Tax Free Weekend in Massachusetts
Massachusetts state sales tax is 6.25% currently. In the past couple of years, Massachusetts has declared a tax free day, or tax free weekend. During this period of time all purchases under $2500 are free of the sales tax. This year (2010) the weekend of August 14 and August 15 is the tax free weekend. This is a great time to go out and make your big purchases. Nice time to buy the flat screen TV, new appliances, or some other electronic gadget.
So what are things looking like? In years past there have been lines out the doors! It was almost like black Friday, the day that most retailers finally operate in the black. However, that has not been my observation of the weekend yet. I was one of the good participants this year and decided to brave the stores in search of the infamous Ipad. I identified 2 stores within a 30 mile radius and decided to go the the closest. I was dreading the experience. I do not like crowed stores, but I thought that it was worth it as I have never seen the Ipad go on sale. I hopped into the car, got on rte 290 and headed to Best Buy in Worcester. Just as I got onto 290 there was a highway sign indicating that there was an accident at exit 13. I thought great, here's the start. Well much to my surprise, there was no delay. In fact when I got to the store at 10:30 am, the parking lot was 1/2 full. I found a great parking spot, parked, and entered the store. When I walked into the store I noticed it was almost empty, however when I went to the area of computer electronics it was much more crowded. At the front of the area they had set up a desk with a sign in sheet and a staff person to direct traffic. Once again much to my surprise, this was not the area I was to go to to get the Ipad. The very help full lady pointed to an apple area. When I got to the area it was almost empty. There was a mom buying her daughter an apple laptop for college, and me. I waited for less than 5 minutes, talked to the sales person for 5 minutes, and was in line for 5 minutes. Total time invested 15 minutes(approx). A very pleasant experience for me.
However, the intention of the Tax Free Weekend in Massachusetts is to stimulate the economy. The crowd did appear to be building a little more when I was leaving, but as of 11:00 am the roads and stores in my area were pretty empty.
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