Is NOW to early to start dorm room shopping?

Getting excited about dorm stuff and college is normal, but Dorm Co always gets asked, "When is it too early to start buying college dorm supplies?"

Of course if you get past the fact that Dorm Co sells dorm stuff and you trust we'll shoot it to you straight, we can actually provide an honest answer.

The truth is March might be a little early, but then again starting to stock up on good deals and 'finds' that might be out of stock come the peak season (May-August), is not a bad idea. A rule of thumb this early is to buy if the deal is that good or you like the product that much.

The real Dorm Shopping season starts in late April or early May when shopping for high school graduation gift ideas take off. With dorm gifts being the perfect grad gift other than money, most parents and students start to comb the shelves just before high school graduation. This is the time when retailers start to see which dorm items are popular. Depending on the dorm store and the product supplier some items will run out and not return for the season, while others will stay in stock until late August. It is hard to tell and often the retail store managers have no clue.

Since many items are imported for overseas it is a general rule of thumb that it takes 60-90 days to get products produced and shipped to the US. This means that if a dorm item runs out in May then it could be back in August, but chances are it would not be back in stock until the following year. The reason being is that it is not worth the financial cost to the dorm retailer to have an item back is stock for less than 1 month of college dorm shopping season left.

In general, most retailers, including Dorm Co do a very good job forecasting and at least having stock until 8/1. After 8/1 is like after 12/15 for Christmas shopping, slim pickings on the good stuff or heavy deals on stuff that would not be your first choice.

Happy Dorm Shopping!