As school supplies costs climb higher than ever, Maine families seek out deals
PORTLAND — Where do pencils go when their erasers dry out? Where do binders end up when companies go paperless?
In Maine, the answer is Ruth’s Renewable Resource, which funnels donated school and office supplies to local schools.
Ruth’s is a fairytale location for teachers, a magical cornucopia of crayons, pipe cleaners and binder clips. On opening day in late August, nearly 200 educators will fill their shopping carts for free. Some will camp out hours before the store opens at 9 a.m.
This resource is more important than ever, as reports indicate school supplies, like so many other consumer goods, are getting more expensive.
One recent study found global economic pressures, like the war in Iran and President Donald Trump’s tariffs, have driven up the cost of many back-to-school staples nearly 8% over last season. Parents and students shopping for supplies in the Portland area at major retailers last week said everything feels more expensive, and school supplies are no exception.
Even Ruth’s isn’t immune to those pressures. A donation program it’s been running for 20 years, through which the store fills about 5,000 backpacks with bulk-purchased brand new supplies to give to kids in need, is on hold this year. With rising costs and decreasing donations, staff had to choose between the donation drive and their core service to teachers.
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Ruth Libby organizes school supplies while getting ready for opening day at Ruth’s Reusable Resources in Portland on Thursday, August 6, 2026. Ruth’s provides supplies for classrooms at no cost to teachers. Libby started the program in 1994 in the basement of her home.(Daryn Slover/Staff Photographer) Purchase this image
“When a family can’t pay rent, can’t put gas in their car, can’t buy food, they’re not buying school supplies,” said operations manager Lisa Thomas-Willey. “It’s one of the first things that goes.”
ARE CUSTOMERS NOTICING THE COSTS?
At the Walmart Supercenter location in Scarborough last Thursday, shoppers filtered through the seasonal back-to-school section just inside the entrance. Many weren’t shopping for themselves.
Linda Boisvert, a Biddeford schools employee who rides the school bus with special needs students, is buying markers and colored pencils to donate to Sweetser’s supply fundraiser. Sonia Morris is buying 35-cent composition notebooks by the box to send to Jamaica, where she is originally from and where she said many students can’t access basic supplies.
Sonia Morris shops for school supplies at Walmart in Scarborough. Morris sends school supplies to families in her home country of Jamaica at her own expense. (Daryn Slover/Staff Photographer) Purchase this image
“There are so many that are unfortunate, that cannot afford it, and I think it’s the right thing to do if you find yourself with $10 extra and don’t know what to do with it,” said Morris, who said she’s been trying to do more for the county since Hurricane Melissa caused catastrophic damage last year.
Both Boisvert and Morris said they’re at Walmart because it has the best deals in town.
That’s not surprising: Matt Waddell, the assistant manager of the Scarborough location, said since 2019, Walmart has had the cheapest option on the market for 14 of the most popular school items, like scissors and two-packs of glue sticks.
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Abby Cummings, 22, was buying a pencil case. She’s about to start law school in Rhode Island, shopped all over town — at Target, Dick’s, Staples — in search of the cheapest options. Cummings was shocked by the price of legal pads.
Amy Plante, shopping this week for her rising first grader at Target in South Portland, said the trip is more for fun. At this age, her daughter’s school supplies list isn’t very long, but she wants a new backpack.
Plante said she can’t tell if prices have changed since last year.
“I’m just so used to everything feeling more expensive these days, that I am just willing to be like, ‘That’s a lot of money, but so is everything else,'” she said.
BY THE NUMBERS
The cost of school supplies has jumped even more than last year because of increased oil prices and tariffs. That’s according to a recent analysis of weekly retail transaction data on millions of products collected from about 50,000 retailers, conducted by two progressive think tanks.
The analysis looked at 21 of the most common school supplies, and found big spikes in the cost of lunch boxes, notebooks and tissues. Essentials like No. 2 pencils and crayons have risen 6.1% and 5.3% respectively over their costs last year.
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At three major retailers in the Greater Portland area — Walmart, Target and Staples — of a box of 24 classic yellow pencils will set you back between $1.82 and $3.49, depending on whether they’re pre-sharpened. Basic composition books are on sale for between 35 and 50 cents.
Target said 95% of its school supply deals are priced at or below last year’s retail prices. Waddell at Walmart said the company is offering 1,300 more temporary discount prices on school supplies than it did last year.
Local school districts said they try to keep their supply lists as simple as possible. Some districts, like Portland, recognize the financial burden and don’t ask families to provide supplies for their students, opting instead to purchase items at the school level, although some individual schools give families the choice to make donations of items like crayons that might be used by the whole class.
Peter Turek, 18, of Buxton shops for school supplies with his aunt, Jen Welsh, of Portland at Walmart in Scarborough. Turek, a 2026 graduate of Bonny Eagle High School, will be a first-year student in the automotive technology program at Central Maine Community College in Auburn. Welsh teaches second grade at Levey Day School in Portland. (Daryn Slover/Staff Photographer) Purchase this image
Portland, for the most part, relies on Ruth’s.
IT ALL ENDS UP AT RUTH’S
Founded in 1994, Ruth’s foremost mission is to help teachers. The secondary goal is to keep items out of landfills.
Boxes go all the way up to the ceiling, on shelves left over from when this Stroudwater warehouse was used as storage for Unum. Valentine’s Day pencils that didn’t sell during their short window. Staplers from businesses that no longer use paper, mugs with misprinted corporate logos and imperfectly cut sheets of felt. All of it ends up here, and is passed along to teachers.
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Pencils sit on the shelf at Ruth’s Reusable Resources. (Daryn Slover/Staff Photographer) Purchase this image
Schools pay a per-student fee of $3.75, and then any of their teachers can come to the warehouse and take what they need. There are per-visit limits on some items, but teachers can come as many times as they need throughout the school year. Thomas-Willey said for every dollar a school pays in membership fees, teachers take more than $10 worth of materials.
Last year, 176 Maine schools signed up with Ruth’s, and teachers drive as far as two hours each way to get their supplies here. Leaders are eying a second location, maybe in the Bangor area, to better serve northern Maine schools.
Log books at Ruth’s Reusable Resources, where teachers from schools around the state can note what supplies they took. Ruth’s provided supplies to 176 Maine schools during the last school year. (Daryn Slover/Staff Photographer) Purchase this image
Except for a few specialized products (this year it was one-subject notebooks) Ruth’s doesn’t buy anything new. It’s already too much. This time of year, the aisles between shelves are crowded with donations as staff prepare for opening day. “I’m kind of afraid of what would happen if we ever advertised,” Thomas-Willey said.
She, founder and namesake Ruth Libby, and a team of staff and volunteers are hard at work preparing for the chaos of opening day. Next year, they hope to bring back the backpack donation program.
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Tagged: back to school 2026, cost of living, inflation
Riley covers education for the Press Herald. Before moving to Portland, she spent two years in Kenai, Alaska, reporting on local government, schools and natural resources for the public radio station KDLL. More by Riley Board
