Where to Shop for School Supplies in Kansas City

Every year I tell myself I am going to do school supply shopping in one calm trip, and every year I end up at three different stores on a Tuesday night hunting for the extremely specific pink eraser that one teacher wants. If you have lived in Kansas City for any length of time you know the drill, and you also know that where you shop depends a lot on which side of State Line you are on.

So here is my genuinely useful breakdown of where to shop for school supplies in Kansas City, what each place is actually good for, and where I have wasted money so you do not have to. I am pregnant and my patience for a crowded aisle is at an all time low this year, so efficiency is the whole theme.

Heads up, some of these are affiliate links, which just means I get a tiny commission at no cost to you.

Target, for the trip where you also need everything else

The metro is not short on Targets. Ward Parkway Center is my default on the Missouri side, and up north the Tiffany Springs and Zona Rosa area covers the Northland. On the Kansas side there are stores scattered across Overland Park, Olathe, Shawnee, and Lenexa, plus Lee’s Summit and Liberty on the far ends.

What to know before you go. Target is best in mid to late July. By the second week of August the school supply section looks like a natural disaster happened in it and the pencil boxes are gone. Go on a weekday morning if you possibly can, and check the app for stock before you drive, because inventory varies wildly between locations in the same week.

Best for: backpacks, lunch gear, the nicer notebooks, and the fact that you can grab groceries in the same trip.

Walmart, for the long list on a budget

Not glamorous, genuinely the cheapest for volume. If your list has twelve glue sticks and four packs of wide ruled paper on it, this is where you go. There are locations all over the metro, and the ones a little further out tend to hold stock longer than the busy suburban stores.

What to know: the ordering online for pickup option is underrated here. You skip the aisle entirely, and if something is out of stock you find out from your couch instead of in person.

Dollar Tree, and being honest about what is worth it there

Dollar Tree is legitimately great for a specific list of things and a waste of money for everything else. Buy the folders, the plastic pocket folders, the poster board, the tissue boxes, the hand sanitizer, the index cards, and the cheap plastic bins. Do not buy the scissors, the markers, the crayons, or the glue. I have learned this repeatedly and expensively in the form of a kid crying over a marker that would not write.

Costco and Sam’s Club, for the bulk stuff

If you have more than one kid, the bulk pencil and paper packs are where the actual savings are. Costco has locations in Lenexa and Overland Park along with the Missouri side, and Sam’s Club is spread across the metro too. The backpacks that show up there in July are usually better made than they look and sell out fast.

Honest take: only worth a special trip if you are already a member and already needed to go. Otherwise you will spend the savings on the rotisserie chicken and the thing you did not know you needed. Ask me how I know.

Office Depot and Staples, for the very specific asks

When the list says a particular binder size, a certain dividers count, or a specific brand of pen, this is where it actually exists. They are more expensive per item, but you will find it in one stop instead of four. Worth it in August when your time is worth more than four dollars.

The State Line move for big purchases

Missouri holds a back to school sales tax holiday the first full weekend of August. Kansas does not have one. So if you need a laptop or a calculator or a real pile of clothes, doing that shopping on the Missouri side that weekend is worth planning around. Check the Missouri Department of Revenue site for this year’s dates and the current rules, because there are per item dollar caps and some local jurisdictions opt out.

One note that trips people up. Nebraska Furniture Mart out at Village West in Kansas City, Kansas is a fantastic place to buy a laptop, but it is on the Kansas side, so the Missouri holiday does not apply there. Plan accordingly.

The stuff I just order online now

After enough Augusts, I have accepted that some things are not worth the drive. The boring bulk basics get ordered and show up at the door.

• Bulk school supply packs for the pencils, paper, and glue sticks nobody wants to hunt for.
• Good pencils, because the cheap ones genuinely do break every time you sharpen them and teachers notice.
• A backpack that will survive the year, which is worth spending a little more on than you want to.
• A locker organizer shelf if you have a middle schooler, which changed my kid’s entire morning.
• A graphing calculator for the high school math track, and buy it once and keep it forever.

My actual Kansas City shopping order

• Late July: Target for the backpack and lunch gear, while the selection is still good.
• Same week: Walmart or a bulk order online for the boring volume items.
• Whenever: Dollar Tree for folders, poster board, and classroom donation items.
• Missouri tax free weekend: only if there is a big ticket item worth the crowds.
• After meet the teacher: one Office Depot run for whatever oddly specific thing got added.

If you only do one thing

Buy the backpack early and buy it good. It is the one item that gets used every single day, carried by someone who does not care about it, and dragged across a gym floor. Everything else on the list can be replaced for two dollars in October. A backpack blowing out in November is a genuinely annoying problem.

Go early, go on a weekday, and let some of it go

No teacher has ever been upset about a slightly different shade of folder. Nobody is grading you on this. Get the big stuff handled in July, accept that there will be one more trip in August, and save your energy for the part that actually matters, which is getting everybody out the door that first morning.

xo, Pam