Back to School Shopping Guide: Where to Shop for Deals in Napa Valley

By Jessica Lyons

The upcoming school year quickly approaches, which means parents are getting ready to purchase all the items their children need to be prepared for classes.

Napa Unified School District schools start next Wednesday, Aug. 14, for example.

Looking around for the right deals can help you keep back-to-school shopping as affordable as possible. Napa Valley Patch takes a look at some of the sales you can find in local stores.

Target currently boasts many discounts on items you’re likely to find on your shopping list. If you’re in the market for new clothes for your children, kids’ tops start at $5 and kids’ bottoms at $10. Shoes were recently on sale for buy one get one free. Target also has backpacks starting at $12 and lunch bags for as low as $10.

If you’re shopping for a college-bound student, Target also has some deals for you. Examples are hangers for $2, shower caddies and laundry baskets for around $3 and a rolling drawer cart for about $11.

Kohl's, downtown Napa.

Have a child who wears a uniform to school? At Kohl’s, a Chap school uniform sale mean means you can get girl’s polo shirts for $11.99, boy’s pants for $17.99 and girl’s cardigan’s for $18.99, just to give a few examples of the sale items.

Other school-related deals available at Kohl’s range from backpacks for under $30, twin XL sheets (a common need for dorms) for $24.99 and alarm clocks starting at $20.99.

Walmart Napa

Walmart is running specials for back to school and back to college. For students in grades K-12, you can snag deals like school uniforms with prices starting at $5.97, school supplies starting at 97 cents and backpacks that cost as little as $4.95.

If you’re getting a college student ready for the fall semester, there are plenty of deals you might want to check out. For instance, bedding starts at $34.88. Need to buy a new laptop for the school year? Walmart has some for $278.

Office Depot, South Napa Marketplace

One trip to Office Depot and you could cross a lot of school supplies off of your shopping list. Office Depot has sales related to students of all levels—elementary school, middle school, high school and college. Those include notebooks, backpacks, filler paper.

Online Shopping

You might also want to consider signing up for online discount sites like Groupon.com, LivingSocial.com and NoMoreRack.com. Notifications will be delivered right to your email inbox to let you know about substantial discounts on everything from clothing and lunch bags to electronics. If there’s something on your list that’s a little too pricy in stores, you can try finding a discount on one of these sites so it doesn’t hurt your wallet as much.

Before You Hit the Stores 

Prior to beginning your school shopping adventures, take a little bit of time to check out the websites of the stores you’re planning on going to. You can see who has the best prices on what you’re looking for and might even be able to find coupons you can print out for even more savings.