Charleston's retail calendar opens with festivals, and three of them have published 2027 dates. The Southeastern Wildlife Exposition lists Feb. 12 to 14, 2027 on the organizer's page, Charleston Wine + Food lists March 3 to 7, 2027, and the Cooper River Bridge Run lists race day as Saturday, April 3, 2027. Spoleto Festival USA, the fourth, has not posted 2027 dates. That is a tight run of short windows, and it creates a specific planning problem for a store that wants to hand out a free sample in each one: the FTC's guide on the word free says a single size of a product should not be advertised free in a trade area for more than six months in any twelve, that at least 30 days should pass before another such offer, and that no more than three such offers should run in the same area in a year. The first two festival dates are only 17 days apart and the second and third are 27 days apart. This page lays out the dates from the organizers, the local tax stack that the South Carolina Department of Revenue lists for Charleston County, and a sample plan that spaces its windows and rotates what it gives away. The state page covers the ports, Greer and the sales tax holiday, so this page leaves them there. This is not tax or legal advice.
Choose the sample and add up its landed cost, packed and shipped with the order. A sample that goes to every order costs the sample times your order count in the window, so cap the window to a number of orders you can afford. Our post on free samples with purchase has the arithmetic.
Open the first sample window on the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition weekend, using the dates the organizer's own page shows, and end it on February 14. Write the condition into the offer line, because the FTC guide says an asterisk footnote does not count as disclosure at the outset.
Source: Southeastern Wildlife Exposition: home page (Internet Archive snapshot, Aug. 11, 2026)
The Wine + Food Festival begins 17 days after the first window closes. The FTC guide says at least 30 days should pass before another free offer in the same trade area, so use a different sample product for this window, or skip it and run the next one instead.
Race day for the Cooper River Bridge Run falls 27 days after the festival ends. Treat it as a one-day window and count it toward the guide's limit of three free offers in 12 months. The guide words that limit per product size, so rotating samples is planning advice that reduces the risk, not a safe harbor.
Spoleto Festival USA's site lists no 2027 dates yet. Plan nothing for it until the organizer posts them, and do not fill the gap with a guess from a past year.
Source: Spoleto Festival USA: home page
Do not rename a sample a gift or a bonus to get around the frequency rule. The FTC guide says such substitutions do not correct an offer that fails its provisions. This is not legal advice.
Source: eCFR: 16 CFR 251.1, Guide concerning use of the word Free (paragraphs c and i)
Build it with the Free sample with purchase template.
Put a small sample in every order for the organizer's own dates and stop on the last day: Feb 12 to 14, March 3 to 7 or April 3, 2027. A short window with a printed end is easier to cost, and the FTC guide's frequency rule is why you should not run a sample offer across the whole season.
Source: eCFR: 16 CFR 251.1, Guide concerning use of the word Free (paragraph h)
February 14 to March 3 is 17 days and March 7 to April 3 is 27 days, both under the 30 days the FTC guide says should pass before another free offer in the same trade area. As planning advice, not a rule from any authority: use a different sample product in each window or skip one window, and count the offers against the guide's limit of three in 12 months.
Source: eCFR: 16 CFR 251.1, Guide concerning use of the word Free (paragraph h)
The state's page says unprepared food is exempt from the 1 percent Education Capital Improvement Tax in Charleston County. It does not say the item is exempt from any other tax, so confirm the rate for your product and address with the Department before you print a price.
Source: South Carolina Department of Revenue: Local Sales Taxes
Charleston has a run of organizer-dated festivals in the months from February to April, so a Shopify store with gift, food or home products can plan short sample or gift windows around organizer-published weekends instead of the usual retail calendar.
The Southeastern Wildlife Exposition's own page, as the Internet Archive captured it on Aug. 11, 2026, shows the 2027 exposition as Feb 12 to 14, 2027 in Charleston, SC.
Southeastern Wildlife Exposition: home page (Internet Archive snapshot, Aug. 11, 2026) (accessed October 10, 2026)
The Charleston Wine + Food Festival's site says Save the Dates: March 3 to 7, 2027, for the festival's 2027 edition.
Charleston Wine + Food Festival: home page (accessed October 10, 2026)
The festival's own impact section lists 21 years of Charleston's culinary excellence, 477,568 lifetime festival attendees and 232.7 million dollars in economic impact, figures the organizer gives without a date or a method.
Charleston Wine + Food Festival: home page (organizer's own figures) (accessed October 10, 2026)
The Cooper River Bridge Run's site says race day is Saturday, April 3rd, 2027, and lists a Kids Run, a Run for Charity and a corporate challenge among its registration categories.
Cooper River Bridge Run: home page (accessed October 10, 2026)
Spoleto Festival USA's home page thanks visitors for the 2026 season and invites them to be the first to receive updates for 2027, and it lists no 2027 dates.
Spoleto Festival USA: home page (accessed October 10, 2026)
The South Carolina Department of Revenue says that on top of the statewide 6 percent sales tax Charleston County is authorized for the Local Option Sales and Use Tax since July 1, 1991, the Education Capital Improvement Tax of 1 percent since March 1, 2023 and a Transportation Tax of 0.5 percent since May 1, 2017.
South Carolina Department of Revenue: Local Sales Taxes (accessed October 10, 2026)
The Department's page says sales of unprepared food are exempt from the 1 percent Education Capital Improvement Tax, that the exemption applies to everyone and not only to people using food stamps, and that retailers file and pay local taxes along with their state return.
South Carolina Department of Revenue: Local Sales Taxes (accessed October 10, 2026)
The Census Bureau's Vintage 2025 estimate for Charleston city, South Carolina is 159,423 residents, 168th among the incorporated places in the dataset.
U.S. Census Bureau: Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Incorporated Places (Vintage 2025, SUB-EST2025) (accessed October 10, 2026)
The FTC's guide on the word free says a single size of a product or a single kind of service should not be advertised with a free offer in a trade area for more than 6 months in any 12-month period, that at least 30 days should elapse before another such offer is promoted in the same trade area, and that no more than three such offers should be made in the same area in any 12-month period.
eCFR: 16 CFR 251.1, Guide concerning use of the word Free (paragraph h) (accessed October 10, 2026)
The same guide says an offer that is deceptive for failing the section's provisions may not be corrected by substituting words such as gift, given without charge or bonus, and that all conditions should be set out clearly and conspicuously at the outset, not in an asterisk footnote.
eCFR: 16 CFR 251.1, Guide concerning use of the word Free (paragraphs c and i) (accessed October 10, 2026)
Not tax advice. Confirm current rules with the state revenue department before you rely on a date or an exemption.
