This weekend many responsible shoppers took to the stores to snag tax-free deals on clothes and shoes and many other special deals and offers.

Among the shoppers was Vickie Henderson who was doing back-to-school shopping for her children, Hope Lee, 15 and Jonathan Henderson, 9.

“We started here at the outlet mall, and my daughter is down at Rue21,” she said. “We’ll probably check out the mall, then we’ll end up at Walmart where we actually have to get the supplies like paper and pens.”

Henderson says she tries to do back-to-school shopping on tax-free weekend every year.

“It may not seem like it saves much, but it does,” she said. “Every little bit helps.”

Taking advantage of deals like tax-free weekend helps families cut costs and save money, Henderson said.

“It’s wise spending,” she said. “We’re on a budget, and we do financial planning. This helps with that.”

Outlets at Vicksburg marketing and events manager Mani Chansparith said the outlets saw a great crowd of shoppers, especially shoppers with children Friday.

“We made sure to get the word out about Mississippi tax-free weekend to our neighboring state of Louisiana,” she said.

Chansparith said the stores opened early Saturday to give shoppers a head start.

“We distributed sheets of eligible items to stores and shoppers,” she said. “For stores that don’t have any eligible items under the tax-free sale such as Kitchen Collection, they offered additional discounts on top of the discounts that are already in place.”

Special savings were offered elsewhere around town as well, including The Dragonfly, a specialty gift shop located downtown on Washington Street.

Owner Shanon Shealy said the store has some wearables, but the majority of the items in her store were not eligible for the tax-free sale.

Shealy said they were offering discounts, “just to make it a little more of an incentive for all of the local people to come and shop,” she said.

Shealy said she’s seen more activity downtown than usual with the sale and she thinks the additional ice cream special put on by the Vicksburg Main Street Program helped.

Vicksburg Main Street Program invited shoppers to scoop up the savings by offering them an ice cream cone from Biedenharn Coca-Cola Museum for every $25 they spent in downtown shops.

Museum employee Sena Blackledge said the museum had seen increased traffic over the two-day sale.

“It definitely encourages people to come in here,” she said. “They get a free ice cream cone.”

Blackledge said some have come in for the ice cream and end up staying to see the museum and buy other items.

“There are a lot of local people who know we’re here, but some who might not have are stopping in,” she said.