A school uniform is an essential buy, but can cost as much as €600 - are we being ripped off, asks Kate Holmquist.
One overheated and fatigued father rests by a pile of newly delivered cartons packed with shirts and jumpers at a uniform shop in Dublin. He hands his wife a wad of €50 notes and counts the cost of going back to school.
"We've spent €1,700 easy on uniform, sports gear and books and we've still to go to the dentist to get a special orthodontic gumshield fitted."
His daughter goes to Alexandra College in Milltown, Dublin, which has one of the swishest uniforms in the country - about €450 for the basic (one of everything) and that's not including shoes. The red and white crested sports polo costs €25 alone. Blouses are €26 each (the cost of four ordinary school shirts), and many parents buy several.
A basic secondary school uniform, including outer coat, tracksuit and blazer, can easily cost €400 before you even consider a spare jumper and a pair of shoes. Add a regulation tracksuit hoodie at €40, a crest-embroidered gym jumper at €28, school shoes and a pair of runners (€175 for the two pairs), and you're nearly hitting €600.
A mother who managed to limit her uniform spending to €89.90 this week by sticking to "top ups" for two daughters in Rockford Manor secondary school, says paying for uniforms is "a necessary evil. You'd spend as much on other clothes".
A father who had just laid out €265 on a skirt, jumper, hockey skirt and jacket for a child in the High School in Rathgar, Dublin, expressed the view that "there's little competition in the market".
From the Irish manufacturers' point of view, "margins are very small compared to what the retailer gets", says Michael Mahon of Deer Park Knitwear, Bray, Co Wicklow. Retail mark-ups of 70 per cent are typical and in a smaller town, two retailers will agree on a price, so that neither puts the other out of business.
If you're the sort of parent who has to budget for such expenses and is interested in why school uniforms cost as much as they do, here are a few interesting numbers. Mahon says a crested, half wool/half acrylic school jumper manufactured by Deer Park will typically sell for €21.95 retail. Arnott's offers half wool/half acrylic Irish-made crested jumpers from a variety of manufacturers at €31 and upwards (depending on size). But taking the example of St Andrews College, their crested jumper for secondary students sells at €42 and upwards.
So if a quality jumper can be sold at a profit for €21.95, why is it selling for €31, €42 and even more? Arnotts says it depends on the size of the jumper and the specifications required by the school.
Another example: a 30 per cent wool/70 per cent acrylic jumper with crest sells in some shops outside Dublin for €18.95 and up (again according to size), but sells for €22 in one shop in the capital that has the exclusive market for one particular school.
Every retailer you ask gives the same defence, with some justification: it's really not a lot for clothes your child wears five days a week, nine months a year. Many parents will spend €100 on one pair of trainers, after all.
The marketing manager of Arnott's, Eddie Shanahan, says competition is tight, and since parents committees in schools often help to choose the uniforms, they can therefore influence control over the price. "Arnott's gets the contract because we're the cheapest. It's a buyer's market," he says.
The cost of the crest is a complaint with many parents, who see jumpers made outside the EU on sale for €20 and less, while a crested jumper required by a school may cost €35. In fact, a crest costs an estimated €2 to €4 to embroider on an item, depending on its complexity.
As uniforms become more distinctive every stripe added to a jumper costs money, as do off-standard colours that distinguish one school's shade of blue from another's. The specifications of a kilt can make the difference between paying €48 for two kilts in Arnott's or €48 to €65 for one.
Schools' choices of outer coats have price inconsistencies that are hard to explain. For example, some schools specify a reversible, all-weather over-jacket with crest that costs €40 in Rita's School Uniforms, Dundrum, while other schools specify a similar one in Arnott's for €70 (€76 with a crest). The top price for a school jumper in Rita's is €30.
The School Uniform Store in Montrose has good quality anoraks for €52 apiece, while the High School's anorak at the same shop costs €80 because it is black - an uncommon school anorak colour. Arnott's top price for a school-specified anorak is €89.50.
Subtle aesthetic differences such as shiny versus matt, wool versus acrylic and plain versus patterned can be important to parents - and really bump up the price. For example, John Scottus Junior School in Dublin requires an Irish-made pinstriped shirt costing €26.20.
And just one of Mount Anville's Peter Pan-collared Irish-made shirts costs €15, yet three-packs of ordinary shirts can be bought in Arnott's for €12 per pack, a cost of €4 per shirt.
So if you do suspect that you're paying too much for uniforms, maybe it's time to join the school's parents committee.