Amazon And New York Sales Tax

In yesterday’s NYT, Saul Hansell asks whether Amazon will lose business in New York, because customers in that state will now have to pay sales tax on their Amazon purchases. Taking a cue from an economist, he suggests that: “convenience…may be more valued by online shoppers than a not insignificant discount,” but ultimately concludes:

“Still I’m sure some bargain hunters…will start exploring smaller online stores that still are not required to collect the sales tax.”

Well…not really. True-blue “bargain hunters” value a low price over both brand familiarity and convenience. And those people were already not married to buying from Amazon. Witness Book Burro, a Greasemonkey extension that allows Firefox users to look at a book page on Amazon while simultaneously viewing prices for the same book from other sellers…as well as availability at their local library. For New York users of Book Burro, Amazon paying state sales tax is just one of many factors that allow them to decide what to buy on a book-by-book basis.

Speaking of a book-by-book basis. The fact that Amazon has to pay state sales tax does not mean Read the rest of this entry »