Back-to-school sales promotions in OKC continue

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Aug 23, 2005 by David Page

Area retailers have expanded back-to-school marketing efforts beyond the traditional end-of-summer vacation sales.

Marketing departments at Crossroads Mall and Quail Springs Mall both sponsored tax-free weekends earlier this month and promoted other back-to-school sales for retailers.

But the school-related promotions at the malls will not end with the start of the academic year as retailers have plans to keep shoppers after school.

Quail Springs Mall will target teenage shoppers with a promotion called The Scene on Sept. 10.

Retailers will offer special teen-oriented promotions and teenagers will be offered shopping discounts, said Stacey Aldridge, group marketing manager at Quail Springs Mall, which has about 160 stores.

Activities will include Beat Your Friends contests, prizes and discount coupons to various mall stores all aimed at teen shoppers.

Crossroads Mall started a continuing marketing program targeting teachers earlier this summer.

Part of the program is the mall's Teacher Supply Closet, said Christi Parks, senior marketing manager at Crossroads Mall. The program encourages the community to help offset teachers' out-of- pocket expenses by providing classroom supplies.

A survey conducted for the program found that teachers spend an average of $475 of their personal money annually on classroom supplies, Parks said.

The program also includes discounts offered by merchants at Crossroad Mall.

We know teachers shop here, she said. They are already supporting us. We are just looking for ways to repay them.

The extra promotions were created to expand other efforts including tax-free weekends, which have become annual events with area malls and non-mall merchants.

The local tax-free events were started to keep area shoppers from heading to Texas for back-to-school shopping. Texas has an annual statewide sales tax holiday the first weekend in August. Measures have been introduced in the Legislature for a similar sales tax holiday in Oklahoma but have failed to pass.

Crossroads Mall merchants began sales tax holiday promotions in 2001. Since then, mall retailers annually have offered discounts equal to or greater than the sales tax on the same weekend as the Texas sales tax holiday. Other malls, shopping centers and retailers in Oklahoma have offered similar sales tax discounts.

The tax-free weekend has become very popular with mall merchants, said Aldridge of Quail Springs Mall.

Traffic was way up this year, she said.

The tax-free promotion was extended from three to four days this year at both Crossroads Mall and Quail Springs.

Crossroads Mall saw extended benefits from the sales tax promotion, Parks said.

It was a successful weekend followed by another strong week, she said. When you have a strong promotion that increases traffic it tends to carry over to the next week. We created two strong traffic weeks out of one weekend sale.

Non-mall retailers also are finding ways to brown-nose teachers. Office supply stores have become a battleground.

Staples, which has two stores in Oklahoma City and one each in Yukon, Shawnee and Chickasha, offers teachers 10 percent back, up to $70 annually, on purchases through its Teachers Reward program.

Teachers receive the 10 percent discount on purchases from Staples in rewards checks that can be redeemed on merchandise from the stores, the catalog or online. Staples also offers teachers 20 percent back when they spend $25 or more during a quarter on copy and print center purchases.

Office Depot, which has seven stores in the Oklahoma City area, offers grants to teachers to finance creative classroom projects through its Kids in Need Foundation. For the 2004-2005 school year, Office Depot awarded more than $77,000 grants to 180 teachers.

Office Depot also has a program to donate 5 percent of every sale to the school of the customer's choice and a program called Taking Care of Education that provides supplies to students.

Education-oriented marketing at Crossroads Mall includes a shopping day in December to help local school groups and organizations raise money.

School groups participating in the Friends and Family Fundraising Discount Day will be provided discount tickets to sell, Parks said. The groups will sell the tickets for $10 each and will keep all of the money. People who buy the tickets will get discounts on purchases at participating mall merchants.