Tax break doesn’t produce rush to buy disaster items

By JOHN REID BLACKWELL
RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH
Published: May 26, 2008

Shoppers were out early yesterday at some local stores on the first day of Virginia’s sales-tax holiday for hurricane supplies.

But the long Memorial Day weekend seemed to prompt purchases of garden supplies, home-improvement products or backyard grills, rather than generators, batteries and other supplies.

The state’s 5 percent sales tax is being waived on those latter items and about two dozen others during a one-week sales-tax holiday.

“We’re a little busier than usual for a Sunday morning,” said Mike Sida, manager of the Lowe’s store at Short Pump. Sida said the store sold two generators yesterday morning and afternoon, but customers weren’t rushing yet to buy many disaster supplies.

“Everybody is buying [bottled] water right now because that is what people drink” on a warm holiday weekend, Sida said.

The tax-free shopping, aimed at encouraging people to get ready for hurricane season, goes through Saturday. Hurricane season begins next Sunday.

The sales-tax waiver applies to generators costing up to $1,000 and items such as first-aid kits, bottled water and cell-phone chargers costing up to $60 apiece.

A Virginia Department of Taxation study estimated that the savings for consumers could be about $2.17 million on an estimated $43 million in purchases.
Contact John Reid Blackwell at (804) 775-8123