Back-to-school season is quickly approaching – and Instacart is here to help make it a little easier on the wallet.

Whether you're loading up on lunchbox staples, restocking the pantry for weekday mornings, or hunting down last-minute school supplies, we've got savings all season long.

It all kicks off with Back-to-School Deal Week (August 10-16) featuring free* daily lunchbox essentials with your Instacart order. Customers can also access a dedicated Back-to-School Shopping Hub and exclusive in-app deals and discounts on supplies and everyday must-haves from select retailers from August 3-16. 

Staples is getting the season started with school supplies as low as 25¢** – including low prices on all the essentials like notebooks, pencils, crayons, and more – while supplies last.

**Offer available on select specially-marked items through 9/12/26, while supplies last. $10 min spend applies. Offer availability may vary. Terms apply.

And if you're curious what's actually flying off the shelves this back-to-school season, we've got the data on that too. ⤵️

Back to School Deal Week: August 10-16

Free, Daily Back-to-School Snacks

Deal Week couldn't come at a better time. For seven days during peak back-to-school season, we're giving away some of our most popular lunchbox favorites:

• August 10: Kick off Deal Week with a free Chomps Meat Stick, the perfect snack to fuel busy back-to-school days.

• August 11: Stock lunchboxes right with a free pack of Hillshire Farm® Ultra Thin® Sliced Honey Ham, a deli favorite the whole family will love.

• August 12: Start mornings on a high note with a free box of Kellogg's Frosted Flakes®.

• August 13: Make after-school easy with a free Hot Pockets Italian Style Seasoned Crust Pepperoni Pizza Frozen Sandwich, a quick and tasty bite for hungry kiddos.

• August 14: Nourish little ones on the go with a free Once Upon a Farm Berry Berry Organic Dairy-Free Kids Smoothie Pouch.

• August 15: Keep kids cooled off with a free bottle of GATORADE® Lower Sugar Rain Berry, perfect for post-practice refueling.

• August 16: Wrap up Deal Week with a free Sargento Mighty Bites™ Salami & Mild Cheddar Cheese Snack Kit – the ultimate after-school snack board starter.

*With an order of $10 or more, while supplies last. Eligible items only. Taxes and other fees apply. Limit 1 per account. Sponsored.

Taking advantage of these free daily items is easy:

• Open the Instacart app or visit instacart.com/store/pages/deal-week. 

• The day's free item will be featured on the Deal Week banner on the homepage – tap it to go directly to the offer, or search for the brand directly.

• Add it to your cart and place an order of $10 or more. 

• Check back each day through August 16 because the free item rotates daily!

More Savings All Season Long

Additional basket-level and collection-level discounts are available at participating retailers including Bath & Body Works, JD Sports, Family Dollar, Lowe's, Michaels, Staples, The Home Depot, and Ulta Beauty. To access the savings between August 3-16, visit and shop Instacart’s Back to School Shopping Hub.

What's Flying Off the Shelves: The Back-to-School Snack Surge

Going back to school doesn't just change the daily routine, it also changes what's in our carts. Here's what Instacart purchase data reveals about how families stock up on food and snacks when school returns.

Each year, the same pattern emerges: snack and lunch staples dip over summer break, then climb sharply starting in late July as back-to-school season kicks in.

Below are the Top 10 back-to-school food categories we tracked, ranked by how much they climb from summer into the school year. 

• Variety Pack Snacks lead by a mile – up 41% versus the yearly average – followed by Snack Bites (+28%), and Cereal Bars (+20%). The pattern makes sense: these are the grab-and-go formats that fit neatly into a lunchbox or a backpack pocket. 

• Sunflower Butter (+18%) is a standout for its niche status, likely driven by nut-free school policies. 

• And Snack Packs (+17%), Yogurt Tubes & Pouches (+17%), Gummy Fruit Snacks (+15%), and Pudding Snacks (+15%) all clock double-digit gains. 

First Bell, First Bowl: What's Trending in the Breakfast Cereal Aisle

Convenience is everything when it comes to the start of the school season, and at breakfast, cereal is still king – with orders containing cereal maintaining a steady drumbeat into the school year.

We dug into a year of Instacart cereal orders to see which brands fill the morning bowl, which are growing quickly, and how loyalties shift from state to state. A few things stood out.

It's a two-cereal race at the top

Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Honey Nut Cheerios are neck and neck for the top spot in the nation, each claiming over 8% of all cereal orders, which is one in six boxes when combined. 😮

Coming in just behind them: Frosted Flakes (5.1%), Cheerios (4.4%), Fruity Pebbles (4.0%), Lucky Charms (3.9%), Honey Bunches of Oats (3.7%), and Froot Loops (3.5%).

Protein and better-for-you cereal is on the rise 

The top-growing brands year-over-year were better-for-you brands like Farm Girl (+9,159%), The Real Cereal Co. (+304%), and Cheerios Protein (+123%). It's part of a broader shift playing out across the grocery store: consumers are increasingly reaching for products that pull more nutritional weight, including higher protein, less refined sugar, and cleaner ingredient lists. And with GLP-1 usage on the rise and American diets shifting fast, the appetite for high-protein, nutrient-dense options isn't going anywhere.

By popularity, three brands win the continent. Local quirks tell their own story.

Ask which cereal is most popular in every state, and the map is strikingly tidy: Honey Nut Cheerios tops 32 states, Cinnamon Toast Crunch claims 19 across the South and lower Midwest, and Cheerios (plain) sweeps all of Canada.

However, when you ask what each state buys far more of than the country overall, the map breaks out into 16 regional favorites. Suddenly you see Fruity Pebbles and Honey Bunches of Oats over-indexing in clusters, Krave and Reese's Puffs popping up as local obsessions, and value brand Mom's Best punching well above its national weight in a handful of states. 

Instacart: Your Destination for Back-to-School Shopping

This back-to-school season, everything you need is one tap away – free Deal Week snacks, high-value deals from participating retailers, and all the lunchbox and backpack essentials on your family’s list, delivered same-day from your favorite stores.

Deal Week runs August 10-16, with a new free item dropping every day. Open the Instacart app or visit instacart.com/store/pages/deal-week to start shopping.