By NEAL WAGNER / City Editor

For the past few years, one weekend shortly before the first day of school has brought a Black Friday-like feeling to Shelby County’s large retail areas.

In 2006, Alabama officials announced the state would not charge its usual sales taxes during the first weekend of August on certain back-to-school items, such as clothing, computers and school supply items. Shortly after the state announced the holiday, Shelby County and most of the county’s municipalities also agreed to not charge their usual sales taxes during the tax-free weekend.

This year, Alabaster, Pelham, Chelsea, Calera, Columbiana, Hoover, Westover, Wilsonville and Montevallo have agreed to participate in the holiday, which will run from 12:01 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 5, until midnight on Sunday, Aug. 7. As of July 21, Helena and Harpersville had not verified if they will participate or not, according to the Alabama Department of Revenue. Vincent and Wilton will not be participating.

As a result of the holiday, many local back-to-school-friendly retailers in the county’s busiest commercial areas said they have seen a significant business boost during the annual weekend.

“It’s a very big day. We don’t have to hire any additional employees like we do during Christmas, but we do have to staff properly for that weekend,” said Don

Koch, manager of the Belk department store in Alabaster’s Colonial Promenade shopping center.

Koch said his store primarily sees a rush on clothing items during the tax holiday weekend, but also experiences higher business in other areas.

“It really is more of a focus on the clothing areas, but we do see higher sales in the home areas, backpacks and things like that,” Koch said. “It definitely has grown every year.”

John Lapari, an executive at the Hoover Super Target store off U.S. 280, reported a similar impact at his store.

“We mainly see a pickup in the soft lines department, which is our clothing area,” Lapari said. “Everyone wants to buy their back-to-school clothes during that weekend. “We will sell some school supplies that weekend, but it is primarily a big weekend for our soft lines department,” Lapari added.

Because the tax holiday includes many types of school supplies and electronics, stores such as Staples in Pelham’s Keystone Plaza shopping center on U.S. 31 see a rush during the three-day span.

“We sell a lot of flash drives, highlighters, notebooks, folders, things like that during that weekend,” said Steve Hanna, an assistant manager at the store. “We also sell a lot of electronics, especially laptops among the college students.”