Most participating Haines business owners said they saw an uptick in sales during the borough’s first sales-tax free day on Oct. 19, but many said the timing could be improved.

Miles Furniture owner Candi Bradford, who paired the sales-tax free day with a 10-percent-off storewide sale, said she was busier than expected.

“I think that really pushed people to buy some bigger and higher priced items. It was an amazing day,” Bradford said. “Locals absolutely loved it. I hope we see this happen again, maybe around the holidays before Christmas or after Thanksgiving. It’s a good thing for the community.”

Haines Quick Shop manager Eric Ferrin said they also paired the tax-exempt day with a sale, and saw a slight increase in business.

Alaska Sports Shop owner Doug Olerud had a sale for his store for the first two weekends in October after PFDs were released. He said he saw little business during the tax-exempt day. “(It was) poor timing. Most people had specials for the PFD or for the Canadian holiday. (Sales tax free day) happened a week after when most people spent their money,” Olerud said. “I think it’s a good idea, they just need to come up with better dates. Black Friday would be a great day to have it, or four or five days before Christmas.”

Tom Heywood, who shopped at Oleruds, said he didn’t make any purchases he would have otherwise. “We just did what we normally would, honestly,” Heywood said. “The week before was 20 percent off (at Olerud’s). It was a nice gesture, but no, we didn’t particularly take advantage of it.”

Annie Boyce said she shopped at Haines Home Building to take advantage of the tax-free day.

By Haines, a local committee which aims to improve local spending, organized the effort, which was approved by the assembly in July. Committee member Margaret Friedenauer said when the committee planned the dates, they wanted the borough to capture sales tax revenue just after PFDs were released and when a large influx of Canadian tourists were in town.

“We wanted the sales-tax-free day to benefit locals. If we already have events people from out of town are coming for, we wanted to capture that sales tax,” Friedenauer said. “We didn’t want to do it the first weekend although we had several businesses tell us that probably would have been better. That’s something to consider if we want to do it next year.”

The borough has another tax-free day scheduled for Monday, March 2.

The Wrangell Borough also has two sales-tax-free days each year. They time their tax-exempt day on the first weekend in October to coincide with the release of PFDs and a fall community event known as “Pumpkin Patch,” said Wrangell Chamber of Commerce executive director Stephanie Cook. The borough has been offering the tax-free days for at least 10 years,

The Petersburg Borough Assembly several years ago eliminated its borough sales-tax-free days because the borough was losing about $50,000 in revenue between the two days a year, said Petersburg Chamber of Commerce manager Mara Lutomski. The borough assembly at the time also scheduled one of its days around the PFD release.