Tax free school week blues

[Rosakala]

I think I actually hate this week more than I do the Christmas season. The fitting room has been absolutly awful this week. I am heartily sick of cranky parents and kids.

Mom: No you can't wear that it's too short!
Kid: But Mooom! ::stomps off to change::

Better yet the Moms who get pissed off at me because I won't let their precious diddyums in the fitting room with them. He's 10 yrs old he does not belong in the womens fitting room! I'm sorry we don't have a family fitting room, but you really need to get over your paranoia or you need to have a little more trust in your kid. :P~ (We're okay with boys 7 and under going into the womens side. )

Also the fitting room is NOT the bathroom! I am getting so tired of having to clean that up. Thank you so much for leaving me the Kleenex you kindly cleaned yourself with and the tags from all the jewelrey you stole. I was so very pleased to have touched those tags before discovering they were wet.


On the plus side though I have been privy to some very funny conversations.


Mom to son in fitting room: How could you forget to put on underware!

Little girl to Mom: Is this a naked people store or a clothed people store? (I'm not really certain I want to know what caused her to ask that in the first place. Did security miss a naked person walking in the store? )

[alphaboi]

I really don't want to know about the bathroom thing ! I used to hate back to school shopping when I was a kid. My used to took me into the dressing room until I was about 8/9, but even after she let me go by myself I still had to show her how everything looked and get her approval. This lasted until I got a job at 16 and started buying my own clothes.

[hawkchick11]

Ahh yes, tax free weekend... I'm still having nightmares from last year.

I'm really sad I'm still on maternity leave and get to miss it this year.

/sarcasm

[Rine]

Rosakala, it'll be all over on Sunday. That's what I keep telling myself. It'll be over on Sunday...Why can't it be Sunday yet?

I closed the children's cash wrap today by myself and it was darn frustrating. People are so messy! It looked like a bomb went off in the kid's department.

And I think if I have to argue with a customer over what's taxed and what is not taxed, I think I'm going to just explode. I don't decide the taxability of items, the state government does and if you don't like it, tell Jeb Bush, all right? Don't bitch at me about it.

[Imogene]

Tax Free School Week actually managed to work it's way into the Chesterfield store one year. I came in for my shift one day, and Old SM tells me a little bit about how it all works, and to call him if I need any help, then disappears.
I was more confused about "What the hell is a movie store doing with tax free for school?"
We had a very limited supply of items that actually fit the requirements, including: TShirts (Wha?)
Pencils (ones related to Family Guy or Simpsons... yeah, okay, cause Junior certainly can't learn without a pencil that reads "Whose leg do you have to hump to get a dry martini around here?")
Notebooks (with Simpson family-shaped pages, for taking wonky-shaped notes... of course!)
Two pocket folders (which cost all of 50 cents by that point, from how long they'd been in the store.)

Of course, you know there were people trying to get movies tax free.
"Junior absolutely can't learn if he doesn't have his GWAR movie playing in the background, his homework isn't done until Finding Nemo is over!"

[Barefootgirl]

What is tax-free school week? I'm assuming that it means that no tax is levied on school supplies (but you know what they say about assuming...). I can understand things like pencils and folders, but what about clothes? Do clothes count, since I know a lot of state/public schools don't actually wear uniforms?

Over here, most schools have generic uniform, with one or two specific "uniform" items. So for example, the primary school at the end of the road requires the children to wear black or grey trousers or skirts, with a school polo shirt and a school sweatshirt. The polo and the sweatshirt are bought from the school, but any "school uniform" trousers or skirts are acceptable. The big supermarkets stock a good range of uniformwear, which caters for every school, really.

[LostMyMind]

Tax-free week in Florida is a special state event that allows no sales tax to be collected on any "school" supplies. This means $50 or less clothes (it's not just children clothes, you can buy adult cloths tax free), most supplies (pencils, paper, pens, art supplies, etc.....)

It's the horror week, my mother didn't know it was tax-free week and went to the mall. She said most of the shops were in chaos. Of course every high end clothing store was having sales to bring most of their clothes to the under $50 line. For the stores, it's a god-send week to boost sales. For the workers and the sane, it's semi-organized chaos where nothing will be where it should be within 5 mins after stores open.

[Jester]

Tax free week....bliss?

One of the advantages to living on my Tropical Island Paradise is we don't have those packed malls y'all have up on the mainland. And after hearing over the last few days about this Tax Free stuff, a small, dimly lit light bulb went on over my head. "Duh...you LIVE in Florida, you nitwit. Go get that backpack you've been needing!" See, the backpack I have had for a while is, for all intents and purposes, and much to the amusement of my coworkers, falling apart. And BECAUSE I live on my Tropical Island Paradise, the local stores don't always carry such things as backpacks. But...back to school...tax free time....ding ding ding ding ding!

New backpack: $14.00 or so, after the sale discount was taken off the $19 price tag.
Wait in line: One minute.
Backpack aisle: after I found the one I want, left the aisle the way I found it...slightly in disarray, but not trashed.
Old backpack: Dead, but doesn't know it yet.
Amusement listening to the horror stories of those of you up yonder: Complete and total.

Forgot that clothes are cheaper now too. May go check the store again tomorrow night.

[pbmods]

Tax Free? So what?

I don't get it. What's the big deal on tax-free stuff? Isn't that basically just a 6% off sale (insert your local sales tax rate where indicated)?

Or is it kind of like a, "I'm going to need it; might as well get it while it's tax-free"?

Never mind what those sales tax dollars could have gone to...

[lordlundar]

It's more of a "I'm stiffing the corrupt goverment" approach. If the truth was known (we just lowered the price on it) then it's labelled as a very poorly done sale. But you're getting back at the goverment, so it's different.

[LostMyMind]

I don't get it. What's the big deal on tax-free stuff? Isn't that basically just a 6% off sale (insert your local sales tax rate where indicated)?

Or is it kind of like a, "I'm going to need it; might as well get it while it's tax-free"?

Never mind what those sales tax dollars could have gone to...

In some areas of FL, sales tax is 7 to 9%. It was done to give lower income folks a break. And since nobody took advantage of it when you could submit the paper work and get what you spent in taxes back. They decided it was much easier all around to just give everyone the tax break for one week.

Florida (government wise) get enough money from just tourist and business taxes. But if you think of it this way, Florida is mostly tourist and retail, there are only a few "production" type business. By having this one week of tax-free, you create a increase in sales for that week (for a good cause even at that). Alot of folks depends on that no-tax to still have money left for food after buying clothes and supplies. 6% of $300 is $18. I don't know about you, but I can buy a week of food with $18. $300 is a dent when it comes to enough clothes and supplies for 2 or 3 kids for the year.

[TNT]

We never have sales tax on clothes in Pennsylvania, but apparently Maryland does. I wouldn't say that all Marylanders shop in PA, but enough do to be noticeable in the southern part of the state. (My guess is that high gas prices have offset any advantage, but who knows? I've seen people drive 20 miles because something's a dollar cheaper at another store.)

A few years ago, PA used to have two weeks when computers and computer equipment were tax-free. Now that was fun. I don't think we do it anymore, but I could be wrong.

[MystyGlyttyr]

Tax free weekend is always the same week/weekend as my birthday. It's come in handy a few times, hee hee.

Other than that, no real use for it aside from making me more cranky than usual in public.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Good thing I don't have to deal with any tax-free weeks.

Back to School is terrible as it is. It's even worse than Christmas because you have to deal with all the kids touching everything and making a huge mess. It would be nice to have a person assigned to BTS and doing nothing other than straightening the department after all the grabby kids have been through it, but I think that person wouldn't be able to keep up anyways

[toolbert]

It's more of a "I'm stiffing the corrupt goverment" approach. If the truth was known (we just lowered the price on it) then it's labelled as a very poorly done sale. But you're getting back at the goverment, so it's different.

actually, in some cases without a proper reseller's license some items can't be bought without paying tax. There are some items, I believe, that can't be purchased on a reseller's license so that company has to pay tax to the big G and loses out on getting that back.