Diversity of Retailers Capitalizing on Back-to-School Tech Needs

In a week that is truly “back-to-school” for some districts and a prelude for others, an eclectic swath of retailers is advertising school-themed electronics deals, we found in an ad sweep. New York-area supermarket chain ShopRite showed beneath an ad for Pop-Tarts and shampoo, a Sony RDPX200iP speaker dock for iPad and iPhone, listed as a final-sale “hot deal” for $49, down from $79. The dock, with an older-generation 30-pin Apple connector, has been discontinued by Sony, but is selling at Amazon for $85, we found. ShopRite was also selling a 19-inch RCA LED-lit TV for $88, down from $99, and iPad minis for $224, a $75 discount.

Walmart Monday added Virgin Mobile Custom, a no-contract mobile phone plan “to help ease into the school year.” Families can customize a wireless phone plan to meet their call, text and data needs across five lines, Virgin Mobile said. Under the plan, parents can set controls including device curfews and use restrictions during homework and bedtime hours, it said. The base plan starts at $6.98 per month per line for 20 texts and 20 voice minutes and the unlimited talk and text plan is $34.98 per line per month. Options include unlimited texting for $10 or unlimited voice for $18, it said.

Further customization in the Virgin Mobile plan -- available exclusively at some Walmart stores, initially -- allows families to sign up for international calling to select countries or unlimited access to specific apps like Pandora or Facebook, Virgin Mobile said. Consumers can manage usage on the phone by using slider controls to adjust the amount of talk, text and data that works for them. When they make changes to the plan, the plan charges adjust automatically on the phone so users can see the cost of the changes before they confirm changes to the plan, it said. The custom plan will initially be available on the ZTE Emblem, LG Pulse and LG Unify phones.

Target’s back-to-school tech deals featured its “lowest price of the season” on an Acer 15-inch laptop. The Windows 8.1 device with Intel Celeron processor, 4 GB memory and 500 GB hard drive was marked down from $249 to $209.

At OfficeMax, instant savings brought down the price of 15-inch laptops to the mid-$200s, on the website. An HP model with an AMD dual-core processor, 4 GB memory and 500 GB hard drive was selling for $269, while a similarly configured Toshiba model had a tag of $249 Monday. A Dell model with an Intel Celeron processor, 4 GB memory and 500 GB hard disk storage was also $249.

Staples’ back-to-school section featured a Lexar 16GB thumb drive, marked down from $19 to $7; a Toshiba laptop with 17-inch screen, 4 GB RAM and 500 GB hard drive cut by $50 to $479; and a 7-inch Kindle Fire HD with 16 GB memory, discounted by $40 to $129. Staples also knocked $100 off any PC or tablet priced above $499 and $100 off the iPad Air, through Aug. 16, according to the website.