(Columbia-AP) Aug. 1, 2003 - South Carolina shoppers get tax breaks on back-to-school related purchases beginning Friday morning midnight and running through Sunday at 11:59pm during the state's fourth sales tax holiday weekend.

The holiday is meant to give customers a break and stimulate the economy. But, Deborah Fowler, the director of the University of South Carolina's Center for Retailing, says retailers aren't that excited about the annual event and interest has been decreasing each year.

The manager at one Midlands Wal-Mart said his store had quite a crowd at midnight of folks taking advantage of the tax free holiday. Last year the store sold 60 computers and Cliff Keefe says, "We're really anticipating a lot of high ticket items. Being a college town also, a lot of students from the USC campus are taking advantage of the computer sales that we do."

People don't have to pay the state's five percent sales tax on paper, pencils, clothes, computers and dozens of other items. A family spending $100 on school clothes and supplies saves $5. A family buying a $1000 computer saves $50.

Families with several children could see the tax free savings add up. Karen Thomas grabbed groceries for a church event, but buyer beware: only certain items are tax-free, and groceries aren't on the list.

The big crowds could mean a taxing time waiting in line, but is the five percent savings really worth it? Mother of five Carrie Vandemark says it is, "Diapers and crayons and paper and pens and any of the school stuff and then especially diapers, which we go through a lot of. "

Dana Higgins also says battling the crowd is worth the savings, "I'd say when you have a bill of $100 that's a good savings or more so it's worth it coming here on a tax free weekend."

Are the stores really keeping track of what's taxable and what's not? WIS sent a Troubleshooter shopper on a spending spree.

The first stop was Target where we bought school supplies and other items. Then we went shopping at Walmart and did the same thing. No questions came up at the register, but did we get all of our tax breaks?

WIS spoke to some shoppers Friday and they said they trusted the stores and figured the stores knew what was taxable and what wasn't, so they weren't really checking their receipts. You might want to give them another look.

The Target receipt made it really easy for you to figure out what you got tax free. They have a column with a 'T' or an 'N.' The store actually didn't charge tax on a sportsbag they should have. Giving an extra break they didn't have to.

It was much tougher to figure out what you paid tax on and what you didn't at Walmart. When they gave us the receipt, they said it's in their system, there's no way to check and see what you paid tax on and what we didn't.

WIS looked at the Walmart receipt, added up all of the items that were supposed to be taxable and, according to our calculations, they should have charged us 55 cents in tax, but they actually charged us $1.04.

So, the best advice is to make sure you take the tax free list along with you to make sure that you're getting the items tax free that you're supposed to.

Exempt items include:

• clothing
• accessories including, but not limited to, hats, scarves, hosiery, and handbags
• footwear
• school supplies including, but not limited to, pens, pencils, paper, binders, notebooks, books, bookbags, lunchboxes, and calculators
• computers, printers and printer supplies, and computer software

See a complete list here>> A Department of Revenue spokesman says although some of the tax free items may appear odd, when they hold public hearings they rarely have any input.

Reporting by Rebecca Pepin and Judi Gatson
Updated 6:38pm by Chris Rees