re: #6 steve_davis

Regardless of whether an internet sales tax is fair or not, the reason I use Amazon has nothing to do with their failure to charge me a paltry sales tax on my orders. It’s that shipping is fast and free, what I am looking for is always there, and the price I’m offered is often—not occasionallly, but often—50% of what I would pay to a brick-and-mortar state company. Physical stores here aren’t going to get one more dime of my money simply because Amazon suddenly has to start collecting sales tax. It would possibly give me more incentive to purchase used off Ebay for bigger-ticket items.

I agree. Even though Amazon started collecting sales tax in California last year, I still shop there for the reasons you mention. There’s no point in driving all over town trying to find something that nobody carries when I can just go to Amazon and find and buy it in less than a minute.

One benefit Californians have from the new Amazon arrangement is that overnight shipping is becoming common, even though Amazon isn’t charging extra for it. Unless brick and mortar stores can figure out a new business plan, they’re going to be my last choice for shopping for anything even slightly unusual or higher end.