Back-To-School Shopping Guide: Lamorinda and Beyond

The upcoming school year quickly approaches (Aug. 28 in most cases), which means parents are getting ready to purchase all the items their children need to be prepared for classes.

Looking around for the right deals can help you keep back-to-school shopping as affordable as possible. Mountain View Patch takes a look at some of the sales you can find in local stores.

McCaulou's has been the go-to department store for Lamorinda since 1963. Entire generations of boys and girls, many of them now grandparents, bought their school clothes at McCaulou's. The first store was in Lafayette at 3512 Mt. Diablo Blvd. There are also stores in Orinda (250 Village Square) and Moraga (1441 Moraga Way), and even Walnut Creek (718 Countrywood Center).

TJ Maxx, 427 Center St., Moraga, is a great place for girls (and boys, to a lesser degree) to find brand name clothing at a pretty good discount. The store requires dedicated shopping techniques--one rarely runs in and out of this store, but if you're wiling to hunt for bargains, this is a great place to do it. 

Target, 1871 N. Main St., Walnut Creek

Target currently boasts many discounts on items you’re likely to find on your shopping list. If you’re in the market for new clothes for your children, kids’ tops start at $5 and kids’ bottoms at $10. Shoes were recently on sale for buy one get one free. Target also has backpacks starting at $12 and lunch bags for as low as $10.

If you’re shopping for a college-bound student, Target also has some deals for you. Examples are hangers for $2, shower caddies and laundry baskets for around $3 and a rolling drawer cart for about $11.

Office Max, 2520 N. Main St., Walnut Creek

Office Max is currently advertising sales related to students of all levels—elementary school, middle school, high school and college. Some of their recent sales have been buy two notebooks, get one free, 25 percent off of backpacks and filler paper for buy two get one free.

Apple Store, 1129 S. Main St., Walnut Creek

In addition to the obvious must-haves like laptops and iPhones, the store sells a variety of accessories for its various devices, plus organizers, backpacks, and more. 
Big 5 Sporting Goods, 1530 Mt. Diablo Blvd., Walnut Creek

Shoes, clothes, backpacks and more are all here and on sale for the new school year. 

Lakeshore Learning Center, 1929 Mt. Diablo Blvd. , Walnut Creek

A great place to pick up supplies and learning aids like puzzles, books, dramatic play items, and other things designed to help kids learn. Teachers can also find helpful items here. 

Broadway Plaza, Walnut Creek

Don't forget (as if you could) the primary shopping hub of Walnut Creek, which features Norstrom, Macy's, Neiman Marcus, and a host of other shops that will be offering back-to-school specials from now through the end of August. 

Online Shopping

You might also want to consider signing up for online discount sites like Groupon.com, LivingSocial.com and NoMoreRack.com. Notifications will be delivered right to your email inbox to let you know about substantial discounts on everything from clothing and lunch bags to electronics. If there’s something on your list that’s a little too pricy in stores, you can try finding a discount on one of these sites so it doesn’t hurt your wallet as much.

Before You Hit the Stores 

Prior to beginning your school shopping adventures, take a little bit of time to check out the websites of the stores you’re planning on going to. You can see who has the best prices on what you’re looking for and might even be able to find coupons you can print out for even more savings.