Wall Street Journal article comparing school supply companies

Weekend Edition - August 17, 2001

STORE/PRICE	QUALITY	SHIPPING	RETURN POLICY	WEB EXPERIENCE	COMMENTS
SchoolKidz.com 5th Grade Deluxe Kit $53.99 800-975-KITS www.SchoolKidz.com	Best Overall. This prepacked kit, with a big selection of basics plus clipboard and paint set, was Jacob's favorite. There was no liquid soap or zippered binder, and the pencil case wasn't punched to fit in a binder, as his list specified. But with lots of kits to choose from, we filled most of his list with little hassle..	Shipping free with any kit. No specific delivery time was given; company said it would go by UPS ground shipping; It arrived in nine days.	Money-back guarantee; $5 return fee. Some items guaranteed for school year. Contact company to authorize returns. You pay shipping.	Site was a breeze to navigate. We liked the detailed lists of the contents of each kit. Plus, we received an e-mail confirmation of our order.	The company threw in bonus items, including stickers with our child's name. We also bought eight hard-to-find Lycra "BookWrapz" -- think of them as gym shorts for textbooks -- for an additional $20, plus $3.90 shipping.
School Supplies in a Pak Assortment of school supplies $30.40 866-806-7818 www.gradepack.com	Low prices nearly made this our best value. But quality of the binder and pencil case were below our tester's standards, and the site's only scissors were better suited for a younger child (Jacob took one look and rolled his eyes). Company didn't carry facial tissues, book covers or liquid soap.	$6.95 for delivery in three to seven business days; our order arrived in six.	Full satisfaction guarantee. Return items within 30 days of receipt; contact company for return authorization. You pay shipping.	Easiest site to shop. We found items without much searching and received an e-mail confirmation.	We ordered hand sanitizer in place of liquid soap, but that wouldn't cut it at Jacob's school. Our order was missing a glue stick we paid for, but company sent it later. They also sent bonus pencils, erasers and a pencil sharpener.
School-Pak Assortment of school supplies $47.53 866-231-9573 www.schoolpak.com	Came close to having everything on our list in the styles and quantities we wanted -- no liquid soap and facial tissues -- and the zippered binder and pencil case were top-shelf. But the Web site was glitchy when we ordered (and on subsequent visits) so we had to e-mail them our list, a hassle.	$7.50 for delivery within nine days; our order arrived in nine.	Return, unopened, for refund. You pay shipping.	We didn't get the promised shipping confirmation or receipt. And the home page had a grammatical error!	In all the ordering confusion, we forgot to get notebook paper and dividers; that would have added another $5 to our bottom line. Binder was wrong size and color. (Company says it will send a replacement at its own expense.)
OfficeMax Assortment of supplies $55.83 800-283-7674 www.officemax.com	Mostly solid name-brand stuff, but certain items, such as the binder, were pretty generic. We had to order three boxes of facial tissues when we needed only one. Company didn't carry two items on our list: book covers and a zippered pencil case.	Shipping was free because our order was more than $50; order arrived on time in four days.	Return within 30 days of receipt to any OfficeMax store, or call or e-mail to arrange pick-up.	Slow. It took us more than two hours to search and select all of the items. We got an e-mail confirmation of order.	No bonus items -- except for an OfficeMax catalog. The markers weren't scented as promised -- and these things matter to grade-schoolers.

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