Back to School with Gabe Henry

You're Wrong About

In this episode of 'You're Wrong About,' Antiquated Education Correspondent Gabe Henry joins host Sarah to explore the history and cultural significance of Back to School shopping. They

Key takeaways

• Back to School shopping was invented as a marketing strategy during the Great Depression to create a second Christmas-like sales season.
• The ritual of buying school supplies is not natural but manufactured through commercialization, shaping cultural expectations around renewal and self-reinvention.

Main topics

• Origins of Back to School shopping
• Commercialization of seasonal rituals

Notable quotes

If you want to seduce me, don't just yell at me that I need to be seduced, you know? Give me some free stuff.

It's amazing how your body remembers the school calendar.

Conclusion

Back to School is less about education and more about ritual—a manufactured tradition that taps

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) If you want to seduce me, don't just yell at me that I need to be seduced, you know? Give me some free stuff. Speaker 2 (0:17) Welcome to You're Wrong About, the podcast where much as we regret to speak of it, it is back to school season. And with us today is Gabe Henry. Gabe, how are you doing in this season when all the Target entrances smell like crayon wax? Speaker 1 (0:34) I'm doing okay. I mean, for me, this time of year is bittersweet because, I mean, I love summer, but I really love fall. Speaker 2 (0:41) I mean, Speaker 1 (0:42) like I'm a sucker for... You know, the apple picking and all the pumpkin shtick. Yeah, Speaker 2 (0:47) those apples won't pick themselves. I mean, they will eventually, but then it's harder to eat them. Speaker 1 (0:53) But I mean, this time of year, even though I haven't been in school in a long time, this time of year still brings back these old feelings of being a kid and starting school again and the end of summer vacation and knowing I'll be going back to a life of homework and tests and all that old sense of dread. I mean, it's amazing how your body remembers the school calendar. Speaker 2 (1:14) Yes. I associate it with like a feeling of like both great dread and also great sort of anticipation of like, this is really going to be the year that I get it together. Speaker 1 (1:24) Yeah. There's a similar to New Year's Eve. There's that sense of dread, maybe a sense of like a little regret. Any kind of new year turning over gives you a little bit of hope, a little bit of dread. But I think with back to school, there's a sense of I can really start a new identity this year because I haven't seen these people in a few months and I can get a whole new wardrobe. Yeah, Speaker 2 (1:48) you can have that summer transformation. Yeah. Speaker 1 (1:51) I actually remember being a kid and browsing the shelves in some pharmacy and looking at the binders and thinking, should I be a red binder guy this year Speaker 2 (2:02) or should Speaker 1 (2:03) I be a blue binder guy again? I mean, what does this binder say about me? What did you go with? I wish I remembered. I do remember clearly picking out the pencil case that zips all the way around and being very proud of that choice. Speaker 2 (2:16) Well, blue is really timeless and classic, you know, and but yeah, these things are important. Yeah. School supplies being like such a fraught thing, too, right, where it was like a way of defining yourself that was also dependent on your parents' ability and willingness to spend money on them or to attempt to get something trendy. and therefore probably annoying. Speaker 1 (2:39) Right. I mean, if you get the knockoff Lisa Frank folders, what are people going to think? God, Speaker 2 (2:45) I miss Lisa Frank. Lisa Frank was like an acid trip. Speaker 1 (2:51) Baby's first acid trip. Speaker 2 (2:52) Yeah. It's just like all these little cultural artifacts and remnants are just so... Like, does Kenzie know about Ann Getty's? Do they know that at a certain time, the like... woman who was going to be okay would potentially have a big coffee table book of newborn babies arranged in giant conch shells and surrounded by flowers and stuff there was just like sleeping i feel like you know i'm Speaker 1 (3:18) gonna go out on a limb and say no they don't know what you're talking about Speaker 2 (3:22) yeah you would like for example you would get three sleeping little babies and you would Speaker 2 (3:30) dress them up as peas and put them in pea pods or you would put a little little hat on a little baby to make it look like a stamen and put it put the baby inside a giant fake poppy and this would be like i can't these were huge and they and let me say something else that is going to surprise you if you don't know what i'm talking about they weren't considered tacky these were i feel like these were considered to be maybe not like you know art or anything but like A very normal middle-brow, nice, normal lady thing to have. Speaker 2 (4:06) We were like, ah, babies inside flowers. I don't know. That's neither here nor there. I guess to say that culture changes a lot and has these surprising little wrinkles that, you know, then time marches on and you don't hear a lot of references to. And I feel like, I guess that's kind of your beat over here. And you're going to tell us today about back to school season and like how and when we started doing this, because it does feel the more we're talking about it, like a very ritualistic, almost. Speaker 2 (4:35) wicker man ask kind of a period when I imagine also if you're a company, you're going to be depending on making a lot of money. And so we have to also reinforce this idea of like this, like massively important ceremony that you must go through. Speaker 1 (4:53) Right. It is such a familiar ritual. I think we take it for granted. I mean, it feels like it's just part of the seasons now. Anyone who grew up with it, it's like the leaves are changing. birds are flying south target puts out composition notebooks it's just what happens right Speaker 2 (5:10) they put them out way too early they're out in late july yeah Speaker 1 (5:13) yeah Speaker 2 (5:13) it's like a very integral part of like the seasons of american life i would say yeah Speaker 1 (5:18) and it's a very abrupt transition i would say for a kid yes Speaker 2 (5:21) because it's summer weather yeah Speaker 1 (5:23) one day it's sunscreen and pool noodles the next day it's like summer's over kid yeah buy a pen well Speaker 2 (5:30) it'll And also because of climate change, you know, I mean, do you remember kind of the sense memory of like wearing clothes that are a little too warm, but you've bought all of your back to school clothes and you're like, I am wearing these. And then you're like, it is too warm. Oh, no. That happened to me. Speaker 1 (5:45) A hundred percent. I think that that window of late summer, early fall, when you. mis-clothe yourself. Yes. Speaker 2 (5:54) When Speaker 1 (5:54) you accidentally wear something too warm or too cold, it's good. That window seems to be getting bigger and bigger for me. Now it feels like six to eight weeks of not knowing how to dress. Speaker 2 (6:03) Yeah. Well, last year in Portland, I was still growing tomatoes until Halloween, you know, but then it's like the, the, the too warmness of the clothes is just part of it. Cause it would be abrupt kind of. no matter what you did. But yeah, it's like suddenly fall begins not as a season, but as a state of mind. And you've been on our spelling beat before, but now we're kind of transitioning, I think via spelling matches to like the weird American pastime beat a little bit. Speaker 1 (6:35) Yeah. I was trying to figure out what my beat is in regards to you're wrong about. And I think it's just anything I found boring in high school. So there's dictionaries and spelling and back to school. And we're recording this late summer. If you walk into a Target, you're going to see glue sticks. If you walk into a Gap, you're going to see back to school styles. It really feels like this natural transition we're going through. But the origins of back to school shopping are pretty... They're actually pretty artificial. I mean, basically, it was created as this marketing gimmick during the Great Depression. Department stores were struggling. They needed a way to manufacture. seasonal hype. And basically what they were trying to do was create a second Christmas and push it into September. Speaker 2 (7:22) Well, that feels about right. Speaker 1 (7:25) And I mean, before this, before the depression, there was plenty of late summer school shopping, but most of it was as needed. You know, if you needed new pens, you bought new pens. If your shoes were falling apart, you bought new shoes, but it didn't necessitate a shopping spree. It was not this unified. commercial shopping season until department stores really packaged it that way and sold it to us. I mean, it's kind of a Hallmark holiday in that sense. Speaker 2 (7:51) Yeah. And one of the things this reminds me of is like the convention of the diamond ring, you know, is the engagement ring is obligatory, which seems organic, but was in a similar way created. by capitalism generally and De Beers specifically based on the problem of what do we do with all these goddamn diamonds? And the answer is to inflate their value by associating them with a rite of passage in somebody's life. Speaker 1 (8:16) Right. An anniversary, Valentine's. Yeah, Speaker 2 (8:19) right. Because then you start with the diamond engagement ring and then you attach diamonds to like more and more milestones in your life, especially. And your marriage. And in this case, you have, yeah, similar to Christmas, like a sales event and a marketing event that happens every single year and that you can, you know, fold into your expectations for the amount of money you need to make, I assume. Speaker 1 (8:41) Right. It's created by businesses. It's pushed by businesses. I mean, basically how it started was so the depression hits in 1929. Millions of Americans lose their jobs. Retail goes to shit. And department stores have to start getting invented. So they come up with promotions like economy days. And this is when all the prices in the store would drop just for one day. They opened up bargain basements, which is when they would shove all their surplus stock and damaged goods into their basements and sell them at heavily discounted prices. Speaker 2 (9:14) So that's how Filene's basement was brought into the world. Speaker 1 (9:17) I believe so. Speaker 2 (9:18) Wow. Speaker 1 (9:19) And department stores. They would hold knitting competitions. They would hold publicity stunts. I mean, all to get people in the door during a time when consumerism was down, the economy was down. One thing I found really funny is that Gimbels, the department store in New York City. Speaker 2 (9:36) Featured an elf, right? Speaker 1 (9:37) Yes. They try out this marketing tactic called Gimbels tells the whole truth. In which they deliberately advertise the flaws in their products so that consumers will, I Speaker 2 (9:48) mean, Speaker 1 (9:48) theoretically, trust them more. Speaker 2 (9:50) Huh. Speaker 1 (9:50) So here's a Gimble's ad from 1933. Speaker 2 (9:53) Oh my God. Speaker 1 (9:54) Sale. North Star and Chatham Blankets. $7.96 each. Salesmen and buyers have handled them a lot, so you'll find them slightly must or soiled. Very fine wool. Satin bound. Green, orchid, blue, or beige. Sorry, no mail or phone orders. Truthfully, they are slightly soiled. Speaker 1 (10:18) And they end it with an exclamation point. Speaker 2 (10:20) God, truthfully, they are slightly soiled. I would die for one of those millions of retailers with an Amazon storefront to say truthfully, they are slightly soiled. It's like, just tell me. If you tell me, then I can feel like I'm in cahoots with you to buy this blanket, which is a very different experience. Speaker 1 (10:40) Here's another ad for sandals. Yeah, Speaker 2 (10:42) please. Speaker 1 (10:43) Sun Sing Sandals, 98 cents. They have leather soles and covered Cuban heels. Frankly, they are not made for hardware, but if they do last only a few weeks, you can afford another pair. Isn't there a part of Miracle on 34th Street where the Macy's Santa Claus tells people, you know, you can't get that here, but if you go to Gimble's, it's a similar thing. Speaker 2 (11:07) Yes. And this thing of, right, that is it being so unexpected for you to admit to having flaws as a company that. it will cause people to trust you, which of course can also be used cynically. But like, God, there's nothing like the phrase, truthfully, they are slightly soiled, exclamation point. I also want to backtrack to what you said about department stores holding knitting competitions to try and entice people and just point out that, you know, we're living in an age of companies closing a bunch of stores and blaming large scale. Speaker 2 (11:45) shoplifting, which, okay, I don't believe it. I don't believe that they believe it, but that's what they're saying. And also this sort of attitude on behalf of brick and Morty retailers. And also this belief on behalf of brick and mortar retailers of like, we've tried everything and people don't want to come to the store. And it's like, haven't have one knitting competition Nordstrom's yeah Speaker 1 (12:14) if Speaker 2 (12:15) you still exist I can't remember I Speaker 1 (12:17) don't know what it's like in Portland but in New York every pharmacy every CVS every Walgreens it's all locked every item is locked up deodorants the shampoos yeah Speaker 2 (12:29) well that's what it's like at a lot of stores and then those stores close and they're like everyone's shoplifting and it's like maybe people don't shop there anymore Fred Meyer, because you make them feel like you regard everyone as a shoplifter and you have to track down one of your three employees if you want to buy deodorant. Speaker 1 (12:48) Right. It's a very antagonistic relationship they have with consumers. If only they would try some knitting competition. Yeah. Maybe there would be more trust and maybe they can unlock the deodorant and I can actually buy deodorant without having to talk to a person with a key. Speaker 2 (13:04) If it's a speed knitting competition, then you're going to need it, you know. Speaker 1 (13:11) This Speaker 2 (13:12) is also, did you encounter Dish Night at the movies? No. Speaker 1 (13:16) It Speaker 2 (13:16) was like a depression thing. Let me just look this up quickly. Speaker 1 (13:20) Okay. Speaker 3 (13:20) Depression Dish Night. Speaker 2 (13:22) Okay. Dish Night at the movies. We're looking at, this is the International Museum of Dinnerware Design. All right. Here's what the Dinnerware Museum website says. We look fondly back on Dish Night as a quintessential Depression-era theater event. The giveaway promotions of inexpensive dinnerware were one of the most successful solutions that small-town and neighborhood movie theater managers found to bring movie patrons back to empty theaters during the hard times of the Great Depression. The one-free-to-each-lady China and Glassware campaigns filled movie theaters of the 1930s with as much drama, elation, desire. disappointment and anguish as anything that was shown on their silver screens. Speaker 1 (14:04) That's incredible. Speaker 2 (14:05) You can get a gravy boat with Ronald Coleman on it. Speaker 1 (14:08) I'm seeing these photos. Really is incredible. Dish night at the movies. Speaker 2 (14:12) People need plates. It would work. If I please someone give me a movie theater to distribute plates through. All right, Gabe, you have stuff to say. Thank you for tolerating that derailment. No, it was a good Speaker 1 (14:28) tangent and it needed to be said. People need to hear this. Speaker 2 (14:31) Yeah, it did need to be said. People, I know that they're not ready for the truth, but I can't help that. Speaker 1 (14:36) So, all right. Well, to get back to it, basically, I mean, department stores are trying to do what movie theaters are doing at the time and everyone's trying to do in the consumer world is get people through the door, get people to pay money. So they're trying out all these gimmicks and the most successful gimmick they come up with. for department stores is these kind of artificial shopping seasons. The only major shopping season at the time is Christmas. So they basically start looking at the calendar and saying, what else can we monetize? And this is around the time that Valentine's Day expands into this massive gift-giving occasion. You mentioned diamonds, but just the association of Valentine's Day and jewelry starts to become prominent around now. Speaker 2 (15:18) What was it like before? Was it more about cards or? Speaker 1 (15:22) Flowers, cards. And it was, I think it was less about gift giving in general and more about a day in the calendar to spend together. It was a little bit more symbolic. Mother's Day was similar. This is also around the time that Mother's Day becomes super commercialized. But before that, Speaker 2 (15:41) it Speaker 1 (15:42) was observed very informally. It was just a day where you tell your mother, you spend a day with her, you tell her what she means to you. But Mother's Day becomes so commercialized. The inventor of Mother's Day, this woman named Anna Jarvis, she completely disowns the holiday by the 1930s and she spends the rest of her life trying to sue greeting card companies. Speaker 2 (16:05) Good for her. Just like the guy who invented K-cups. Is Speaker 1 (16:09) that right? Speaker 2 (16:09) Well, I don't know that he's sued anybody, but I think he's been... Let me just confirm this. Why do I spend so much time on this show being like, I have a vague memory of this thing. Speaker 2 (16:26) Um, yeah. K-cup creator, John Sullivan regrets inventing Keurig coffee pod system. That's the CBC. And if you can't trust them, then honey, I don't know why people have them in their house. So it's. Speaker 2 (16:47) I think it's like that. It's like Speaker 1 (16:49) part of this long list of inventors that came to regret their invention. Speaker 2 (16:53) Yes. Speaker 1 (16:53) Kind of like Oppenheimer. Yes. Speaker 2 (16:56) Oppenheimer, the K-Cup guy. I mean. Speaker 1 (16:59) Mother's Day. Speaker 2 (17:00) Mother's Day. These are all on a level playing field with each other. Yeah. And this makes me think of two things. One is that. If you make Valentine's Day into a gift giving rather than a quality time holiday. And, you know, I think you can make the argument that Mother's Day is similar. Although I guess there's like a big emphasis on brunch, but also brunch ain't cheap. Then you turn holidays from a reason for people to work less into a reason for people to work more. Evil. Speaker 1 (17:32) Yeah. This day of the year that should be a stress free day turns out being more. stress, more tension. And so, I mean, this is where this big commercialism comes from, this big pressure to buy something special. And, you know, you need a diamond, you need the right kind of flowers. And this is also around the time that back to school takes off as this big blowout shopping season. So department stores start ramping up these big promotional sales for school supplies and clothing. And one of the early tactics... they use to turn back to school into a shopping season