Welcome back to school fellow SF State students. Have you done your shopping? Probably. Walking around campus recently, I’ve noticed something I notice every year at this time. The first day of school is marked by a shameless display of brand new products. It has become so repetitive I now equate the phrase “back-to-school” with a frenzied run around Target to find scissors and Elmer’s glue.

I can’t remember a year when I returned to school without hitting a back-to-school sale. Damn the retailers who so conveniently plan their bargain days, morphing the pleasant days of late summer into hours spent under the neon lights of various department stores. Have you ever tried to buy a pair of scissors in October? The price jumps like a flea!

Back-to-school spending is supposed to reach over $13 billion this year, which would actually be less than last year. Still, that amount of money could buy enough Elmer’s to glue every pigeon in San Francisco to the ground. But, you don’t see college students flashing their fresh bottles of paste around.

Clothes, shoes, backpacks and sunglasses are college student supplies. According to CNN.com, the average back-to-school clothing budget is over $200 per student. You’d think professors are testing your fashion sense. It was a sad day in August when our parents went from buying us a new box of Crayolas, to buying us a whole new wardrobe to start school with. It’s almost refreshing to see more bookstore bags than Macy’s bags swinging from the arms of students this year. Then again, our bookstore sells clothes.

Maybe, the bookstore is where SF State students are doing all their apparel shopping these days. I have seen a suspicious number of matching scissors, stapler, sweatshirt combos this year. Students sure aren’t frequenting their normal consumer castles. The Washington Post reported July sales at stores such as Pacific Sunwear and Aeropostale were 5 percent lower than last July. Of course, the chumps over at the Post had to add some banal quip like, “It’s a good thing back to school shopping season isn’t graded…”

As far as I’m concerned, this year’s returning students receive A’s for fiscal reservation. If the numbers for this year come as expected, back-to-school spending will fall nearly 10 percent from last year.

Just because the snake is smaller doesn’t mean it’s less poisonous.

Anyone raised in this back-to-school cycle of commerce is likely to believe he or she cannot receive a complete education without annually renewing their school supplies. Or, perhaps students see back-to-school shopping as the only joy the school year brings. Either way, the money has got to come from somewhere. Hopefully, parents aren’t starving themselves in order to buy new turquoise Sharpies and Fruit of the Loom underpants for their children at the beginning of each fall.

Don’t get me wrong, shopping is important and there are plenty of lessons to be learned. However, what I am raving about is commercialization in the context of education. I can hardly sit in my classes without being distracted by shiny, hot pink Nikes or plaid Burberry ear muffs attached to the students around me.

While retailers take our annual return to the halls of education as an opportunity to slash prices and distract us with the most stylish attire, I am simply against waste. All I’m really saying is if you’ve got last year’s stapler, use it this year even if it doesn’t match your new Dolce & Gabbana pull-over.