Merchants pleased with business brought by sales tax holiday

Three days of tax-free shopping for school-related items put Cape Girardeau on the retailing map.

Joyce Hunter, marketing director for Westfield Shoppingtown West Park, said some major chains there outsold their counterparts in urban markets over the weekend.

Steve Maxcy, general manager of Best Buy, 33026 William St., said his store did exactly that.

"We were swamped, it was fantastic," Maxcy said. "A lot of stores in St. Louis were charging the tax and we far exceeded their sales. I think it was great for the city. We pulled a lot of business from Illinois and surrounding towns."

"A lot of stores are gauging their progress against some of the stores in the St. Louis area," Hunter said. "In some cases stores here were leading the district or beating some of the stores in the St. Louis metropolitan area."

Hunter summed up the weekend at Westfield in two exuberant words: "Yikes! Wow!"

Most people don't realize it, Hunter said, but when customers drive into the parking lot at Westfield Shoppingtown, they're recorded on a counter. Foot traffic in the common area of the mall is also recorded as customers walk from store to store. Hunter said that Friday's count showed a 50 percent increase in customer traffic over the same time last year. Numbers were not yet available for Saturday and Sunday, she said.

While most people took advantage of the drop in sales tax on back-to-school items, they also bought non-exempted items, ate in restaurants and bought gasoline.

The state Department of Revenue records sales tax receipts on a quarterly basis, so it will be several months before anyone can see exactly how much of an increase the area experienced.

Hunter and Maxcy said the past three days were comparable to Christmas holiday shopping or the sales after Christmas. Leslie Koller, assistant manager of Kmart at 11 S. Kingshighway, said he wouldn't go that far, but he did see a higher volume of sales in stationery and clothing items over the weekend.

"We had a lot more traffic than normal," Koller said.

All three merchants said they would like to see the sales tax holiday become an annual event.

"I feel very positive about the wonderful cooperation between government and retail," Hunter said. 'We were able to generate additional sales tax dollars, and help people with their pocketbook."

lredeffer@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160