Anyway, everytime this story is posted, there is invariably a discussion of Amazon.com and how everyone wants them to start charging sales tax so that there is some kind of price parity between online stores and brick and mortar stores, presumably so people would have more incentive to patronize the latter. The argument has some folksy appeal, but let's not get too out-of-hand:
Outside the halls of state capitols, Main Street is also feeling the sting.
"They can come in my store and look at it... they can touch it, they can feel it, but then they can go home and order it online... and not pay sales tax," says Kristin Kohn, owner of two brick-and-mortar stores in downtown Indianapolis. Kohn has found it increasingly hard to compete with out-of-state online retailers who aren't collecting the local 7% sales tax.
Ms. Kohn makes the incredibly obtuse (or disingenuous, take your pick) argument that the 7% sales tax is to blame for losing business to online retailers, when a) any tax savings is far outweighed by shipping fees that are not charged at the B&M store, and b) the real issue is suboptimal pricing. The aforementioned store Ms. Kohn runs is called Silver in the City, where you can purchase All Cakes Considered for $24.95. Amazon price? $16.47. Add 7% hypothetical tax to the price for a total of about $17.62, and I'd still opt to order it. If she is selling that book for $16.47 in the store, I'm sympathetic to her argument, but I doubt she is.
I do understand that she cannot match Amazon's price in-store because of overhead costs and smaller economies of scale, and I am not saying that she should, but to implicate sales tax as a major factor in lost sales is badly missing the point.
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