A HASSLE NO MORE

The beginning of every school year starts with parents running and rushing around town trying to find, collect and purchase all the right items for each of their children’s school supply list.

The task is daunting – not to mention aggravating.

Long lists, accompanied by longer lines with lots of children, makes this annual shopping spree less than pleasurable even when using an Old Navy gift card for the kid’s school clothes – and more of a hassle.

Enter My School’s Kit, a new online service that enables parents, teachers and students to get all school supply shopping done easily and painlessly.

“We do all the hassling and haggling for you,” says Meir Hecht, co-owner of My School’s Kit, which serves schools nationally from New York to Chicago to California.

As a bonus, school’s that sign up to My School’s Kit receive a 10% commission of all kit orders.

With My School’s Kit online store, parents order their children’s supplies from anyplace — the comfort of their own home or office — without having to wait in long lines at stores.

“This is a dream come true,” says Sherri Lederman, who is on the PTA board at Maimonides School in Brookline, Massachusetts. “We had parents complaining all the time, every year, about having to go get their children’s school supplies, saying ‘Oh, it’s such a pain, all the schlepping going back and forth to all these stores.”

For some parents, it takes more than three trips to stores, over the course of several weeks, to find all the school supplies for their children – sometimes nearly 40 different items for each child.

But now, thanks to Hecht and his partner, Meir Cohen, parents can kiss Staples, Walmart and Target goodbye – as well as all the long lines, the crowds and screaming kids.

“For the last few years we have been trying to come up with a way to get all the school supplies in one place and have the parents buy it from us,” Lederman says.

Just as that process was about start all over again just a few weeks ago, parents exhaustedly fell back into their chairs, dreading the thought of having to run from store to store to gather school supplies all over again.

Then Hecht contacted the school and voila! Life has changed forever for Lederman and parents from Boston to Los Angeles – and everyplace in between.

“The timing could not have been more perfect,” Lederman says. “It was like, ‘Wow, we can just sit back, order it from My School’s Kit, and wait for the supplies to arrive.’ All the parents are really, really happy about this.”

What a contrast from the past.

“Everything about it was just so annoying,” Lederman says. “Teachers will specify, ‘OK, you need a red and green binder for this, and a purple and yellow binder for that,’ and more than half the time you couldn’t find them after driving to two or three places. It was nuts.”

No more.

And one of the best things about it is that Hecht’s prices are less expensive than Staples, Target and Walmart.

Lederman’s school kits for her three children just arrived the other day by mail.

“It was great,” she says. “Everything we order was in there. Nothing was missing.”

The order process is ridiculously easy. Simply go to the website, choose a school and grade of your child, and the appropriate supply list will promptly appear. Checkout is simple, and shipping is free on all kits.

Can’t find your school? No worries. Just let Hecht know and the company will promptly add it to the site.

“Easy – that’s the key,” he says. “We wanted to make this easy for parents and help them avoid all the hassles of running around town and going from store to store to store for 30-40 different items.”