While brunching and knitting last Saturday, I heard that a particular LYS was holding a 20% sale. I popped over in search of very dark colorways for my current Kureyon dalliance.
The LYS in question is not really my kind of place. Give me cerebral, practical, crunchy, or decadent and I'm pretty happy. Give me manufactured chic and I am out of my element.
After looping around the store a few times, I realized that the Kureyon stock was restricted to half a dozen skeins, keeping company with a few other oddballs. While deciding on notions, I noticed a customer negotiating at length during checkout. The clerks discussed the transaction after her departure, though with limited eavesdropping powers I could not plumb their attitude.
While a clutch of beading enthusiasts was clearing the register hurdle, I noticed a small sign clarifying the terms of the sale.
SUZE: So the discount is 15%, and the Massachusetts tax holiday this weekend brings it up to 20%?
Clerk: Yes. There's been a lot of confusion about it, which is why I made the sign.
SUZE: I can certainly understand why. You know what the problem is? Yarn isn't taxed.
Clerk: It's not?
SUZE: No, it's not, or at least you shouldn't be taxing it. Yarn is not taxed anywhere else in Massachusetts. Anyone buying yarn would expect a true 20% discount based on the advertised terms of the sale. However, you are only offering a 15% discount on tax-free items.
The Kureyon leftovers contained mostly skeins of 172, a colorway of black, dark charcoal, pine green, and reddish brown fairly suitable for my purposes. I bought three skeins, and additionally two crochet hooks and some row markers.
- Tax holiday savings (on hooks and markers): $ 0.41
- Cost: $28.70, with discount of $5.05.
- Discount expected: $6.75
I've concluded that there's little reason to return to this store, and not over the cost of a tall coffee at Starbucks. These days, I poke my nose into yarn stores looking for inspiration or camaraderie. Feeling suckered pretty much squashes any chance of finding either.
yarn is tax free? cool. i just found out that tampons are taxed here in oz because they're a luxury. is that the same in the u.s.? luxury, huh?
who decides this tax stuff and are they sober?
Posted by: ihatetoast | 26 August 2008 at 03:30
That sucks about the shop. But I do like to think that yarn's tax-free status is a sign that someone in the MA legislature loves knitters and wants us to be happy. Also, from now on I am going to tell myself that all my yarn was purchased at a 5% discount.
Posted by: Ariel | 25 August 2008 at 12:40
Sorry you had a bad experience. But enjoy the yarn anyway!
Posted by: Rebecca H. | 23 August 2008 at 09:56
Tax Holiday? If that means that people don't have to pay taxes for the day, how did your state go about getting that and can we have it too?
That store sounds pretty sad. We don't have to pay provincial tax (8%) on yarn, but we do have to pay 5% GST.
Posted by: Dorothy | 21 August 2008 at 21:40
Yarn isn't taxable in PA either - it is verrrryyyy surprising that they wouldn't know the tax terms in the state they're doing business in.....
Posted by: diana | 21 August 2008 at 08:03
Ug! That's awful. Sorry I suggested it :-(
And I want my tax money back!
Posted by: Hanah | 19 August 2008 at 17:28
So, one wonders if the store has been taxing yarn all along....
Posted by: colleen | 19 August 2008 at 13:27
It is some special Massachusetts thing that yarn isn't taxed? 'Cause trust me, in California it is taxed in full. We don't have any of those state wide tax holidays either.
Posted by: Nephele | 19 August 2008 at 11:14
wow. I am surprised by the fact that they are a yarn store that does not know that yarn is not taxed. Don't know what store that is, but I can understand why you would not go back :-)
Posted by: britt | 19 August 2008 at 09:03