Collegiate Times

There are two occasions when the masses flock to the mall to satisfy their consumer cravings for a day of long lines and overcrowded stores ? the day after Thanksgiving and the day after Christmas. Now we can expect a weekend of this same phenomenon. Since the state of Virginia has decided to put into motion a Sales Tax Holiday for the back-to-school season, crazed and enthusiastic shoppers now have a reason to get excited about the weekend of August 5.

A Sales Tax Holiday is a temporary period (in our case, August 4 ? August 6) during which certain purchases are exempt from sales tax. The General Assembly has approved Virginia?s first ever Sales Tax Holiday, which will take place each year on the first full weekend in August. This year, the holiday will officially begin at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, August 4, 2006 and end at midnight on Sunday, August 6, 2006.

?School supplies can end up being very expensive, especially if you want to be organized,? said junior biology major, Amanda Gasser. ?I?ve bought planners and agendas before for over $30. While the relief of sales tax is not a huge amount of money, every little bit helps.?

During Virginia's Sales Tax Holiday, purchases of school supplies selling for $20 or less per item, and articles of clothing, including footwear, selling for $100 or less per item, will be exempt from sales tax. All retailers selling these items MUST participate in the Sales Tax Holiday. Sales tax exemptions do not apply to items selling for more than the amounts listed. Retailers may also choose to absorb the sales tax on other items during the Sales Tax Holiday, but they are responsible for paying the tax themselves to the Department of Taxation.

As for Tech Bookstore, ?We?re actually not holding any additional special sales, and the weekend of the sales tax holiday happens to coincide with ?Steppin? Out,? so we?ll already be busy with that as well,? said Jerry Diffell, manager at Tech Bookstore.

Steppin? Out is Blacksburg?s annual street festival that takes place the first Friday and Saturday in August. It features craft vendors, local foods and downtown merchants hold their much awaited end of summer clearance sidewalk sales.

Aside from preparations for the sidewalk sale and the Sales Tax Holiday, the Tech Bookstore manager has been preparing the computers for the sale. ?It really is a logistics nightmare for many retailers because some things are taxed and some are not,? Diffell said. For example notebook paper will not be taxed whereas computer paper will be taxed. Simple differences such as these are causing chaos for retailers? computer systems everywhere.

One student, however, isn?t all that excited about the upcoming sale tax holiday.

?Honestly, the holiday only means one thing to me. This just means that the mall is going to be ridiculously overcrowded over the weekend of August 5. A few dollars off from eliminating sales tax doesn?t make it worth the long lines,? said junior biology major Sammy Ingalls.

The Virginia General Assembly?s decision to approve the Sales Tax Holiday was unanimous. The idea was to relieve families with children in school and to help boost the retail economy in Virginia, in general. In other words, the holiday will benefit both the consumer and the businesses.

Whether or not it?s worth it to brave the multitude of shoppers is up to you to decide.