South Carolina's annual back-to-school "Sales Tax Holiday" -- the state's popular three-day sales and use tax break on traditional back-to-school purchases -- is just a week away.

The ninth annual tax-free weekend begins at midnight Friday, Aug. 1, and concludes at midnight Sunday, Aug. 3. During the long weekend, the state's sales and use tax is lifted on purchases of clothes, shoes, school supplies, book bags, computers, computer parts, printers and more. South Carolina shoppers typically save about $2.8 million in sales tax during the event.

While there are concerns this year about how much energy costs will impact people's ability to spend, there are predictions of a busy back-to-school shopping period.

Spending this year on students in kindergarten through 12th grade should be a bit more robust than college back-to-school spending, says Mike Gatti, executive director of the National Retail Federation trade group's Retail, Advertising and Marketing Association.

The reason: Many moms and dads, who typically foot more or whole of the bill for younger kids, are armed with federal stimulus rebate money.

"Parents are saving those rebate checks," Gatti says. "They comprehend they have some big purchases" to make, such as clothes and computers.

Yet, even with extra cash in hand, Gatti says, parents will be sensitive about price. "This is definitely going to be a challenging year" for retailers -- and incredibly competitive, he says. In addition to playing up discounts, look for marketers "to do some attention-grabbing stuff" to lure buyers.

What better time to put the emphasis than the tax-free weekend?

It the third busiest shopping period of the year, exceeded only by the weekend after Thanksgiving and the weekend before Christmas. In past years, retailers not offering tax-exempt merchandise have cashed in on the busy shopping weekend by holding special sales or paying the state's sales and use tax for their customers. Expect more of the same this year as retailers search for business in down times.

South Carolina adopted the sales tax holiday in 2000 and in following years, Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee have also implemented similar tax-free weekends. This year, each will hold their tax-free weekends at the same time as South Carolina, which could lessen business in border areas.

School supplies are big business -- and at no time is that business bigger than a week from now.

Items exempt from South Carolina sales tax Aug. 1-3 include clothing, accessories such as hats and handbags, hosiery and footwear, computers and software, printers and printer supplies, pens, pencils, paper, binders, notebooks, books used for educational purposes, book bags, lunch boxes, calculators, towels, bed linens and pillows. For complete information on exempt and non-exempt items, visit www.sctax.org.

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