Where a tax may be a good thing

Speedy delivery with a smile!

Amazon finally caved on the on going sales tax issue; they are making deals with the individual states to begin collecting appropriate taxes. To date, Wisconsin is not one of those states. The state trusts us to report and pay sales tax on any on-line sales as part of our tax returns, with predictable results (hey, don't look at me, I paid almost a hundred bucks last year in use tax; I'm no angel, but I'm not a tax cheat).

So why would the retail giant suddenly give up a position it has long defended? This article at Slate explains why.

Same day delivery - is it possible? In some areas, it may be. Not only will offering almost immediate gratification seduce more people over to buying from the devil's website, building the needed distribution centers will provide much needed jobs, both in the construction phases and for some level of staffing.

Because I'm lazy a bargain hunter, I generally check Amazon for prices before I go wandering out to the local stores. Because of the free shipping that comes with my Prime membership, it often happens that Amazon is less expensive. I certainly don't mind waiting two days in order to take advantage of the free shipping benefit, especially when, as the linked article mentions, oftentimes things arrive earlier.

I'm helping keep the FedEx, UPS and Postal workers gainfully employed.

So - will the prospect of getting your hot little hands around your goods just hours after you order them entice you to order more often from Amazon than trekking out to the local stores? Or do you think this is a lot of fuss over nothing?