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Perry Calhoun is preparing — and hoping — for a mob this weekend.

Tax-free holidays at his West Market Street shoe store are always chaotic. But this year, Calhoun’s raising the ante, covering the sales tax on everything he sells.

“That’s an extra momentum, and we might as well seize on it ...” said Calhoun, general manager of The Shoe Market. “There are only so many dollars to go around. I’ve got to have my share.”

The state’s tax-free weekend, which offers select items for sale without the 6.75 percent sales tax, runs Friday through Sunday.

Merchants are expanding their offerings, putting out special promotions to capitalize on what will be a big back-to-school-shopping weekend.

Office Depot’s selling an $80 graphing calculator for $50. Notebooks are buy-one-get-one-free at Walgreens. Some computers are going for less than $300 at Best Buy.

And it’s all tax free.

It’s “the classic win-win situation,” said Craig Shearman, vice president for government affairs at the National Retail Federation.

“Retailers see an increase in sales and our customers are able to save money at the same time,” he said.

The weekend is like “an early Christmas,” said Rick Cranford, manager of Omega Sports in High Point. He plans to have extra staff to cover the heavy foot-traffic.

“We’re just hoping that it meets what we did last year because the last two previous tax-free weekends have been really good for us,” Cranford said.

But that may be unlikely, according to a survey by the National Retail Federation. Back-to-school spending is expected to drop by nearly 8 percent this year, from $594 per household to $549.

Americans still will shell out nearly $17.5 billion before the school buses arrive, according to the survey. Tax-free weekend offers a way for retailers to draw that money into their stores.

And for retailers already feeling the pain of the economy, it offers a way to offset previous losses, making this tax-free weekend — more so than ones in the past — a necessity for many merchants.

“It’s survival for anyone in retail today...” Calhoun said. “It’s a different America.”

With five kids — ages 5, 6, 7, 12 and 15 — in school, Melissa Drozdowski of Snow Camp spends about $1,500 a year on back-to-school purchases. Last year, she took Friday off work to beat the weekend crowds.

This year, she’ll be more selective, buying fewer name brands and weighing what items her kids need most.

She buys shoes and sweatshirts, paper and pencils — and for her first-grader, the 24 glue sticks requested by the school.

“We’re going to wait for that tax-free weekend, and just get the pain all out at once,” she said.

Drozdowski is a promotions manager for alamancemommies.com, a networking site for local moms. She said the tax-free weekend is a popular discussion topic, with lots of parents — some with kids in school and some without — looking for bargains and planning to do their shopping this weekend.

Lindsey Gillespie, a teacher at Page High School who spends up to $500 each year on supplies for her classroom, said buying during tax-free weekend is a regular part of her summer.

“It makes a big difference,” she said. “You think that you’re only saving 6 or 7 percent, but when you’re spending 300 or 400 dollars, it adds up.”

And while dropping the 6.75 percent actually offers smaller savings than many regular store sales, retailers say the psychological appeal of a taxless holiday draws shoppers.

“It seems that Americans have always hated paying taxes, going back to the Boston Tea Party,” Shearman said. “And whenever they can get one over on the government and not pay the taxes, they love it.”

Contact Tricia L. Nadolny at 373-7028 or tricia. nadolny@news-record.com