Whichever legislator came up with may have thought it was a good idea, helping people save a little money on their kids’ school supplies and new clothes for the school year. HEck…young mothers even save on diapers! Aren’t they the lucky ones?
But they did not think about the sort of tortourous hell retailers must endure year after year. Hordes of pimply teens clutching god awful amounts of cash, throwing clothes all over the place. Harried parents screaming at their kids to hurry the fuck up or they’ll be leaving them behind. Mad Moms in Minivans circling the parking lot like some sort of evil vultures seeking the perfect spot. Retailers gone rabid from customer overload.
Every year, I pray I don’t have to work tax-free weekend. There are too many customers to even THINK about, everybody gone mad for saving a little money. ANd to make things worse, in our area, they even advertise this kind of stuff as far away as Bossier City,LA and Stillwater, OK and I think even in Mexico.:eek:
CG comes home with less hair than he started out with because idiot customers insist that computers, Ipods and other such techie accessories are a bonafide school supply and therefore qualify for tax exemption.
Tempers overheat and overflow from long lines, short supply of certain items (like the latest version of Nike or whatever), the roar of the crowd, the sheer overwhelming body heat from the crowds that adds to the already scorching Texas summer temperatures. The din is enough to make one deaf and the crowds will drive one crazy.
I’m sure you earn vacation time where you work, right? Just plan in advance, and put in for those days off.
As for when you have to work, I find in situations like these, accepting your fate and no longer fighting it is the best way to deal with it. If you’re not trying to fight it, you don’t stress out as much. In opinion anyway.
Jaade–that is absolutely correct.
Last night we were bombarded with hungry patrons, screaming to hurry up with their food, they had more shopping to do. I had things that had been slobbered on hurled at my face by whining babies who were being kept out much too late by pushy parents who had to buy more more more.
Even as I was leaving last night around 10:30 (the mall closed at 10), people were banging on the gates of stores, begging to be let in to shop some more.
jwhee–I’ve been looking and with the help of some Doper buddies, I’ve beefed up my pitiful little resume but there is, as of yet, no new job offers forthcoming.
Although I did get a nice postcard from Nordstrom’s saying they’d keep my application/resume’ on file.
Oh well, there is ONE bright light at the end of this dark tunnel. I have to close tonight and then tomorrow, I am supposed to be off (if they don’t change the schedule on me) and I’m going to see Pirates of the Caribbean.
I worked in a mall record store during a tax-free weekend. Amazing. Nothing in our store was tax-free, but we were packed all day with people generously giving back some of whatever they’d saved.
The Saturday was the same day we got two brand-new people. We were too busy to train them on the registers, so they were stuck all day fielding questions from customers in a store they’d never been to before. I felt so sorry for them.
IDBB, if you want, drop me an email with your resume. I’ve worked for a temp agency and one of my primary duties was rewriting and restructuring resumes to make them stand out to prospective employers. I know you’re a smart woman and you deserve more than to work in fast food. I’d really like to help you out - you helped me out with some kind words when I posted about my cats being sick, and I’d like to reciprocate. Plus, I have some stuff that might help you improve your skills and get a better job somewhere.
Yes, it is well known about in Mexico. Which is really fucking stupid, as the manifiestos set-up around here gives Mexican nationals an easy way to recover ALL sales tax on purchases made in Texas.
“Lo siento, este computadora no es pinche TAX-FREE! GRARRRGH!”
Ah, the joys of working retail so near the border I could break windows in Tamulipas with a slingshot off my patio…
I think I’m missing something. People are swamping stores and putting up with that B.S. to save 6.25%? I can see how that could be significant on major purchases, but school supplies? I don’t see how anybody’s gonna save more than $10 or so. Sheesh. Some folks will spend a dollar to save a dime…
An Arky, basically almost all clothing and shoes under $100 are tax free for this weekend. If you pretty much have to buy new school clothes all at once anyway, you will save quite a bundle. Kids go through growth spurts and sometimes need a whole new wardrobe at the beginning of the school year.
It’s sheer madness. I tend to buy only one or two items of clothing at a time, so I wouldn’t save that much anyway. I believe that the sales tax in Tarrant County is something like 8.25%, which WILL add up over a couple of hundred dollars.
Well, IDBB did say “school supplies and new clothes”. If kids’ clothes are exempted, too, parents who buy most of their kids’ cooler weather clothes that weekend could save a bundle. Whether it would be enough to justify putting up with the crowds is another matter. I wouldn’t think so, but the same closet masochists who get up at 4 a.m. on Black Friday to wait in a parking lot for the privilege of fighting thousands of others for the five must-have fad toys the store is offering at half-price, probably get real satisfaction out of dragging Junior and Pwecious out of bed to swim upstream through the shopping millions in search of three-ring binders and blue jeans.
Of course, on a normal day getting flodjunior to try on jeans rates just below getting my nipples removed with a fork on the torture scale, so maybe I’m not the right person to comment here.
IDBB, courage! The weekend is half-over. When you get home Sunday, treat yourself to a soak in a hot bath and a double serving of your usual Soothing Beverage, then come back and Pit the bastards to hell and back. We’ll be here for you.
In Texas, only clothing that is regularly priced under $100 is exempt this weekend. NOT school supplies. However, any item listed as tax-exempt right now stays that way if placed on layaway.
Quail Springs Mall and Penn Square Mall had a tax free weekend this weekend. With sales tax at over 8% and News 9 saying we Okies spend an average of $400.00 per child on back to school clothing and supplies*, that tends to add up. Many of the stores (Dillards, Foley*s, JC Penney) were also having their end of Summer clearance.
So, it was quite busy. The OKC no longer has to go to Texas to go into a shopping frenzy.
*don’t request “Cite?” on this. It was on the local TV news. I have no way to link to my TV audio. Just go to your Time Machine™ and look at Channel 9 at 6:40 or so a.m this morning.
Well I managed to survive last night somehow and today, in about oh…an hour or so I’m off to the mall to see PotC. Yaaaaaaaaaaaay me!
Yesterday, I spend almost a half an hour just looking for a parking spot and when I DID find one, it was way at the back of the lot. It’s been almost as bad as Christmas this weekend.:eek:
And flodnak–yes…I know EXACTLY which parents you are talking about. Shortly after I got married I went to work for Best Buy. CG and I worked in the same store and on the day after Thanksgiving, we both had to be there around 3:30 AM to prep for the 6 am crowds. Down the block in the shopping center from the Best Buy is a ToysRUs. At 3:30 (and probably before!) there were parents lined up all the way down past the Garden Ridge (which was like 2 blocks away from the ToysRUs), most of them with young children who were sleeping/crying/yelling/ in Gerrypacks,strollers, carriers, what have you. All because their parents were insistant they attempt to be one of the first 400 in the door to recieve…a Pokemon play mat. :rolleyes:
Am I wrong, or do people end up paying *more[/i[ during tax free weekends than normaly shopping days? The 8% or so savings is nothing compared to the 20 or 25% sales that are so common, except for the days when tax-fee hysteria already has shoppers worked up into a shopping frenzy. I think it’s a sham.
