{"id":521553,"date":"2026-08-14T12:54:39","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T16:54:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.net\/en\/uncategorized\/book-vendors-on-duarte-avenue-bet-on-payday-to-boost-school-sales\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T12:54:39","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T16:54:39","slug":"book-vendors-on-duarte-avenue-bet-on-payday-to-boost-school-sales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/dominican-news\/book-vendors-on-duarte-avenue-bet-on-payday-to-boost-school-sales\/","title":{"rendered":"Book vendors on Duarte Avenue bet on payday to boost school sales"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Merchants claim that the habit of \u201cleaving everything for the last minute\u201d continues to define school shopping<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Santo Domingo. – <\/strong>A little over a week before the start of the 2026-2027 school year, book vendors at the Paseo de la Lectura, on Duarte<\/strong> Avenue, maintain their expectations that sales will begin to pick up starting this weekend, after several days characterized by a limited flow of buyers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The merchants consulted agree that sales of school textbooks have remained between low and fair, although some claim that since this Thursday they began to observe a slight improvement. The expectation is mainly placed on the payday and the last days before the return to the classrooms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You might be interested in:<\/strong> Merchants expect a rebound in school supply sales this weekend<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2026-2027 school year in the public education system of the Dominican Republic is scheduled to begin on Monday, August 24, with the return of more than two million students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Dani Quiterio, who claims to have spent his entire life selling books at the location, the activity recorded so far is considerably different from that observed in previous school seasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSales are through the floor. There is no sales movement yet. People have come, but very few,\u201d he\/she expressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quiterio assured that by this date in previous years, commercial activity was significantly higher. “This doesn’t even look like a quarter of previous years. Not even a quarter,” he stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the outlook, he remains hopeful that with the arrival of the payday, the number of parents and guardians coming in search of school textbooks will increase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neno, another of the vendors consulted, has a similar perception, attributing part of the slow sales to the fact that many families are still waiting to have the necessary financial resources available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs long as there is no payment, there is no operation of anything,\u201d he maintained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When questioned about the possibility of an increase in buyers starting this Saturday, August 15, he replied that it could happen because \u201cwhat is needed is an injection of capital so that people can acquire what they need.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mar\u00eda Rivera also trusts that sales will improve over the next few days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have faith in God that the public will support us,\u201d he stated, while considering that the low activity this week is partly due to a recurring characteristic among Dominican consumers: waiting until the last few days to make school purchases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe Dominicans leave everything for the last minute\u201d, he\/she expressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Used books and exchanges as an alternative<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sellers highlight that one of the main attractions of the Reading Promenade is the possibility of purchasing used books or exchanging textbooks from the previous school year, thus reducing expenses for families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rivera explained that used copies can be found for prices ranging between RD$800 and RD$1,000, depending on the book and its condition, while exchanges can be made by paying differences starting from approximately RD$350.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the case of new textbooks, he indicated that some can reach prices of up to RD$2,450.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bol\u00edvar Viola maintained that the movement began to improve slightly since Thursday and expects a more significant increase starting next week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is improving a little. Yesterday, Thursday, it improved, but we hope that from Monday onwards it will improve,\u201d he pointed out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Viola highlighted that buying and exchanging used copies represents an alternative for parents looking to reduce the budget allocated for school textbooks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other merchants present a more optimistic scenario; Henry F\u00e9lix assures that the number of buyers has begun to increase gradually and they expect the trend to continue as the start of classes approaches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSales are increasing every day. They are increasing. The thing is that we Dominicans leave everything for the last minute,\u201d they pointed out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to their experience over the last five years, the behavior tends to repeat itself: sales start slowly and end up increasing during the days closest to the back-to-school season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new school year in the public education system of the Dominican Republic is scheduled to begin on Monday, August 24, 2026, with the return to classrooms of more than two million students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Merchants claim that the habit of \u201cleaving everything for the last minute\u201d continues to define school shopping Santo Domingo. – A little over a week before the start of the 2026-2027 school year, book vendors at the Paseo de la Lectura, on Duarte Avenue, maintain their expectations that sales will begin to pick up starting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":521554,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[40216],"tags":[44701],"class_list":["post-521553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dominican-news","tag-school-supplies"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phj1q1-2bG9","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-08-14-at-12.49.16-PM.jpeg","dum_api":{"author_name":"Elsa Cesilia Feliz","author_image":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/cropped-elsa-cesilia-96x96.jpg","categories_name":["Dominican News"],"featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cdn.deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-08-14-at-12.49.16-PM.jpeg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}