And as far as sales taxes? California just started charging sales tax. Texas began a few months ago. Many states are getting on this gravy train.
I suspect Amazon is not willing to sell Wal-Mart the Kindle for the bulk price Wal-Mart is willing to buy them for. And that makes all the difference here.
Booksellers tell me that people come into their stores, see a book they like, and right there order from Amazon.
As a side note, the Kindle Touch is freakin’ awesome.
My nearest Walmart displays its Kindle offerings by showing a framed black-and-white print of a cell-phoneish photo of a Kindle displaying a “the battery is dead, please recharge” message. I’d say it’s a fluke but that goes for several models of Kindle.
Someone’s not taking product promotion seriously. No surprise it will be dumped.
California has always expected the internet buyer to pay "use" tax for items that were not assessed tax by the internet seller. What has happened now is that Amazon will assess the tax and probably raise prices to everyone for the overhead this extra "service" entails. CA sales taxes vary with different state, county and city rates. It requires regular maintenance of the tax rate database to correctly calculate the value, then the additional overhead of forwarding the tax collected to the Franchise Tax Board in CA. We all lose as a consequence of caving in to the CA demands.
In other news...
Walmart has announced the introduction of its own Kindle-like device.
It will be called the WalPad and will be available by Christmas at the introductory price of $7.88.
Target was mad not just because Amazon sold similar products on their website, but because Amazon has apps that they were running commercials for showing people HOW to “showroom”.
Can’t blame Walmart and Target for this one.
The nook line is so vastly superior, it isn’t surprising.
I wouldn’t think of going to Walmart for a Kindle when I can just make a few clicks on my computer and have one at my house in 1 or 2 days.
In our house, we have 5 Kindles (of various models) and a Kindle Fire that I bought for myself when it first came out. Today I ordered the new Kindle Fire HD for delivery tomorrow.
We also have an iPad 2 and an iPad 3. For my uses, I prefer the Kindle Fire - I’m very much an Amazon-centric person. When I use a computer, I want one with two monitors and lots of hard drives. For me, an iPad just doesn’t do anything I need more than a Kindle Fire.
But again, I can’t imagine why anyone would buy a Kindle from any place other than Amazon.
—— “Showrooming” I like that. -——
Retail will never go away, but we may live to see retailers charging admission to see products also available on-line.
Nothing will keep women out of their favorite stores, and guys would view it as a cost of doing business.
I preview stuff at Lowes all the time, and I’d pay a $2 cover.