"We are still expecting many parents to do 'back to school' shopping, especially this coming weekend," said Abdul Manaf K P, deputy general manager of LuLu Hypermarket along D-Ring Road.
In the weekend prior to the opening of classes, he said school supply sales were “successful” due to the high turnout of students and parents.
“There are still some parents and students who will buy schools supplies, which is why we are still offering promotions even after classes have started,” he told Gulf Times yesterday.
Asked if sales this year are higher compared to 2015, Manaf said: “It is still early to compare current sales with last year’s turnout because we are still expecting more customers to come in, but in the previous days we have experienced good sales, especially during the past weekend,” he noted.
Manaf pointed that out that some families are still arriving from vacation and some parents have waited for classes to open to get a list of schools supplies needed in the new academic year.
“Some parents wait for the opening of classes before buying school supplies. When they shop, we usually see some of them bringing a list of the school supplies they need,” he said.
For its ‘Get Set for School’ campaign, Manaf said LuLu D-Ring Road is offering promotions on books and stationeries, as well as other school supplies.
Other stores like WHSmith in Al Meera and Saudia are offering their respective ‘back to school’ promotions until September 25.
WHSmith’s ‘Back to School’ offers include bags and trolleys, glue, fineliner pens, drawing books, notebooks, pencil cases, and rulers, among other products, while Saudia has promotions on steel flasks, clay, stationery sets, assorted students tables and chairs, girls and boys shoes, socks, and water bottles.
More than 300,000 students were expected to attend classes, which started yesterday. Starting the new academic year are about 100,319 students from Independent Schools around Qatar, while another 172,247 resumed classes in private schools and in kindergartens, according to the Ministry of Education and Higher Education.
