Not really, it’s in the state’s best interest to protect the people and businesses who actually do business in the state. What they are doing is putting internet retailers on the same footing as brick and mortar stores.
Plenty of people go to their local store, check out the physical merchandise, then go online and order it.
The state is protecting their local workers and businessmen from unfair competitive advantage.
BUT:
e-rosion
(on line purchases)
e-bay
It was a joke, Get it?
Or maybe I just need some time off. Sheesh.
People like you always find an excuse for adding taxes. And yet you label yourself as a conservative.
You can argue yourself til you’re blue in the face.
My argument: no new taxes and cut taxes.
Besides, you can construe competition to be unfair in so many different ways. It doesn’t fly that this is unfair competition. Let people buy where they want and keep gov’t out of it.
BS! By the time you pay the shipping charges you saved nothing by not paying the taxes.
The reason people buy online is to find what they want at a reasonable price. The taxes are a moot issue if the shipping eats that and more.
People buy mail order (catalog or internet) because of savings in cost (retail pricing) and selection. They already have to factor postage into their purchase (which runs against the savings from income tax).
Ever try on some pants? Ever find that 3 pair with the same cut and sizing don’t fit the same? I won’t mail order clothes because the craftsmanship sucks and I have to try something on before buying (unless it is a t-shirt) but anything else is fair game.
Should online retailers have to limit their offerings since brick and mortars are limited to what they have floorspace for?
Netflix has unfair selection offerings over Blockbuster’s storefronts too. But brick and mortar stores have instant gratification, you make your purchase and have the item in hand. Unless they are out of stock. In which case they will tell you they will ORDER an album or book for you. When it is a piece of clothing that is out of stock in my size, they just say “sorry” and I have to go to another branch of the chain or give up altogether. But once a brick and mortar tells me they will “order” something, I can just go to the internetz and order it myself.
If the state really wanted to protect it’s businesses, it would lower or get rid of sales taxes altogether instead of forcing business to be their tax collectors.
This is about finding and milking additional revenue streams to continue their excessive spending and pork strewing behavior.
It is never in the best interest of the citizenry for the state to suck up every penny and shakedown businesses for every half baked spending idea they come up with. The state creates no wealth, it only consumes it.
One thing business does not need is attempts by legislators to protect us or help us be competitive. What they need to do is gtf out of the way and stop milking us.
(I own a B&M and sell online, if you aren’t doing both you’re going to be extinct. Even locals shop online and then drop in to pick up their stuff. If they’re elderly they often prefer to have it shipped for convenience).
Plenty of people go to their local store, check out the physical merchandise, then go online and order it.
The state is protecting their local workers and businessmen from unfair competitive advantage.”
Let’s see-——
With your theory, the customer is looking at the actual item in a brick and mortor store, and then going to the internet and paying for shipping, just to avoid the sales taxes. That doesn’t add up, IMO.
If the price is the same, and it is not a big ticket item like a car, then I will leave the store with the item, as I have spent time and gas to go to the store to browse, and the sales tax will not be a deterrant for me.
What is the part you fail to mention is that the local stores have a higher overhead, and compound that with a snotty, under-experienced sales force, who are fairly useless. Therefore, I might buy something on the internet which will make it worthwhile to pay the shipping and wait a few days IF I am saving a substantial amount of money.
More and more, shopping in the brick and mortor stores is a case of trying to get communication with the sales force. No experience—no idea of personal grooming—arrogant comments when the topic is anything computer/HD TV. They are supposed to be there to serve me and answer my questions, and all too often I get condescension.
I have left more than one store with a basket full of stuff because a clerk couldn’t care less to answer my questions or because I didn’t like the face full of metal and screws and pins.
As I said before, I work for an online retailer. However, we weren't always online retailers. We were a brick and mortar company (and still are in our home location)...but 10 years ago, when noticing that online was where the future was, the company evolved to a 90% online business.
Any brick and mortar can also have an internet presence and sell competively on the internet. All it takes is a website, paying for google adwords instead of newspaper ads, and signing up and using the many collection tools that are now available to online reatilers. UPS will set you up with shipping.
I don't buy the "online is unfar to brick and mortar" argument, one bit, because anybody can be an online retailer.
then how about lowering the tax rate on the sale of in state items.... It protects no one, it only hurts the in state businesses, cause they can't get their vig from the till.
Ever wonder why Hong Kong, an area with minimal natural resources, limited infrastructure and small populace is the number 1 economy in the world? It's not because they charge a sales tax..... to protect it's businessmen.