Wrangell’s Tax-free day is coming up this Saturday, Oct. 13 and with the Front Street renovation project completed in downtown, many shoppers are expected to take part in sales and savings offered by local merchants.
Tax-free days come twice a year, with the first happening in June, and is a day when Wrangellites and visitors to the island don’t pay the city’s 7 percent sales tax.
Steve Cole, the owner of Stikine Drug on Front Street said his business was one of those most affected by the Front Street construction, due to its location between project phases.
He said he wants to encourage shoppers to get out and take advantage of all the businesses on Front Street and elsewhere in the borough that take part in tax-free day.
“The construction project was brutal to many of us downtown and we all lost a lot of business because of it,” Cole said. “Everybody needs to come downtown, see how well things have turned out, and spend their money with us.”
Cyni Waddington of the Wrangell Chamber of Commerce said the scheduling of this week’s tax-free day is meant to coincide with Permanent Fund Dividend disbursements.
“Two days out of the year the City and Borough of Wrangell approves the request of the Chamber of Commerce to allow consumers the ability to shop without paying the regular 7 percent sales tax,” she said. “The final day of shopping free of sales tax for this year was chosen purposely to accommodate the distribution of the PFDs.”
During a stop into the Sentinel office, former governor and longtime Wrangell resident Frank Murkowski, Jr., added that he thinks tax-free day is “just plain good” for the borough.
“I spoke with both the grocery stores the other day and they said it’s a very big day in Wrangell,” Gov. Murkowski said. “It’s good because people are motivated to spend, and yet save some money.”
Tax-free days started in 2008 as a way of luring shoppers from Prince of Wales Island on the now defunct IFA ferry route.
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