PAC fundraiser raises questions about shopping local
Pemberton parents encouraged to buy Burnaby company’s school supplies
The Parents Advisory Committee of Signal Hill Elementary School is encouraging parents to order "Smart Packs" through a Burnaby-based company. And the PAC fundraiser is frustrating one local businessman who says he could have made an equally, if not more financially advantageous arrangement, with the organization.
Teaching Things furnishes supply kits to 70 elementary schools province wide, including those in the Howe Sound area. Promoting itself as "one-stop shopping" without retail mark ups, the company allows parents to order via forms distributed in the classroom, by mail or through the company website. The supplies are available in the classroom on the first day of classes. In exchange for promoting the company in its schools, Parent Advisory Committees receive either five per cent of the sales in cash back or eight per cent if its to be converted to secure art supplies, educational supplies or teaching resources from Teaching Things.
Ranging in price from $26.95 to $34.95 for Signal Hill students, the packages are customized for each grade, shipped in a "keepsake box" and feature unique items such as pencils engraved with the school name and personalized name labels.
Garth Phare, co-owner of Frontier Street Pharmacy in Pemberton, feels the promotion is bad for both local retail and the consumer. And he is troubled that the committee went ahead without discussing their plans with him.
"The sad part is I went through the package and it’s not a great deal. By the time I added taxes we were still $2 less a package at regular price. With September sales prices on stationery it could be as much as 50 per cent less," said Phare.
Anne West, a five-year PAC veteran who acts as liaison with the French school, who brought the program to her group’s attention, stands by the organization’s decision to promote Teaching Things as a supplier.
"First of all, the local drugstore does not offer contributions of $3 a package or a percentage to PAC," said West.
"If Garth [Phare] wanted to put together a package like Teaching Things where the parents had a convenient method of being able to purchase a bundle of school supplies, and if he then wanted to donate a portion of that to the PAC, we would go for that. What we were looking for was an alternative."
West believes the groups that will be attracted to the offer are the same people who have traditionally traveled out of the area to do their back-to-school shopping at big box retailers such as Wal-Mart and Costco. She cites the fact that another Pemberton business, Paperworks, has been selling about 100 similarly grouped supply packages for the past seven years with little impact on the drugstore’s business. She also states that she, personally, will probably end up buying items such as "smelly felts", that are not included in the Smart Packs, at Frontier Street Pharmacy.
For Phare, the issue is more about keeping money in the community than competition.
"We give as often as we can because we want to have goodwill," said Phare. "If the PAC came looking for a $300 donation, I would give that to them tomorrow. I try to keep every dollar I can in the community and I’m always willing to try to make things work. If I have the time, I can always figure out something."
West thinks Phare is painting a far too simplistic picture.
"By buying in the community, who am I supporting? Garth and Val (Phare’s wife and business partner), and their business and how many of their employees?" questions West. "I think it’s unfair of Garth to say that if we wanted $300 all we had to do is ask him."
Paperworks owner Lori Gobert decided to stop putting together packages this year when the PAC consulted her before distributing Smart Pack order forms to the students.
"Too much labour, that’s basically why I decided to stop," said Gobert, who averaged sales of 150 packages a year for schools in Pemberton, Mount Currie and Birken. "For the effort to do it, to put the packages all together, for the amount of money I was making on it, I’d rather see the PAC get the money."
In terms of the PAC’s decision to go with a Burnaby company, Gobert is clearly torn.
"That’s a tough one. Obviously I would much rather see the money stay in the community, which in a roundabout way, I think it is; because the PAC is in the community."
PAC president Stephanie Wells says that the committee’s due diligence process may have been shortsighted because of the limited area of concern.
"Our subject was quite narrowly focused, being school supply packages, and that retailer was Paperworks. We didn’t consider everyone who was involved within the local community in terms of the school supplies.
"Should we have talked to Garth and the pharmacy? Yes, we should have," says Wells. "We would much rather forge a local partnership with somebody to better the community than sending our money outside."
