August 1, 2006 

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Seventy-two percent of retailers surveyed by the Marketing and Industrial Distribution (MKID) program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and the Alabama Retail Association support this weekend’s back-to-school sales tax holiday, the state’s first.

In April, the Alabama Legislature passed a law designating the holiday and waiving the state’s 4 percent sales tax on certain back-to-school items. Counties and cities were allowed to join in, and more than 200 cities and counties have agreed to participate by waiving taxes for the same three days, 12:01 a.m. Friday, Aug. 4 to midnight, Sunday Aug. 6.

Among retailers most affected by the holiday, 55 percent plan to raise their inventories and 65 percent plan to increase the number of retail employees they are staffing this weekend, the survey said. Any increase in retail sales should help boost the state’s economy, said Bob Robicheaux, Ph.D., executive director of UAB’s MKID program.

“The more we spend in retail stores, that number is turned over again and again in the economy,” Robicheaux said.

The survey of 191 members of the Alabama Retail Association was conducted between July 21 and 27. The poll was part of the first of a series of surveys measuring retail sentiment in the state.

Morris “Mickey” Gee, UAB marketing instructor, said July and August sales figures from this year will be compared to the same numbers from last year to get an indication of whether the holiday takes a bite out of business from July or later in August. Still, Gee is encouraged by what he has seen from other states with the holiday and from the sales tax numbers in Alabama the past year.

“I predict that August sales tax collection will be high,” Gee said.