EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – While Texas tax-free weekend has come and gone for Borderland shoppers, Downtown El Paso businesses saw sales increase due to large crowds. Those seeing a positive increase in sales included Jane and Jensen Nostalgia Shop and La Negrita.

This was the first year Jane and Jensen Nostalgia, along with owner Darlene Escandon, were opened during the annual sales-tax holiday. The shop was visited by customers who normally do not make their way Downtown while they were shopping for essential school items.

“Any little boost that we can get into the Downtown area helps out alot, not just to go to your malls to major stores and retailers, but small businesses see an impact when we have activities like this in Texas or citywide, like we had this weekend because our sales jump up a little bit,” Escandon, owner of Jane and Jensen Nostalgia.

Escandon’s neighbor, La Negrita also saw a boost in their sales over the weekend. Manager Marcos Arvia expressed his gratitude as the store saw a difficult year after having to close for an extended period of time.

“Everything helps. We were closed in December, because I don’t know if you know the street was closed because one of the buildings burned so everything helps. Right now, there’s a lot of people Downtown and it’s going good,” Arvia said.

As small business operators in Downtown El Paso, both Arvia and Escandon understand that shoppers often look to big box stores or malls for their tax-free weekend shopping. However, with support from across the state and Mexico, they are grateful to those who choose to shop with local small businesses.

“Here in El Paso, the great thing is that we are so close to a border city, to our neighbors here in Juarez and them walking over, them crossing the bridge, also to take a lot of advantage of the sales that were here. We see those sales jump opposed to local sales as well,” Escandon said.