South Dakota v. Wayfair Inc.

[jeh]

Not paying sales tax is a plus on any sale, but the bottom line price with or without sales tax is not really a consideration when convenience is added into the recipe. I will gladly pay a few dollars more if I don't have to drive somewhere to pick it up. I value my time too much to go to a store for something I don't need today.

A reasonable person who receives a bump in salary will save more money or pay off bills. A government will not just add it to the pot, but immediately spend it or worse pre-spend it. I think the governor of Wisconsin has said he plans to offset spending with whatever is received so they are the exception.

The most pathetic example of government spending an unexpected surge in income is the tobacco settlement of the 90's. States won an inordinate amount of money from the tobacco companies and it was supposed to be spent on anti-smoking programs. Many believe not enough has and others note that portions of the settlement have been rolled into the state coffers to be blown on something else. The award was/is spread over 25 years, but as with all government many states could not wait. Many sold Tobacco Bonds that are funded by the tobacco companies sales pushing the risk of receiving payment to the bond holders. Some states took it a step farther and backed the bonds with secondary pledges meaning they need cigarette sales to maintain a certain level in order to make the bond payments. If sales go down the states will have make up the difference.

I don't smoke and never have, but this is case and point of the government spending recklessly whenever unexpected money is added to the coffers. In the case of smoking I don't like the government picking and choosing which products they want to decide we should or should not use. There is plenty of other low hanging fruit with alcohol and guns being the lowest.

 

[RDMuller]

I have expressed my views on this earlier on this thread.  The subject of camera stores has been mentioned. Can you believe there are NO camera stores in Chicago?  There is somthing in the far out suburbs. Why wil no one start one?  Combined state, county and city sales tax of 10.3% has driven it to B&H in New York

Let's keep the playing field level. Taxes do fund roads, schools, police and much more.  Yes there will be some waste, but that has absolutely nothing to do with this issue.

 

[cpw]

Far as people reporting, most people are probably under the 1000 bucks a year limits.  But there are some people who buy everything online.  My guess would be if you plotted it, there are the bulk of folks under 1000,  they buy a few things here and there thru the course of the year, and then there are a few people who buy virtually everything online and have 10-20k worth of stuff a year.  Not a lot of folks in the in-between ground.

"Using the sales and use tax chart below is an easy way to compute your liability for all your purchases of items or
services costing less than $1,000 each (excluding shipping and handling) that are not related to a business, rental real estate, or royalty activities."  It's easy to rack up a lot of volume, but not exceed $1,000 on any transaction; but buying a nice laptop, camera, Festools, etc. can easily exceed it in one transaction.

Otherwise the assumption is that you'll spend 0.058% for out-of-state sales tax purchases, so you'd need to make roughly $1.2MM to hit the appropriate $737 of tax owed on $10,000 of out of state purchases using the safe harbor formula.

 

[nclemmons]

I have expressed my views on this earlier on this thread.  The subject of camera stores has been mentioned. Can you believe there are NO camera stores in Chicago?  There is somthing in the far out suburbs. Why wil no one start one?  Combined state, county and city sales tax of 10.3% has driven it to B&H in New York

Let's keep the playing field level. Taxes do fund roads, schools, police and much more.  Yes there will be some waste, but that has absolutely nothing to do with this issue.

RD - Helix Camera WAS in the west loop of Chicago for years and a great camera store.  3 stories in a converted warehouse.  Looks like moved beyond O'Hare to Itasca now.

The carry most brands and cater to professionals.  Also had a robust rental inventory of lenses, lights, tripods, etc. 
https://www.helixcamera.com

Tamarkin is also an excellent camera store.  Started in NYC below the Leica gallery on Broadway.  A few years ago,  they relocated to downtown Chicago.  They are still downtown.  They cater to the Leica crowd.
https://www.tamarkin.com

 

[semenza]

The thing with all the math of online vs  going to the store is that much of the time when you factor everything in tax/no tax/ shipping/ "free" shipping , etc is that many times if not most of the time the total cost is still less online. I know shipping isn't really free but it doesn't change the fact that the all in total cost is  still  usually less online.  Not talking groceries here, or big heavy items, but pretty much  everything  else.

Seth

 

[DeformedTree]

As I noted, their will be a lot of regional variation too.  If there are few stores, online will be cheaper, plus you don't have to drive an hour to maybe find it.

I buy stuff online like anyone else, but it's not my first want.  Another aspect is the rather bizarre fact that buying stuff in person in a store lets you stay anonymous, where online were you are thousands of miles away the instantly know a lot about you and stuff you don't want them to know but it's not really possible to buy stuff online without giving information.

All of it is a balance, some websites do a proper job and get business because they made a quality site and focused on the right stuff or found a need.  Just like some brick and mortars do a good job.  I want good businesses to succeed, online or in physical space.  But just so many other things in life, once something is gone, it's gone.  Losing physical stores is a path I don't want. I don't think enough people think long term and picture how awful things will be if basically all shopping is forced online.  Not just the ecological impact, but how the competition in a lot of areas will go away, shopping will become a mystery, "what am I actually buying, what kind of quality is it", among so many other problems of online.  People have a tendency to think they can do without "the old" way of doing something until it's gone and the real issues of "the new" really start to show themselves.

Now just sit back, wait for a good solar flare to take down internet for half the world for a year.  That will get fun.  Like a super sized version of watching people who are glued to their phones try to survive someplace with no cell reception for a weekend, completely baffled the locals can survive.

 

[semenza]

As I noted, their will be a lot of regional variation too.  If there are few stores, online will be cheaper, plus you don't have to drive an hour to maybe find it.

I buy stuff online like anyone else, but it's not my first want.  Another aspect is the rather bizarre fact that buying stuff in person in a store lets you stay anonymous, where online were you are thousands of miles away the instantly know a lot about you and stuff you don't want them to know but it's not really possible to buy stuff online without giving information.

All of it is a balance, some websites do a proper job and get business because they made a quality site and focused on the right stuff or found a need.  Just like some brick and mortars do a good job.  I want good businesses to succeed, online or in physical space.  But just so many other things in life, once something is gone, it's gone.  Losing physical stores is a path I don't want. I don't think enough people think long term and picture how awful things will be if basically all shopping is forced online.  Not just the ecological impact, but how the competition in a lot of areas will go away, shopping will become a mystery, "what am I actually buying, what kind of quality is it", among so many other problems of online.  People have a tendency to think they can do without "the old" way of doing something until it's gone and the real issues of "the new" really start to show themselves.

Now just sit back, wait for a good solar flare to take down internet for half the world for a year.  That will get fun.  Like a super sized version of watching people who are glued to their phones try to survive someplace with no cell reception for a weekend, completely baffled the locals can survive.

Well I live i a rural area. But I am not far (10 - 45 min) at all from plenty of big boxes and a good many independent stores as well. In both small towns and small to medium sized cities. Same items are almost always less online. I have a hard time believing that in large cities those items would be the other way around (cheaper in the stores). Maybe the things you are purchasing are the exception? I don't know.

I do like being able to shop and get my hands on things in person, and I do like having stores available. I just don't buy it that the majority of things, in the majority of stores,  are less expensive than online.

Personally I find the combination of selection (' Oh, there are three of that item that are better than the two available in the store? ' ), and all the information available (reviews, videos, pictures, usage info, etc) about the things I am buying online make it less of a mystery about the products and quality.

I guess we just have different takes on it?

Seth