Schools are reopening this week. If you’re on a tight budget, consider thrift shopping for school supplies. Here’s where you can find affordable items for the kids in Nairobi.
Kamkunji
Need lunchboxes and water bottles at an affordable price?
Kamkunji has some pretty cool ones for as low as 100 bob.
Tsavo Road
Need stationery supplies? Visit the stationery shops along
Tsavo Road behind Odeon Cinema. Here you can get everything you need for a
steal. Some items are priced 60% cheaper than those of mainstream stationery
shops elsewhere in Nairobi.
Gikomba
Gikomba is the biggest second hand market in the region.
Situated along Landhies Road in downtown Nairobi, Gikosh as it
is popularly known hosts thousands of hawkers selling everything under the
sun. You can get good quality second hand backpacks, sport shoes, toys,
raincoats and more for your kids.
If you’re an early riser, visit Gikosh on a
Sunday morning and you’ll get an incredible haul for 2000 bob or else.
Toi Market
Toi Market is situated off Ngong Road behind Adams Arcade.
Popular for affordable kids’ apparel, this is an ideal place to get
(especially) tracksuits.
Eastleigh
Situated between Juja and Jogoo road right after Pumwani,
Eastleigh, dubbed little Mogadishu for its significant Somali
population, has a huge market dubbed Garissa Lodge. Almost everything is new
here and sold at incredible wholesale prices. You can get a new set of kids underwear
and socks for less than Ksh 1000. Also, you can find hair accessories for kids,
and swimming costumes for really low prices.
Muthurwa
Get second-hand books at Muthurwa Market along Kamkunji
road. Dubbed the ‘Inama bookshop’ you can get encyclopedias,
dictionaries, novels and a range of text books for as low as Ksh 100.
Bus Station CBD
Situated between O.T.C and Afya Centre, here’s where you can
get slightly used leather shoes for kids and scarves for incredibly low prices.
Back To School Shopping in 30 – On-Line
A couple of years ago, I took a friend of mine to shop for
back to school books and supplies from Nairobi CBD. We found ourselves in one
of the leading bookshops in town. The queues were crazy, with every parent
trying to beat the back-to-school shopping deadline. It was chaotic at best.
We are slowly and steadily moving away from the tradition of
physical to online shopping. Our phones and laptops delivering the marketplaces
right where we are. Even supermarkets have adapted, surprisingly, school
supplies and uniforms’ is where we draw the line.
A quick search online turned up a few online shops that are
dealing with all the back-to-school books and supplies. You can actually, get
all your books delivered to where you are from sites like www.vitabuonline.co.ke
, www.nuria.com , and www.officemart.co.ke just to name but a few. Most people
are still stuck to shopping from physical bookshops, they end up spending a lot
of their time on the queues, do not be that parent or guardian, let your smart
device shop for you conveniently.
Bata shoes have gone digital, they have an online shop where
you log in, get the shoe size you want, in the colour that you want, you check
out, make your payment and the shoes are delivered to you
https://batakenya.com/backtoschool.
Jumia has cool back to school bags, imagine you are getting
everything that your child needs for back to school
https://www.jumia.co.ke/mlp-back-to-school/.