TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – Less than a week after school started, shopping back to school is in full swing for many families.
News Channel 8 spoke with several shoppers who are taking advantage of the tax holiday back to school, not just sales, but also through the end of August.
“I was planning to bring this tax-free weekend back to school. We have a school list. We know we need new shoes, so all the costs we need to cover can be covered by that tax-free exemption,” said Barbie Ficken of Tampa.
This year, tax-free holidays back to school will continue until August 31st.
Sarasota County Schools are preparing to welcome students
Shopping service providers have been found loading some basic school basics into their carts.
“I shopped for about 25 students and spent like $25. It’s a total of notebooks, markers, crayons, etc,” said Detria Smith, a shopper at Tampa Instacart.
A survey by the National Retail Federation found that this is well below the average budget of $143.77 for school supplies alone.
Smith says it’s easy to stumble around sales at this time of year.
“I’ll definitely go out and check what you can do. There’s a sale you didn’t even know that you were going on,” Smith said.
One of the major differences from this year’s tax holidays is that shoppers are guaranteed to be able to rely on each year.
Florida snap recipients will not be able to purchase these items from next year
“I think it’s a great idea, like the economy does, and they’re not really helping with that, especially given that there are teachers trying to supply their classrooms,” Smith said.
That extra time buffer is worth its weight with gold for busy parents trying to stuff everything before school returns.
“I think it helps to alleviate trying to get it all done in a little bit of time, so I think it helps a lot of parents and the more time you have, the more time you have, the more time you have to plan,” said Katie Watterson of Tampa.
Sales tax holidays also apply to online shopping, as long as the company receives your order by the August 31 deadline.
