Tax-free weekend kicks off with sidewalk sales

The day after the Devine Street area and Five Points flooded in a thunderstorm, a steady stream of shoppers took advantage of a sidewalk sale on the first day of the state’s tax-free weekend.

The weather cleared Friday in Columbia for the 16th annual tax-free weekend, which eliminates the state’s 6 percent sales tax on select items, including clothes, school supplies and computers.

Sales racks lined Devine Street in front of Salty’s Board Shop, selling discounted merchandise that hasn’t moved off the store’s shelves, said owner Paul Goff.

Goff said shoppers between the ages of 15 and 38 frequent the store, which sells skateboards, shoes, clothing and accessories.

Goff said the tax-free weekend is more successful than Black Friday for his store. Most shoppers tend to go to malls during the day-after-Thanksgiving holiday that has creeped into Thursday in recent years.

Haley Culbreth, who is graduating Saturday from the University of South Carolina, stopped by Salty’s Board Shop after seeing a post on social media advertising the sidewalk sale.

Culbreth, who is from Myrtle Beach, said the store is one of her favorites because it is a slice of home. Not having to pay sales taxes on the two tops that she planned to buy was an added bonus, she added.

Vennawae Qualls also stopped by Devine Street to look at the sales racks Friday.

She plans to do more extensive shopping later in the weekend, buying clothes and school supplies for her daughter who is in college.

Qualls said she expects to possibly spend more this weekend than she did last year during the tax-free weekend, adding payday hit right before the weekend.

A few doors down on Devine Street, Bohemian Home had fewer items that were exempt from sales tax: only handbags, scarfs, socks and books. But the store was enticing customers by also participating in the sidewalk sale.

Bohemian Home owner Bruce Schultze said the tax-free weekend occurs when new fall merchandise has arrived in his store.

Bohemian Home also sold clothing at one point, but Schultze split off a separate clothing store in Five Points about six years ago. Since clothing is exempt from taxes this weekend, he expects more business at that store.

He expects more shoppers to get into the tax-free weekend on Saturday, when they are off work.

Schultze expects sales will never match those before the recession, saying the downturn in the economy changed people’s attitudes permanently about shopping.

Still, he said sales have been pretty stable since 2010.

This story was originally published August 7, 2015 at 5:47 PM.