Today, May 21st, was the start of the Hurricane Preparedness Tax Free Holiday in Florida. I went to Lowe's, Home Depot and Sam's Club and the lines to buy portable generators and gas cans were very long. It seems that many Floridians are acutely aware of the damage potential posed by hurricanes and the long recovery process.
Home Depot decided to give an additional 7.5% discount on all hurricane sales tax eligible items. The only catch is, you are not allowed to return the item(s). The big seller at Home Depot was the Coleman Powermate, 6250 watt generator. It normally sells for $599.00 but with the extra 7.5% discount, it was selling for $554.00.
It's almost identical to the genset that I own, except this newer model has a Subaru/Robin 10 HP OHV engine rather than the Briggs & Stratton 10 HP OHV engine. I was only at the store for about 15 minutes and I saw 10 of these gensets sold and being loaded into cars and trucks.
Most people also bought 8 Blitz 5 gallon gas cans to go along with their new generator. If they keep their genset at half load (about 2,500 watts), 40 gallons of gas should provide them with about 80 hours of run time. However, I'm not a big fan of Subaru/Robin engines. They're rather big and clunky and not as fuel efficient as the Briggs & Stratton models. So the engine on this genset may burn more fuel, so they may get less run time per gallon.
I also observed a lot of people buying batteries, flashlights, coolers and other tax free eligible items. The tax free holiday runs until June 1st. During the next week I intend to keep an eye on the progress of the sale. The main thing I noticed today is that all of the buyers were people in their 40's or more in age. Some of the buyers were very knowledgeable about gensets. They had done their research and compared models. Others didn't have a clue.
It was the same story at both Sam's Club and Lowe's. The most popular generators were the 5,000 watt models with the 10 HP OHV engines. Most people (who have done their research) recognize that these gensets provide the best price to performance ratio for an emergency application.
For example, Coleman Powermate makes a large variety of gensets. Some use Honda engines while others use Briggs & Stratton, Subaru/Robin or Tecumseh engines. Currently in my area, Wal-Mart has a Coleman Powermate 6,250 generator with a Tecumseh engine for $524.00. Sounds like a good deal, until you discover that the Tecumseh engine is an older side valve model (rather than OHV). These engines are gas hogs!
Wal-Mart will not sell too many of these (at least not to knowledgeable buyers). However, when the first hurricane enters the Gulf of Mexico, Wal-Mart ( and all the other stores) will sell every generator they have in stock!
Home Depot decided to give an additional 7.5% discount on all hurricane sales tax eligible items. The only catch is, you are not allowed to return the item(s). The big seller at Home Depot was the Coleman Powermate, 6250 watt generator. It normally sells for $599.00 but with the extra 7.5% discount, it was selling for $554.00.
It's almost identical to the genset that I own, except this newer model has a Subaru/Robin 10 HP OHV engine rather than the Briggs & Stratton 10 HP OHV engine. I was only at the store for about 15 minutes and I saw 10 of these gensets sold and being loaded into cars and trucks.
Most people also bought 8 Blitz 5 gallon gas cans to go along with their new generator. If they keep their genset at half load (about 2,500 watts), 40 gallons of gas should provide them with about 80 hours of run time. However, I'm not a big fan of Subaru/Robin engines. They're rather big and clunky and not as fuel efficient as the Briggs & Stratton models. So the engine on this genset may burn more fuel, so they may get less run time per gallon.
I also observed a lot of people buying batteries, flashlights, coolers and other tax free eligible items. The tax free holiday runs until June 1st. During the next week I intend to keep an eye on the progress of the sale. The main thing I noticed today is that all of the buyers were people in their 40's or more in age. Some of the buyers were very knowledgeable about gensets. They had done their research and compared models. Others didn't have a clue.
It was the same story at both Sam's Club and Lowe's. The most popular generators were the 5,000 watt models with the 10 HP OHV engines. Most people (who have done their research) recognize that these gensets provide the best price to performance ratio for an emergency application.
For example, Coleman Powermate makes a large variety of gensets. Some use Honda engines while others use Briggs & Stratton, Subaru/Robin or Tecumseh engines. Currently in my area, Wal-Mart has a Coleman Powermate 6,250 generator with a Tecumseh engine for $524.00. Sounds like a good deal, until you discover that the Tecumseh engine is an older side valve model (rather than OHV). These engines are gas hogs!
Wal-Mart will not sell too many of these (at least not to knowledgeable buyers). However, when the first hurricane enters the Gulf of Mexico, Wal-Mart ( and all the other stores) will sell every generator they have in stock!
