Albany vendors see long lines for tax holiday | PHOTO GALLERY

ALBANY — The lines were long Saturday with shoppers taking advantage of an automatic 7 percent discount on Georgia’s annual tax-free weekend. While even senior citizens benefitted, the price cuts applied mainly to school-related purchases, such as clothing, school supplies — including paper, pencils, binders and book bags — and many computer-related items.

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Kimberly Mallory of Albany said she always times it right to save money when shopping for her 13-year-old son, Jameil Moore.

“We waited for the tax-free weekend so we could save,” Mallory said. “It’s really worth it. We’re here at JC Penney now for clothes and shoes, then Belk’s and TJ Max. We’ll need school supplies after that. Paper, pencils … the list is long.”

Mallory said she figures to save as much as $60 to $70 in bypassing sales taxes for the items.

“I’m shopping for my fiance’s daughter, Makayla,” said Tabetha Williams of Ellaville. “We’ll need shirts and pants and maybe some shoes if we can find them. She likes to wear dresses all the time, but I’m tired of the dresses so I told her I was picking out her clothes this time.”

Williams said she shopped for school supplies Friday, and her savings, when added to the clothing purchases, will be around $100 for her fiance. Although she missed the tax exemption for her own children’s purchases by shopping two weeks earlier, she got some “pretty good deals,” she said.

The anticipated tax-free holiday began on Friday and ran through the end of Saturday, and vendors were jammed with customers eager to take advantage of the savings. In fact, to attract even more business, many of the stores at the Albany Mall and elsewhere were slashing prices overall.

According to a National Retail Federation’s retail insight center monthly consumer survey of more than 6,400 adults, 29 percent of households with school-age kids had planned to spend more than last year for back-to school items, compared with nearly 24 percent who said the same thing leading into 2014 back-to-school shopping.

As for college students and their families, nearly three in 10 planned to spend more this summer, up from 23 percent last year.

To help retailers and shoppers, the Georgia Department of Revenue issued guidelines on the sales tax holiday and what items would be eligible for exemption. Items that qualify include school supplies, school art supplies, school computer supplies and instructional materials purchased for noncommercial use with a sales price of $20 or less per item.

Joyce Luke, the manager of Southern Pastimes at the Albany Mall, was a little nervous early in the day on Saturday, she said, when the store was mostly bare of customers.

“But our time is in the afternoon, when the young ladies and their moms have shopped for school supplies and basic clothes in other places,” she said. “When they’re finished with that they’ll come around. I was quite proud of our sales on Saturday.”

Luke said Southern Pastimes sells a lot of themed T-shirts and other specialty clothing and items.

Jill Carr and her brother, Jim Davidson, said they were a little disappointed after trying to buy a laptop computer at Staples Saturday when her No. 1 choice was sold out.

“I found the one I really wanted, and I guess everybody else wanted it too because they’re out of it,” Carr said. “I picked out a No. 2 choice, but they’re out of that as well. Now they’re checking to see what they do have. If it saves a little money, it’s worth it.”