Norfolk County

Store owners hoping for big boost in business during tax-free holiday weekend

NEEDHAM, Mass. — This weekend is the annual Sales Tax Holiday in Massachusetts. On August 14 and 15, shoppers will get a break from the 6.25% sales tax on most retail purchases on items less than $2,500.

Food, alcohol, vehicles, tobacco products, boats, and more do not qualify.

Online purchases will be tax-free as long as they are ordered and paid for before midnight Sunday.

“We’re hoping people come out to grab stuff for the tax-free holiday,” said Garret Graham, owner of Needham Garden Center. “For us, it’s great! It puts a lot of money in the checking account over that one weekend.”

Graham said despite the oppressive August heat, snowblowers will be the most popular item sold this weekend.

“You just have to get over the fact that you’re buying a snowblower when it’s 95 degrees out,” Graham said.

Learning Express owner Paul Sahgia told Boston 25 News his toy store took a massive hit during the pandemic. He said sales were down at least 50% last year, and 2020 was the worst year his 28-year-old store has seen.

“There were no birthday parties, and that’s big for our store,” said Sahgia. “With that gone, it was just tough trying to get people in.”

He’s hopeful the tax-free weekend coupled with some trendy, hot-ticket items will bring his store a big boost in business.

“We’ve got a squish mellow obsessed couple of kids,” said Dave Capozzi of Rockland. “For us, it was just kind of like it’s the trend right now, and it’s tax-free, you know, all that kind of stuff is an incentive for us to get out. We’re going to get more than we usually would get.”

Many shoppers told Boston 25 News they’ve been eagerly awaiting this weekend.

“This weekend, we’ll buy all the stuff we need,” said Pete Loeb of Needham. “We needed stuff anyway, so you know it’s better to shop when it’s sales tax-free.”