I know this was always a thing - that a school had a tie-in with a certain supplier.
When I was at school in the 1990s the school uniform supplier was in the posh area of town and was more expensive than general shops like bhs or M and S (I dont remember supermarkets generally selling clothes back then) You could buy a tie or badge from school and then get your uniform at the school supplier or elsewhere. (And it was an easily available bog standard colour)
Now all the schools in our area (including some nursery schools) seem to be moving to compulsory items that can only be bought at the one supplier.
The uniforms are good quality and available in a wide range of sizes but it irks me that the supplier has the monopoly. We live in a fairly affluent area and everyone seems to just pitch up and hand over enough money to buy a small car buy everything at the local shop without question.(The shop has existed since the beginning of time as well so people are very defensive if you question it) I feel that uniform for state school should be available to buy for a range of budgets. I'm totally fine with school specifying styles of trousers or skirts and acceptable length but that you ideally could buy a black/navy/bottle green skirt in harrods, or asda ....or anywhere in between. (Some of the schools have uniforms of such weird colours and styles it would be literally impossible to try and buy elsewhere)
I bought as much as I could of DDs secondary uniform from elsewhere, mainly because a white shirt or a jumper, for example could be bought more cheaply when M and S have a uniform sale. But the blazer, skirt, tie and pe kit had to come from the compulsory shop
Now DS primary have revealed they are changing to compulsory supplier uniform. The letter from the HT said it would make them look smarter and the amount in lost property suggests the kids dont look after their uniform, so the new smart uniform will help.(I have seen and smelled the lost property box at secondary school - it is not in anyway supporting their argument that kids will not lose/mislay logo-ed or more expensive items!
)
It also said it would cost the same as before. This is really not true. A branded polo shirt is £8. I used to buy plain ones from matalan in packs of 3 for less than that. There is also logo-ed pe kit tshirts, shorts, skirts, hoodies, socks - everything!! They used to have a branded tshirt and the rest could be bought fairly cheaply elsewhere.
I feel quite strongly that especially at the current time when more people are being made redundant or had reduced income that there should not be a monopoly on school.uniform suppliers. Do the schools get a backhander from them?
A few years ago I thought that an MP was looking into this to try to prevent that kind of monopoly, but if our town is anything to go by it's worse than before!