Several Columbus retailers this week are preparing for a shopping event some store owners are comparing to the Friday after Thanksgiving.
Mississippi”s first sales tax holiday is scheduled to begin Friday morning, and local clothing and department stores said they are making extra preparations to handle what many predict will be “crazy” crowds.
“We are looking at it like we do the day after Thanksgiving,” Mike Law, general manager of J.C. Penney in Leigh Mall, said of the tax holiday set to run until Saturday night. “It may not be as busy as Black Friday, but we don”t know for sure yet.
“We are expecting Friday to be good, but we are expecting Saturday to be crazy,” Law added. “Because it”s the first time we”ve had something like this, it”s hard to judge exactly what the crowds will be like.”
During the tax holiday, shoppers will not be required to pay the state”s 7 percent sales tax on back-to-school and work-related items, such as school uniforms and jeans.
Although local retailers this weekend will experience their first statewide sales tax holiday, store managers said they will be filling their stores with more personnel and inventory than usual.
“We will be pushing a lot of merchandise to the sales floor this weekend,” said Melanie Growhari, manager of Sears in Leigh Mall. “We will have more staff this weekend too. As we like to say, it will be all hands on deck,” Growhari added. “We really do anticipate a great weekend.”
To better take advantage of the 48-hour holiday, some retail managers said they plan to extend their hours Friday and Saturday.
“We will be open late Friday and early Saturday, and we will have night-owl and early-bird specials Friday night and Saturday morning,” said Perky Richard, manager of Belk on Highway 45 North in Columbus. “We will be open 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday.
“We are planning on a huge weekend, and we will have more staff on hand to help us handle that,” Richard added.
J.C. Penney will be open from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday. Sears and other Leigh Mall stores will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday.
Old Navy in the Magnolia Place shopping center off 18th Avenue North in Columbus will be open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday.
Although stores must reprogram their cash registers to reflect the sales tax omission, companies” central offices will be handling most of the holiday”s technical details, according to store managers.
“They”ve reprogrammed the registers at the corporate level, and they already have everything set up for us,” said Donna Merritt, operations manager at Old Navy in the Magnolia Place shopping center off 18th Avenue North. “I think it will be a big weekend for us. We are expecting 20,000 (customers) or more during that two-day period.”
Because the sales tax holiday is aimed at giving discounts to the back-to-school and working crowd, some store officials will be catering their inventories to meet the demand, Law said.
“We have a school uniform shop set up with the colors we hope the kids will want and need,” Law laughed. “We also have a lot of young mens” clothes and jeans out, because a lot of the county schools aren”t wearing uniforms.
“Plus we have a lot of backpacks and things like that out, too,” Law added. “Honestly, I hope we are so busy that we do end up being understaffed. That would be a good problem for us to have.”
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