Loja at the beginning of the school year

It's like a city-wide treasure hunt....the race is on to get all your children's school utilities according to the whim and fancy of each individual school. The list is exhaustive - folders, wax paper (colour blue, red, green and yellow), metal pencil sharpener, pencil case, exercise books with lines, exercise books with grids, A4 paper, cardboard, thick wool, thin wool, erasers, glitter (any colour), toilet paper, whiteboard markers (colour red, blue and black), age appropriate board game, textas, pencils, lead pencils (the triangular shaped ones), rubbish bags, chalk, plasticine, plastic storage box (colour blue), masking tape (or if you will 'masky'), tooth brush, tooth paste and cup, balloons et cetera ad infinitum. The lines snake out of all the stationary shops, the fight to get in front of the line, or maybe to establish that there is a line and hence one's place in the line. People dashing into shops, 'do you have a size 5 sharpener?' or 'do you have a spiral notebook with 50 pages?', overheard conversations about the cost of everything, different school lists compared, dazed parents walking around lugging bags, wielding their rolled up cardboard like modern day swords, finally able to bring everything home to then put the child's name on every item bought (yes, including the 'masky'). There is a certain sense of satisfaction in being able to whittle down the list of still required items (I have only 5 to go!) and the joy in being able to hand it all over, the treasure hunt over, the city scoured, discovered new stationary shops with shorter lines receiving heartfelt gratitude, and the hope that the teacher uses all her school supplies well.

What you miss out on in Australia where all you do is hand over your school fees, it sort of sounds mundane somehow?