By Ana Arguello, Vice President, Merchandising
School bells are ringing across the country today – some for the first time this school year and others that have been sounding in the hallways for weeks. At Walmart, we’re proud of our role in helping set up students and teachers for a successful new year.
It’s been a busy back-to-school shopping for us, one that started before the previous school year even ended! This year, in celebration of Teacher Appreciation Week, we surprised some of the many outstanding teachers across the nation with gift cards delivered via drones to help purchase classroom essentials. Along with the drone surprises, several of our Walmart store associates surprised teachers in their classrooms with supplies and Walmart+ memberships.
We also took steps to make back-to-school shopping affordable, easy and fun for both teachers and students this year. We made investments to keep 14 of the most popular school supplies the same price as last year and improved our digital tools and services like Classroom Registry, as well Spark Good Registry and Round Up. Our goal was to make it easier and more personalized than ever for teachers and families to save money and for local communities to give back to their schools.
Another new addition to this back-to-school season was the introduction of sensory-friendly hours in our stores across the country — creating a quieter shopping environment that was more enjoyable for customers who live with sensory disabilities. Our customers told us they are very appreciative of what Walmart is doing to provide a more inclusive back-to-school experience.
Now we’re getting ready for the seasonal swap, where we get off the school bus and jump into Santa’s sleigh. We’ll take a lot of what we’ve learned from back-to-school into the merry season ahead. That’s because saving our customers time and money remains a top priority no matter the month.
