Small businesses prepare for tax free weekend and back-to-school shopping

BILOXI, Miss. (WLOX) – Everyone’s favorite weekend, tax-free weekend, is right around the corner.

Mark your calendars for July 12-14 to get your back-to-school essentials tax-free.

With some schools starting back at the end of the month, stores say this is one of their busiest seasons.

Back-to-school means shopping for both students and teachers which takes a while to prepare.

“We’ve been prepping for a few months,” Bella Rose Lead and Keyholder Abbie Franks says. “We got a bunch of back-to-school clothes like jeans and comfy tops. We have stuff for teachers as well like dresses and blouses and jeans for them as well.”

Some stores even handmake products in bulk to prepare for the big numbers of shoppers.

“We’ve just been making jewelry in bulk because we make all of our stuff at production so we have our girls back there making all of our bracelets, necklaces, earrings, and candles and everything like that so we have everything ready to go for tax-free weekend and everything stocked up,” Victoria Lynn Sales Associate Layla Soto says.

While a lot of work is involved for the tax-free weekend, owners are excited about the heavy traffic coming through the doors.

“Just hoping to have some good traffic and have some fun while working,” My Kind Of Place owner Raj Khanna says.

And it is not just the stores preparing for shoppers.

Food court restaurants are perfecting their lineup and even cooking double to satisfy shoppers as they take a break from picking through the racks.

“We just buy more, we prep more and we do more,” Big Ben Barbeque owner Benjamin Amos says.

More information on tax-free weekend and the changes this year can be found here.

WLOX is also collecting school supplies for students. A list of needed supplies and donation sites can also be found here.

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