There already is a level playing field.
Online, you pay shipping charges but not sales tax.
In a bricks-and-mortar store, you pay sales tax but not shipping charges.
I live in a rural area of Maine, and some items simply cannot be purchased locally.....the small business owners usually do not have the item I’m looking for.
Then there are the antiques and vintage items sold on eBay and other web sites. Some of these items are rare and, in other cases, one of a kind.
Amazon should tread carefully lest they kill the goose that laid the golden egg.
This is incorrect. It is not the government's job to create level playing fields. Second, you are wrong about bricks-and-mortar stores not factoring in shipping charges into the price. They've already shipped it to your neighborhood and that is reflected in the price.
You make a choice whether you want to save time and energy and not leave your couch to buy your item or whether you want to take a look at it and get it instantly without waiting for it. The prices of the items will reflect the prices of these conveniences.
I live in a rural area of Maine, and some items simply cannot be purchased locally.....the small business owners usually do not have the item I’m looking for.
Yes, the more remote your location, the costlier it will be to ship it there and the carrier may charge you more. You cannot demand that the government ensure that you pay no more than a shopper where competition has beaten down the prices.