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New Mexico's tax-free weekend brought crowds, but with two years under their belts, Albuquerque retailers were ready for the event's third round.

"We have it down to a science," said Ella Bench, a manager at Mervyn's. "We're constantly refolding and constantly replenishing."

Shoppers last year saved between $47 million and $76 million, according to the Taxation and Revenue Department.

Estimates of tax savings were not available this morning, but retailers said the weekend was as busy as last year's.

Over the weekend, gross receipts tax was dropped from many purchases, including clothes, school supplies and computers under $1,000.

Bench said the store spends about a month planning and two weeks preparing for the weekend.

Andre Sandoval went shopping for a computer for his children, who go to McKinley Middle School.

He decided on a $700 desktop at Circuit City.

"It's pretty crowded," Sandoval said. "We usually try to stay away from these places, because of all the people. Of course, here we are on one of the busiest days."

The tax on his computer would have been about $35.

But some people save more than that, said Eric Bolognese, a manager at CompUSA.

"Some people have really bought a lot," he said. "I've seen some of them that would have paid $200 for tax."

A $200 savings would require a purchase of $4,000.

"But 200 bucks is 200 bucks," Bolognese said.

Bolognese said his store got about 40 percent more business over the tax holiday than on a normal weekend.

Almost all of the store's employees had to work, and most of them worked longer shifts than normal, he said.

Andrew and Susanne Duvan went shopping for backpacks and a laptop at Circuit City.

Andrew, who moved from Washington about a year ago, said he didn't hear about the tax-free weekend until Saturday.

"It seems really cool," he said. "I don't think they had anything like this where I moved from. It's nice to save a little money."

Mike Ancelet, a manager at Target, said his store also uses most of its staff during the weekend.

"We make sure we have plenty of red-and-khakis out on the floor," he said, referring to the employees' uniforms. "We usually don't have people specifically for taking care of all the cardboard and packaging that's generated, but we do for this weekend."

Bolognese, Bench and Ancelet compared the weekend to the Christmas shopping season.

"The excitement, the feel and the experience are all there," Ancelet said. "There's a lot of energy around it."