Teacher supply store business picking up ahead of vote on tentative deal
Posted September 18, 2014 12:46 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
LANGLEY (NEWS1130) – A Langley teacher supply store is bracing for a busy weekend in the event teachers vote “yes” to their tentative agreement. Teachers Tool Chest owner Farrel Barwin says business just got a lot busier in the last couple of days.
He says last week all of his customers were parents trying to buy educational materials for their kids but his clientele shifted quickly with negotiations.
“Parents stopped coming in, probably 99 per cent of them stopped coming in, and were taken over by teachers. When negotiations went long, you know the three days negotiations, the teachers started coming in, and it was like turning on a switch.”
He says more teachers are getting what they need, things like stickers, name tags and classroom decorations. That’s why he’s bracing for the added traffic in the coming days.
“What I expect, as soon as the picket lines are down and they can get into their classrooms and they can assess what they need to start the year. We will be extremely busy, extra staff and everything for the weekend.”
He says teachers normally spend the most after they get their first paycheck on the 15th of September, of course, that didn’t happen this year.
