Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Skeeter Bug who wrote (90046)	3/5/2001 1:55:29 PM
From: hdl	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 132070

gtw may be in some states; wmt must be in (practically) all. but a wmt store is not an amzn store. even gtw and barnes and noble treat their .com business as separate. amzn.com would more arguably be separate from wmt

To: Skeeter Bug who wrote (90046)	3/5/2001 3:07:52 PM
From: starhawke	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 132070

Re: "however, can amzn's punk business plan take the sales tax hit by having a presence in the states where wal-mart does business?" - This would have fairly little impact on their business plan. The customers pay the sales taxes on their orders, not Amazon. There will be some relatively small initial infrastructure costs to enable the correct charging of sales tax, and even smaller outlays to maintain it, keep it current, etc. But it certainly would raise the cost of an order to the end user (not AMZN) for those who pay enough attention to notice their shipping & handling and tax charges. Which means all of a half-dozen people, because the vast, vast, vast majority do not even bother to read about what the shipping charges, taxes, delivery times, shipment methods, order processing time, etc. for online orders even ARE, before placing their orders!! S PS. 'sides, it's all most likely a moot point. It will be set up to maintain as tax-free a status as can possibly be attained. At least until several states band together and sue such entities as Barnes & Noble.com into oblivion. B&N.com is a separate company from BN, which 'permits' them to side-step (temporarily) the issue of taxation in most states. **This is all just my very humble opinion, as the corporate papers say differently. But it all depends on what your definition of 'is' is, no?! Very small <g>