Despite hectic shopping for school supplies yesterday, parents seemed to have generally avoided the last-minute crunch of previous years, by buying supplies early, store owners said.

“Last year this time we even had to close the door to deal with those who were inside,” said Lavern James, manager of Sangster’s Bookshop in the Springs Plaza on Constant Spring Road, St Andrew. “This year it is not as bad.”

She noted that the main problem was that the store had run out of some titles.

Paula Lamoth, manager at Sangster’s sister store across the road in the Mall attributes the reduction in last-minute shopping to parents becoming more aware.

“Price changes occur just about the second week of July when new stocks arrive and we started to see people coming in with book lists from that time,” she told the Sunday Observer.

Even the late announcement of the GSAT results this year by the Ministry of Education did not delay the early birds, Lamoth noted.

At Kingston Bookshop, also in the Springs Plaza, the pace was equally hectic but there were complaints about the increase in price for many of the books. “A majority of the books are from Britain and the exchange rate has affected the prices,” a supervisor said.

One 11th-hour shopper said she had no choice but to do her shopping so close to the reopening of school.

“I just got the money yesterday to do the shopping for books,” she confided.

However, shoppers missing the last minute on Saturday still have some reprieve before Monday’s re-opening of the new school term. All three major uptown outlets said they would be open today.