The State | 08/02/2008 | A welcome break: Economy brings out new shoppers for tax holiday
Manage your account
Get home delivery
NEW! Digital E-State
Search
Logout | Member Center | Sign in to Classifieds
Jobs
Cars
Real Estate
Apartments
Shop Local
All Classifieds
Legal Ads
Create an Ad
Find an Ad
Find a Job
Keywords:
Location:
News
Breaking News
Local/Metro
Crime & Courts
S.C. Politics
S.C. Education
Talk About Town
Bertram Rantin
Living Here
Neighbors
Nation
World
Weird News
Sports
Opinion / Letters
Obituaries
Business
Entertainment
Life & Style
Events
Online Extras
Multimedia
Discussion Boards
NIE
Books
S.C. History
Special Sections
Columbia Connect
Weddings
Building Our City
Site Services
About The State
Contact Us
News by dodge natinal cerket finals rodeo Email
News by Mobile
Past Articles
How to Advertise
Photo Reprints
Maps & Directions
RSS Feeds
Yellow Pages
Carrier Application
All jobs at The State
SOUTH CAROLINA'S NEWSPAPERTM
• Front page
• Metro
• Sports
News > Local / Metro
Local / Metro
Posted on Sat, Aug. 02, 2008
reprint or license print email
A welcome break: Economy brings out new shoppers for tax holiday
By NEIL WHITE - [email protected]
C. Aluka Berry/[email protected]
Columbia residents Cameron Lamson, 10, left, helps her sister Casey Lamson, 7, pick out a book bag at Target on Two Notch Road during the first day of tax-free weekend. The girls mother Jennifer Lamson said that she waited until the tax-free weekend to buy book bags because that are one of the more costly school items.
Tax-free weekend: What's on the list and what's not
S.C. Sales Tax Holiday
When: Through midnight Sunday
What’s tax-free: School supplies, sneakers, computers, jeans, backpacks, towels
What’s not: Toys, eyewear, furniture, music CDs, watches, cookware
Complete list: www.state.com/paycheck
Curtis Hall of Blythewood has traditionally ignored South Carolina’s tax-free weekend.
Not this year.
On Friday morning, he carried two large bags full of clothes out of Kohl’s on Two Notch Road and loaded them into his Dodge Caravan along with his family of four kids, who range in age from 5 to 16.
“And we just dodge wheels got started,” he said with a smile, noting that they were on the way to the Village at dodge where is the jack located Sandhill.
The tight economy drew many shoppers to Midlands stores Friday for the kickoff of tax-free weekend, which runs through midnight Sunday. State officials predict sales this year could come close to the record set during the first tax-free weekend in 2000.
Shoppers have made South Carolina’s tax-free weekend the third-busiest shopping period of the year, surpassed only by the weekend after Thanksgiving and the weekend before Christmas.
Hall said rising gas and food prices made shopping on tax-free weekend a priority, unlike in the east tn dodge past.
“My express purpose was to wait until today to save some cash,” he said. “I’ve got a $1,000 budget. I’m trying to keep it under that.”
That means he’ll save $70.
“That’s a tank full of gas actually, which helps me out tremendously,” he said. “I budget everything these days — clothes, food, every aspect of it — to make that dollar stretch as far as we can.”
Jennifer Bonovich spent last weekend checking out computers at Circuit City on Two Notch Road, but she held off making a purchase until Friday. By waiting a week, she saved $126 in taxes on the $1,800 HP laptop she bought.
“I could have bought it last week, but I waited to buy it today,” said Bonovich, a Columbia resident who’s preparing to head to the University of Georgia’s veterinary school.
The rising cost of living has Bonovich constantly on the lookout for deals, especially with $15,000 in annual school costs coming to the married mother of a 1-year-old daughter.
“Anything I can find for free or cheap, I do,” she said.
Both Bonovich and Hall wanted to beat the crowds before they really pick up today and Sunday.
Shoua Yang, a manager at the Target on Two Notch Road, said the early birds dodge t137 were out when the dodge tioga battery diagrams store opened at 8 a.m.
Early-bird shopper Chris Hass was on the hunt for school supplies for his four kids, from pre-kindergartner to second-grader.
“We wanted to get here at 8 before everything got picked through and too crowded,” Hass said. “The kids thought it was Christmas morning. They knew they were getting a lot whole of new stuff.”
He and his wife, Tricia, who both teach in Richland 2 schools, will spend around $200 each on their own school supplies and probably close to the same amount on their children’s.
Next they were headed to Office Depot for more supplies and then to Stride Rite dodge challenger colors for shoes. With money tight and gas prices so high, he’s happier his wife’s drive to her new school is 12 miles shorter this year.
Sue Saulnier filled up a Target cart with sheets and towels on the first supercharger dodge charger of several stops on the day. She expects to spend about $1,000 to prepare for her son, Mikey, to dodge truck restoration plastic parts head to USC for his freshman year. “We’re getting clothes, too, so it could be more,” she said.
Mikey smiled at the thought and said. “What you save on the tax, you can spend a little more on dodge ram spotlight the dodge dakota 8ft clothes, right?”
In years past she didn’t bother with the back-to-school weekend push. Usually on the first weekend in August, the family is on vacation at the beach.
Patrick Scarlett, a grad student at USC in law and dodge recalls ram business, tries to avoid driving to save money, riding a bike from his Rosewood-area home to his summer job at a downtown law firm. But he parts for dodge was willing to drive out to Northeast Richland to save money on his computer at Circuit City.
“That’s why I showed up at 10 o’clock. My old laptop recently broke, and I was scoping them out online,” he said.
Spending $650 on a computer and printer, he saved $45 in taxes.
“This is the big thing for me. I don’t even know what else is included in tax-free weekend,” dodge dynasty he said.
Combined with another $260 he’ll save with mail-in rebates, he’s making the most of his lean budget.
“I’m living on student loans. Anything I spend is money I don’t history of dodge ball have,” he said. “But I couldn’t go back to school wiring prodigy to dodge ram without a functioning laptop.”
Mary Miles likes to save on gas as well. That’s one reason why she stayed in town at the Five Points shopping village with her daughter, Mary Katherine, who will be wc dodge command car a sophomore at USC. Miles likes the easy access of the quaint dodge myspace layout row of shops.
“You’ve got a cluster of stores here within walking distance. You’re not spending a lot on gas,” she dodge dart reproduction sheet metal said.
It didn’t take Mary Katherine long to spot something she liked hanging in the window of Mary, a clothing shop.
“I’m getting that green dress right there,” she said.
TODAY'S MOST VIEWED STORIES
Gamecocks Aug. 2 practice report
After long wait, King ready to prove himself
Family struggles occupy safeties coach Cooper
Princeton Review ranks S.C. colleges: Are they right?
'Pristine and so beautiful'
Florida DB Confirms Gamecock Commitment
Agency lays off 10 TERI workers
Stock watch, injury report, more
Spurrier Updates Williams and Others
USC picks custom dodge trucks up top-10 recruit
BREAKING NEWS VIDEO
News |
Business |
Sports |
Entertainment |
Living |
Shop Local |
Classifieds |
Jobs |
Cars |
Real Estate
About TheState.com |
About the Real Cities Network |
About the McClatchy Company
Terms of Use |
Privacy Policy |
Copyright |
|
|
