WORCESTER – Despite morning and early afternoon soaking rains Saturday, the first day of the state’s two-day sales tax holiday proved to be anything but a washout in the area.
Businesses, both large and small, reported brisk business for the day as shoppers looked to take advantage of a chance to forgo the 6.25% sales tax on purchases priced under $2,500.
With businesses having to adhere to COVID-19 social distancing and store capacity requirements, it was not uncommon to see lines of people waiting to get inside some stores.
And unlike other sales tax holidays of years past, masks/face coverings were required of all customers in the stores.
"I got here early this morning and there were people already clamoring to get in," said Nicole DiCello, owner of Bedlam Book Cafe, located in the Crompton mill building at 138 Green St. "This (sales tax holiday) seems to have given us a boost. Business has been great all day. It seems almost like old times."
DiCello’s nearly 2-year-old business has had to deal with the one-two punch of construction in the Canal District and COVID-19. She was forced to close her store to the public in March because of the pandemic.
While she was able to do online sales while the store was closed, her overall sales had dropped by as much as 80% to 90%.
Since reopening, DiCello said her sales are still down by about 50%, but she was encouraged by the response to the sale tax holiday.
"It certainly helps," she said. "It’s taken a longer time to come back than I thought, but I feel we’re over the hump now unless we have to close down again."
Business was also brisk at Seed to Stem, also located in the Crompton mill building. There was a line to get into the shop and lines at the checkout register.
Co-owner Kristian Solfiell said the business was closed for five months because of COVID-19 and didn’t reopen until about a week or so ago.
He said he was so happy to see the public’s response.
"Business has been really good today and we are very pleased with that," he said. "We took a little longer to reopen because we wanted to be on the safe side. The public’s response since we reopened has been fantastic and a (sales tax holiday) like today certainly helps even more."
Solfiell said he noticed that some people seemed to take advantage of the sales tax holiday by purchasing higher-ticket items that they may not have purchased if the sales tax was still in play.
Crompton Collective, an antique and artisan store on the lower level of the Crompton mill building, was also quite busy.
Owner Amy Chase said people were clearly taking advantage of the tax-free weekend and shopping a lot for office makeovers and children’s desks for remote school learning.
"Things are great!" Chase said. "We are happy to be back open and that Governor Baker had a tax-free weekend to give us small businesses a little boost after the year we have had.We will just keep chugging along. We are happy to be open."
As has often been the case with tax-free weekends, appliances and big-screen televisions were popular among shoppers.
Raymond Grimaldo of the family-owned Better Electric on Grafton Street, which was established in 1948, said as busy as things were Saturday, even more sales took place over the past 30 days through preorder. Those orders were then charged Saturday so they could take advantage of the tax savings.
Grimaldo said one of the frustrating things has been being able to get the inventory he needs for his customers. Taped to a glass partition outside his office is five printed pages of back orders that he is still waiting on.
When the COVID-19 pandemic first hit, he said some companies were forced to close their manufacturing factors for three to four weeks. And even when they reopened, he said they were only able to operate at one-third capacity for a while.
"It’s been frustrating trying to get inventory, but the public has been great," Grimaldo said. "People understand what is going on and they have just been great about it."
Meanwhile, Brody Miller, an employee at Birch Alley in the Canal District, said he expected business would be slow Saturday because of the weather. But he said that didn't prove to be the case.
"It's been really good today," he said. "People seem to come in waves. One minute it's very busy and then it dies down a bit, and then it gets busy again."
Patrick Warren, book manager at the Bedlam Book Cafe, said some customers weren't even aware of the sales tax holiday.
"I don't know how much to attribute our business to the tax-free holiday because there were people who didn't even know about it," he said. "I think the sales tax holiday has something to do with how busy we are today, but there may also be those people who simply wanted to get out and do some shopping on a rainy day."
The Link LonkAugust 30, 2020 at 04:30AM
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Businesses report brisk sales on day 1 of sales tax holiday - Worcester Telegram
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