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Tax-free holiday rings up savings for area shoppers
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| By ADAM NORTHAM, DAILY LEADER Staff Writer |
August 03, 2009 |
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Stacey Gooden is a Jackson girl, but the prospect of saving money during Mississippi's first sales tax-free holiday drove her 50 miles south on Saturday to be a Brookhaven shopper.
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"Mine's added up - I've saved about $50," she said while leaving Beyond the Rainbow, her fourth stop of the day. "That's 7 percent you're spending out, and if you save it you can go to another store and spend it there, and you're still saving at that store, too."
Despite some predictions of anarchy from confused shoppers and merchants alike during the tax holiday Friday and Saturday and some skeptics' judgment that 7 percent savings wouldn't really matter in the end, the event was a success for Gooden, who traveled to Brookhaven because of the retail sector's variety.
With a teenage son in junior high back in the capital city, she was shopping hard for winter clothes, shoes and school uniforms. Best of all, Gooden no longer has to rely on Tennessee's sales tax holiday.
"I'm just glad we got (a sales tax holiday)," she said. "We usually go to Memphis to get their clothes."
Danitra Martin made the trip down Interstate 55 with Gooden, and she too managed to take advantage of the sales tax holiday. After buying three pairs of shoes at Beyond the Rainbow, she had saved $20.
"The baby needed shoes," she said. "It's a big deal when the taxes add up."
Gooden and Martin weren't the only Jackson residents in the Homeseekers Paradise Saturday. University of Mississippi student Julianne Lofton is getting ready to tie the knot, and even though Imaginations' wedding dresses were not eligible for the tax holiday's $100 per item limit, she did manage to find other items to buy while in town.
"We definitely saved some, and it's a little extra incentive if you're not sure of whether you want to buy something," Lofton said after shopping at Macy Taylor's.
Even shoppers less enthusiastic than the traveling Jackson crowd were lured into the stores by the promise of savings. Brookhaven's Stacey Ravenscraft said she was living proof the event had its desired effect of boosting business in the state.
"It did draw me out of the house. Without it, I would have been home, working in the yard," she said. "But every little bit helps, and when it's on sale, it helps even more."
If shoppers were pleased, business owners and managers were even more so.
Brookhaven's Willette Porter, a district manager for several Factory Connection outlets in South Mississippi, said her stores were reporting a solid two days.
"It's been pretty profitable for everybody," she said.
Repetitions Manager Elaina Anders said her consignment shop on Whitworth Avenue did triple business during the tax holiday.
"We were swamped from open to close," she said. "The customers love it, and they're benefiting from it."
And while confusion over exemptible and non-exemptible items on the Mississippi State Tax Commission's expansive list of "dos" and "don'ts" no doubt occurred, Anders said there were no major problems at her store.
"It seems to be pretty straightforward," she said. "(Customers) seem to understand it's strictly clothing and shoes, and I haven't had that many questions on it."
Over the Rainbow co-owner Bonnie Beach said her employees had been briefed on the list before the weekend, and were ready to answer all customers' questions.
Enterprise's Tonya Luper said she had seen a few mix-ups during the day concerning ineligible items, but the shoppers in question were not deterred.
"You just find out when you get to the register," she said.
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©The Daily Leader 2009
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