Posted on 11/15/2018 10:44:20 AM PST by Galatians328
Big-box retailers such as Walmart, Target, Meijer, Menards, and others are suing small-town assessors and high-court judges to accept the novel argument that their bustling big boxes should be valued like vacant “dark” stores—i.e., the near-worthless properties now peppering America’s shopping plazas.
(Excerpt) Read more at citylab.com ...
Many if not most counties charges different property tax rates based on the classification of real estate. Raw land and farmland pay lowest rates. Homes, condos and apartments pay a lower rate than retail. Industrial and warehouse space is also lower than retail.
This gives another advantage to internet sellers. Not only do they pay a lower rate on the property tax, they have much less overhead upkeep. They don’t need bright shiny aisles, waxed and polished floors, cashiers, parking lots, shopping carts, or even air conditioning. Lower overhead = lower prices for the consumer. And of course if they don’t have a presence in the state of the purchaser they can shave 5%-9% off the total cost depending on the state/city taxes.
The world is changing much faster than governments will be able to keep up with. Alibaba reported it’s single biggest day of sales ever - over $30 billion worth of goods sold in a single say. Alibaba is a sort of “shopping mall” they act as the storefront for I don’t know how many tens of thousands of merchants. Amazon is similar in that regard though Amazon does a lot of its own warehousing and shipping. My point is though that, if you don’t need something immediately you can buy it directly from China - where it is probably made anyway even if you did buy it from a US retailer. No sales tax, insignificant property taxes, no retail maintenance overhead, no workers comp insurance, 1/20th per hour minimum wage etc etc .. and below MSRP retail prices. Those clamoring for a national sales tax will soon be begging for a worldwide tax.
Internet shopping, plus automated checkouts, are destroying both brick and mortar stores, and many jobs. I do a lot of online shopping, myself, but I would love to have more all-in-one online sites other than Wal-Mart and Amazon. ESPECIALLY Amazon. Wal-Mart has its own kind of evil, but it pales in comparison to Amazon’s.
Quite obviously NOT WORTH $15.00 per hour min. wage are they?
Thanks for all the great info.
BABA fell from 200 to as low as 130 recently.
it’s now at about 150.
I figured it was a buy at 140 but with the Trade issues going on, maybe it tumbles one or two more times.
Either way, i think it’s a long term winner, like you say.
That one day 30 billion number is utterly astounding.
LL Bean is great. Jos A Banks is also very good.
i may start buying online, because I never get to the stores to get the clothes i need!!
Get an LL Bean credit card——you can ship both ways free when you use it.
Order clothes,try them on,and ship back the ones that don’t suit you.
Simple——via UPS.
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If the merchant doesn’t collect it, you must pay up
keep a record and submit annually.
: )
LOL
I had to read that twice.
And now i’m on record!!
I would be embarrassed to tell 99 percent of FR folks this but you’re the exception.
I’m too lazy to get a new printer and mine won’t work so I cant print out the PO labels :)
Now THAT’S LAZY!!!
Championship level!!
I shall heed your advice.
You pop up in my posts when I least expect it and don’t even know you’re online.
You’re Very Stealthy :)
They INCLUDE the return labels-——stick on-—— they go right over the original one that was on when you received the package.
I open carefully and re-use the original packaging.
Easy.
Wow.
You’ve left me bereft of excuses :(
“You’re Very Stealthy :)”
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I post a few times——but read a lot,usually scrolling Latest Posts. I get most of my news here.
.
Not me.
I don’t shut up lol
Started using CBD oil for pain (the non high part of pot) and it’s worked really well.
Hence I am in a better mood and more talkative.
There is supposed to be NO THC in it.
Idaho taxes all sales...food included. I was buying bags of chocolate flavored whey protein at Costco in 2014. I weighed the option of buying in Idaho before driving back to San Diego vs buying after arriving. It was cheaper to wait on the whey due to sales tax on food. I was also a consumer of sugar free Rockstar drinks at the time. I purchased 4 flats of them in Idaho. CA assesses both sales tax and CRV and a higher retail price.
Not knocking their model, just noting that rural costs are lower, including property taxes in many rural counties.
In our neck of the woods an employee-owned corporation is giving them a run for the money and I frequent them for groceries more than Walmart, unless I’m looking for organic produce (they are highly-competitive compared to Wholemazon...)
It’s a staggering number indeed. But it includes a lot of industrial and B2B commercial purchases too - not just consumer goods. I don’t know if I’ve ever ordered anything off the site but have requested and received samples of items I could use in my business. And as far as that goes, the quality was the same or better than items I was sourcing from US suppliers (who, like I said, sometimes are just middle men for Chinese producers anyway).
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