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Shoppers across the Triad this weekend sought out deals and filled their shopping carts as they prepared to send their kids back to school.

The state’s sales-tax holiday, which ran from 12:01 a.m. Friday to 11:59 p.m. Sunday, drew crowds to places such as Best Buy, Target and Kmart.

In spite of the economy, some retailers said they expect to do a little better this year than in years past.

“It’s been great; we’ve seen a big increase in traffic,” said Mike McFalls, a supervisor at the Best Buy on South 40 Drive in Greensboro. “There are a lot of must-haves, like broadband cards and eReaders for people on the go.”

Clothing of $100 or less per item, computers of less than $3,500 per item and supplies such as notebooks, pencils, crayons and calculators of less than $100 per item were among the goods exempted from the sales tax.

“Everything on sale -- we want some of it,” said Kim Wardlaw, who was shopping at Kmart on Bridford Parkway and had a grocery cart full of book bags, rulers and pencils. “We wait for this weekend every year; that’s when we get what we need.”

The sales-tax holiday, which started in 2001, is expected to save shoppers about $14.5 million this year, according to state Department of Revenue estimates, up from about $12.3 million last year.

Nationally, Americans will spend an estimated $68.8 billion on back-to- school shopping, according to figures from the National Retail Federation, up from about $55 billion last year.

Individual families, however, are expected to spend slightly less — $603 compared to $606 last year.

At Best Buy, a line snaked around the store’s computer department. McFalls said tablets were especially popular this year.

“You can do a lot of things on tablets that you can do on a PC,” he said. “And they’re portable. You can download text books on them, games, do PowerPoint presentations. They haven’t replaced PCs, but they’ve become pretty important.”

Joyce Rhodes, who was with her son, Ronald, was among the many shoppers seeking deals at the electronics store.

“I’m a couponer, so I’m always looking for the best deals,” she said. “In the past, we’ve always gotten school supplies, clothes at this time of year.”

Robbie Rivardo and her college-bound son, Vance, were among a few dozen people waiting in line at Best Buy on Sunday afternoon to pick up a computer.

“We’re getting a Samsung laptop,” she said. “And we also went to J.C. Penney, bought all his clothes. We’ve probably spent about $2,000 today, so all told, we’ve probably saved close to $200.”

At Kmart, Assistant Manager Renee Westmoreland said that in addition to the usual school supplies, school uniforms have been selling briskly because several schools have recently adopted them.

“Earlier, it was pretty busy,” she said. “Just been selling a lot of school supplies, not a whole lot of perishables.”

One of those filling her carts at Kmart was Linda Cockrell, who was buying supplies for her five grandchildren.

“We’ve gotten everything today,” she said after checking out with several bags worth of clothes, crayons and binders.

“We’ve been to Dick’s for football stuff. We’ve been to Aeropostale. We’ve already spent probably about $800.”

The lines also were long at Target, with the cash registers spitting out receipts by the yard.

“I’ve bought supplies for my daughter, who teaches at Hasty Elementary (in Thomasville),” Pat Church said. “Folders, crayons, scissors. She has to buy a lot of her own supplies.”

Contact Robert C. Lopez at 691-5091 or robert.lopez@news-record.com