It's back to school eve - and for many that means new uniforms, shoes, PE kits and pens.
But it appears many families may have left it to the last minute, with images showing long snaking queues around a corner for one store in Manchester.
MCS Stores, on Fog Lane in Burnage, near Didsbury, has been a staple for school supplies for years. And photographs taken by the Manchester Evening News reveal mums, dads and others queuing in a long line spanning around the corner onto Elmsmere Road to get in on Thursday.
School uniform stores elsewhere were also reportedly busy as Monday's school return draws nearer. One parent reported growing queues outside Whittakers Schoolwear in Swinton, Salford, ahead of the final weekend of the school holidays.
They said: "There were lots of people outside queuing up to get in just after I left, so I was lucky. It's a very popular store, but I bet people wished they had got themselves organised a little sooner.
"The staff were great. At the door, I was asked what school my child attended then was taken to the relevant section to select what I needed.
"It was very busy inside, packed really, with lots of staff working, but everyone was being seen to. If an item of stock wasn't available, it was quickly ordered."
Families have previously hit out at the cost of school uniforms, with stores subsequently reporting increased costs to them to source stock.
One mum, Jessica Walker, from Tameside, has called on the Government to make uniforms free for families, arguing that an employer would provide uniforms for jobs which require them and as school uniforms are mandatory, the same policy should apply.
“It’s £60 a time for the right kind of school shoes for an eight-year-old in Clark’s, £30 a time for blazers which will be too small soon, PE kits, calculators. Children are constantly growing, they’ll have grown out of all of this before Christmas - right at the time we’ll all be feeling the pressure with the price cap rise," she said.
The government says that families will save money on school uniforms from September 2022, following new legally-binding guidance published November 2021 requiring schools to make uniform affordable for all.
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