links for 2007-07-17

• 2007 State Sales Tax Holidays for Back-to-School Shopping
  Two readers passed this along -- thank you, McWhorters and spy monkeys! Oregon is a sales tax-free state, so I'm off the hook, but this could save all you non-Oregonians good money. Does the phrase "back to school" give anyone else the shivers?
  (tags: taxes money kids)

Comments

[Sean]

Don't be fooled! It's much better to buy at a sale than to buy during a tax-free day. Think about it--would you rush off to the store for a 5% off sale? (It's more in other states, of course.)

Retailers wait for these holidays because everyone is so focused on not having to pay tax. Most of the time you end up paying more than you would at a good sale AND the state doesn't get the tax revenue.

The only reason to shop on these holdays is to buy items that aren't normally on sale. For instance, a local furniture store and the Apple store don't ever have sales, so we bought the couch we'd been eyeing for months and a computer. 5% off of those items is significant, especially when the price would never have been any lower.

Of course, if you need something and time is ticking away (back to school), then just go for the best deal. If you can combine the holiday with a big sale, that's your best bet. But here in Massachusetts, there was a lack of impressive sales during the holiday, when 1-2 weeks later most of the same merchandise was 30-50% off.