18 Back-to-School Displays That Marked the End of Summer
These 18 real back-to-school displays show how retailers signaled the shift from summer freedom to classroom structure.
- Alyana Aguja
- 5 min read
Back-to-school season has long been marked by massive displays in stores that turn shopping into a seasonal ritual. From Walmart’s towering notebook mountains to Macy’s sneaker showcases and Target’s dollar bins, each display carried a sense of both excitement and finality. Together, they symbolized the end of summer fun and the beginning of another school year.
1. Crayola Crayon Towers at Walmart
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Every August, Walmart rolled out towering cardboard structures shaped like giant Crayola crayons. Kids walking through the aisles were greeted by bright rainbows of art supplies, signaling it was time to stock up for class projects. Parents often used these displays to pick up crayons in bulk packs, a staple of every elementary school list.
2. Target’s Dollar Spot with Classroom Must-Haves
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Target’s Dollar Spot became a back-to-school hotspot with bins full of erasers, sticky notes, and mini whiteboards. Teachers and parents alike flocked to these displays for budget-friendly supplies that seemed specially curated for classrooms. The cheap but colorful organization bins and desk accessories were impossible to resist.
3. Staples’ “Easy Button” Back-to-School Aisles
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Staples paired their iconic “Easy Button” with huge seasonal displays filled with binders, dividers, and mechanical pencils. The aisles transformed into organized grids of every school supply imaginable, making kids feel the season shift from freedom to structure. Their displays were so big that some even included mock lockers filled with products.
4. Office Depot’s Locker Décor Sections
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For middle and high schoolers, Office Depot highlighted locker mirrors, magnetic shelves, and patterned wallpaper. Their displays often looked like mini lockers themselves, showing how products could be arranged inside. These sections made returning to school feel less about academics and more about self-expression.
5. Kmart’s Back-to-School Fashion Racks
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Kmart leaned on clothing displays with mannequins dressed in new jeans, polos, and sneakers. They strategically placed these racks near notebook aisles so kids and parents would grab both clothes and supplies in one trip. Seeing mannequins in backpacks reminded kids that the summer wardrobe was officially retired.
6. Macy’s Kids’ Shoe Displays
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Macy’s back-to-school season often meant giant shoe racks stacked with Converse, Vans, and Skechers. Their displays sometimes had chalkboard backdrops with doodles and ABCs to mimic the classroom vibe. For many kids, trying on new sneakers here was the true start of the school year.
7. JCPenney’s Backpack Walls
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Walking into JCPenney in August often meant seeing entire walls lined with backpacks. From Disney princesses to superhero prints, the sheer number of choices created excitement and stress alike. These displays always made kids beg parents for an upgrade from last year’s worn-out bag.
8. Kohl’s Uniform Corners
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Kohl’s dedicated entire corners of the store to uniform polos, pleated skirts, and khaki pants. Displays featured racks of identical colors and sizes, showing that individuality had to pause once the school bell rang. Parents appreciated the bulk discounts, but for kids, it was a harsh reminder that summer freedom was over.
9. Old Navy’s Denim Stacks
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Old Navy marked back-to-school season with towering tables of jeans folded neatly in every shade of blue. Their signage often featured chalk drawings or kids jumping with backpacks, making it feel like a playful but official end to summer. Shopping for these denim tables was a family ritual in late August.
10. Payless ShoeSource BOGO Signs
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Before Payless closed, its back-to-school displays were famous for bright red “BOGO” signs plastered across the aisles. Families lined up to grab sneakers, flats, and gym shoes while supplies lasted. The overwhelming signage and shoe boxes stacked sky-high became synonymous with the season.
11. Walmart’s Spiral Notebook Mountains
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Walmart didn’t just stock notebooks; they stacked them into enormous, colorful mountains that kids could climb through. Rows of 25-cent wide-ruled notebooks in every color formed the centerpiece of the school aisle. These towering piles were both chaotic and strangely satisfying to dig through.
12. Target’s Character Lunchbox Displays
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Target’s lunchbox sections always featured seasonal displays covered with popular characters like Frozen, Marvel heroes, or Pokémon. They often had shelf endcaps with matching water bottles and thermoses, making it easy to build a complete set. Kids gravitated toward these displays to choose the one item they could show off daily.
13. CVS Pencil Palettes
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CVS may not have had aisles as big as Walmart or Target, but they made up for it with creative displays of writing tools. Giant cardboard pencils pointed customers to palettes of mechanical pencils, pens, and highlighters. For students who had put off shopping, CVS’s late-summer displays were a last-minute lifesaver.
14. Walgreens Calculator Endcaps
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Walgreens always reserved prime space for TI-84 and Casio calculators right when school was about to begin. Their endcap displays often combined calculators with packs of graph paper and rulers. For high schoolers, seeing these displays meant advanced math was back on the schedule.
15. Costco Bulk Pencil Packs
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Costco’s back-to-school season brought towering pallets of Dixon Ticonderoga pencils and Sharpie multipacks. Their displays emphasized practicality with giant bundles of supplies that could last an entire school year. Parents with multiple kids often relied on these bulk buys to cover all their bases.
16. Sam’s Club Backpack Pallets
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Sam’s Club stacked backpacks in bulk-sized bins and pallets, offering brands like JanSport and Adidas. These displays often sat right near the front entrance, impossible to miss. Kids climbing over the piles made it feel like a treasure hunt for the perfect style.
17. Dollar Tree’s Teacher Supply Walls
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Dollar Tree leaned into affordability with huge seasonal walls dedicated to bulletin board borders, stickers, and classroom charts. Their displays felt like a secret goldmine for teachers decorating classrooms on a budget. Parents also grabbed cheap supplies here as a quick fix before the first day.
18. Barnes & Noble’s Study Nook Corners
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Barnes & Noble set up cozy corners featuring planners, journals, and reference books. Their displays often had chalkboard-inspired signs reminding students about summer reading lists and test prep. Unlike the chaos of big-box stores, these corners marked the end of summer with a quieter, studious vibe.