purplecape - 2:09 pm on Jun 26, 2009 (gmt 0)

the majority of things I have purchased from Amazon I wouldn't have purchased from a local brick & mortar store.

So if there was no such thing as online shopping, you just wouldn't have bought them at all? They were luxury items, impulse buys? I think that makes you unusual. Most people buy things they need online, whether at Amazon or some other company. In some places, that has had a real impact on bricks and mortar stores--I live in New York, and there have been several specialty bookstores closed due not to competition from Barnes and Noble but to loss of sales from Amazon. And that's just one example.

If current trends continue, it's possible to imagine companies like Amazon locating in friendly locations (like banks do in Delaware) and gradually draining sales tax revenues from other states while also killing off B&M businesses.

The issue won't be solved by state-by-state action, though. I understand there is legislation in Congress that would create a framework for dealing with this--which would probably benefit us, because it would remove the incentive for companies like Amazon to stop working in individual states.