Tax-Free Weekend Yields Mixed Results

Another has passed and, once again, Winchester businesses were mixed on the effects of the tax lift. Higher-end businesses seemed to have a bigger boost in sales.

“It went very well. We’re very pleased,” said Richard Malcolm of . “We even got people who were in the process of conducting a transaction [before the weekend] and decided to delay it until the weekend.”

Malcolm said those people returned to the store over the tax-free weekend, along with additional customers.

also saw its customers planning ahead for the tax-free period. Anne Robello, one of the owners, said they often work with customers over a span of weeks, designing custom treatments. Since her store typically deals in high-end orders, not paying tax can yield significant savings for customers.

“When they're making their purchases and they're aware the tax-free weekend is coming up, they're very interested in making their purchases in full," Rebello said. 

She doesn't have sales numbers for this past weekend yet, but said last year's tax-free weekend yielded $65,000 in sales.

At , salesperson Kathy Taft wasn’t quite so enthusiastic. "It was OK,” Taft said. “It wasn't spectacular, but it was OK." 

But, as owner Deran Muckjian predicted two weeks ago, didn’t see any sales increase from the tax-free weekend. 

“It really wasn’t a factor,” Muckjian said. “Honestly, it was slow.”

Though the tax-free weekend was a boon to last year, general manager Justin Giullano said it did nothing for them this year, since the sales tax on alcohol was repealed last fall.

For those who saw sales jump, though, the tax-free weekend was just what they needed in this economy. 

“To have this once or twice in the year is a shot in the arm, especially at this time of year,” Malcolm said, commenting that August is typically a slow period for his jewelry store.