on average. This price increase is the opposite of what happened between 2024 and 2025, a period when school supply prices decreased by 8% on average.

The most affordable retailer for back-to-school shopping this year is Dollar General, with our full list of supplies costing $73.25. That is an increase of just 50 cents compared to last year, an increase of only 1% from one year to the next.

Meijer is the only other store where costs rose by less than 10%, as costs rose by just 7% since last year. While that is better than nearly every other retailer, it is still double the national rate of inflation over the last year (3.5%) as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In terms of pure costs, Walmart is the only retailer besides Dollar General where the full range of school supplies can be purchased for less than $100. The total for the 20 items we looked at comes to $74.84 this year, an increase of a little more than $20 compared to 2025, which equates to a 38% price increase.

The least expensive retailers for back-to-school shopping

#1 - Dollar General

Dollar General is the best option for school supplies this year. The cost for all 20 items is lower here than at any other retailer, just edging out Walmart for that honor. Dollar General has the lowest overall price for multiple school supplies, such as backpacks, calculators, and loose-leaf paper.

Costs for:

1. Elementary school: $35.00
2. Middle school: $51.75
3. High school: $45.00
4. All items*: $73.25

#2 - Walmart

Walmart nearly matches our top store, with the full complement of supplies at a cost less than $2 more than at Dollar General. Walmart is also the only other retailer where our school supplies list cost less than $100 this year.

Costs for:

1. Elementary school: $30.13
2. Middle school: $54.79
3. High school: $47.34
4. All items*: $74.84

#3 - Meijer

Located mostly in the Midwest, Meijer started as a grocery chain but eventually developed into a superstore concept long before Walmart was on the scene. Customers can find every item on our list at the chain, although they may want to find backpacks elsewhere, as Meijer's price for that item was tied with Staples for the highest of any store on our list.

Costs for:

1. Elementary school: $45.32
2. Middle school: $79.61
3. High school: $73.82
4. All items*: $105.44

#4 - Target

Target is a popular nationwide chain that has faced struggles in recent years. There is some good news for loyal customers, however, as the retailer has the fourth-lowest cost for school supplies of any store in this analysis, including the lowest overall cost for pens of any store.

Costs for:

1. Elementary school: $47.63
2. Middle school: $72.72
3. High school: $77.72
4. All items*: $111.84

#5 - Office Depot/OfficeMax

Office Depot, another leading name in the world of office supplies, merged with OfficeMax in 2013. It's also the first chain on our list where school supplies cost more than $50 more than the same items do at stores at the top of our list like Dollar General and Walmart.

Costs for:

1. Elementary school: $54.05
2. Middle school: $92.90
3. High school: $87.92
4. All items*: $126.45

#6 - Staples

Staples is a giant in the field of office supplies and a "staple" of back-to-school shopping for many customers around the country. School supplies cost nearly the exact same amount here as at the similarly themed Office Depot/OfficeMax chain, with Staples charging less than $1 more for the same roster of items.

Costs for:

1. Elementary school: $56.72
2. Middle school: $96.25
3. High school: $84.37
4. All items*: $127.08

#7 - Kroger

Kroger started as a grocery store and evolved into an "everything" store with a significant national footprint, operating more than 1,200 locations across the country. Kroger stores offer the best prices for construction paper and glue sticks.

Costs for:

1. Elementary school: $56.63
2. Middle school: $108.55
3. High school: $92.37
4. All items*: $132.57

#8 - Amazon

Amazon is the largest online retailer in the world, and a quick and convenient way for millions of Americans to have items shipped directly to their homes at an affordable price.

However, shipping costs can exceed the value of certain products, leading Amazon to increase prices on those items to turn a profit. As a result, school items like crayons and rulers are more expensive to buy from Amazon than any other retailer.

Costs for:

1. Elementary school: $57.79
2. Middle school: $105.41
3. High school: $99.44
4. All items*: $141.77

#9 - Walgreens

While known as a pharmacy, Walgreens also sells toys, groceries, and school supplies, among other items. One thing customers will have to find elsewhere, however, is backpacks, as Walgreens is not selling them this year, according to their online inventory.

Costs for:

1. Elementary school: $68.23
2. Middle school: $128.75
3. High school: $120.37
4. All items*: $169.57

#10 - Michaels

Michaels, one of the largest arts and crafts stores in the country, is the most expensive store overall. It's also the only retailer that did not carry multiple items on our back-to-school supply list, as the chain doesn't stock tissue boxes or combination locks, meaning shoppers will have to find those items elsewhere to complete their school shopping.

Costs for:

1. Elementary school: $70.41
2. Middle school: $173.15
3. High school: $166.49
4. All items*: $210.67

*Includes items that overlap between school levels, so the overall totals don't reflect the sum of each grade level.

Which store has the best (and worst) price for each school supply?

While several stores were affordable, no single retailer had the best price for every item on our list. For back-to-school shoppers, we identified the stores with the best and worst prices for each item.

Walmart had the best deals on more than a third of the list, offering seven of the lowest-priced items (including instances where it had the same price as another retailer), while Meijer had the best price for five different items. Dollar General and Kroger had better prices than any other store on three items.

On the other hand, prices were highest for half of the supplies, 10 different items, at Michaels, the most of any retailer. Walgreens had the highest price for six different supplies, and Amazon and Office Depot/OfficeMax were most expensive for two items each.

How to save this back-to-school season

• Earn credit card rewards at checkout. To get the most out of your shopping trip, use one of the best store credit cards to get rewards on your purchases.
• Check your eligibility. See if your state offers a back-to-school tax holiday.

Methodology

We collected common items from elementary, middle, and high school supply lists and researched prices at each retailer online. All price data for individual items comes directly from the official website of each store.

Prices represent active sales and back-to-school pricing in effect when data was collected on July 9, 2026. In limited instances where a given retailer didn't sell a certain type of item, we added the average cost for that item across the remaining stores to its total. The full list of items and quantities is as follows:

Elementary school

• Backpack - 1
• Lunch box - 1
• Notebooks - 5, wide-ruled single-subject notebooks
• Folders - 5
• Crayons - 24-count
• Glue sticks - 3-pack
• Construction paper - 96-sheet-count
• Markers - 10-count
• Safety scissors - 1 pair
• Pencil box - 1
• Tissue box - 1

Middle school

• Backpack - 1
• Pencil pouch -1
• Notebooks - 2 college-ruled 3-subject notebooks
• Ruler - 1
• Pencils - 10 mechanical pencils
• Pens - 10 ballpoint pens
• Calculator - 1
• Binders - 5, 1-inch three-ring binders
• Loose-leaf paper - 5 reams, 100-count
• Lunch box - 1
• Folders - 5
• Dry-erase markers - 4-count assorted colors

High school

• Calculator - 1
• Binders - 5, 1-inch three-ring binders
• Loose-leaf paper - 5 reams, 100-count
• Backpack - 1
• Notebooks - 2 college-ruled 3-subject notebooks
• Pencils - 10 mechanical pencils
• Pens - 10 ballpoint pens
• Highlighters - 5-count assorted colors
• Combination lock - 1
• Folders - 5