Again here is the problem I'm talking about. Here in my town I have a business who stocks for a rural area where the #1 business is still farming. This business is around 15,000 sq. ft. They carry washers, dryers, refrigerators, mowers, saws, weedeaters, dirt bikes, some plumbing, nuts ,bolts, tractor supplies, auto supplies, trailer supplies, and anything else which would support those products. So you should get the picture of this type of store we are talking about. They have excellent customer support, are a mom and pop operation. Now just about every state a business has to pay a yearly assessment tax. So this particular store last year 2017 paid an assessment on just inventory alone $75,000. Then the assessment on their fixtures alone which include all counters, racks, bins, computers, registers, shop tools, shop racks, fork lift, company truck, even the lights was $67,000. The building was assessed at $45,000. These are all tax which must be paid by March the following year which come to almost 1/4 million. On top of that they collect the sales taxes, have to pay income taxes and to top it off property taxes. How can they afford all these expenses after paying the light bill, phone bill, insurance ,wages, and their mortgage? By raising the cost of the product. And the owner both he and his wife pay them selves 100,000 per year for the both of them who are in their 70's put in 12+ hour days, live in a modest house and drive older cars and the wife still sells real-estate on the side. As with most brick and mortar stores like this most of the equipment and inventory is purchased with borrowed money. This is the reason you see many small business with a store front closing and the ones who are still operating having a streamlined inventory. What you all do not realize is brick in mortar businesses are all but history for this reason cause everyone is buying internet for many good reasons. Internet businesses are not susceptible to these assessment taxes and in most cases do not have to collect sales taxes. But probably next year or maybe sooner the internet will have to start collecting sales taxes not for the state they do business out of but to the states the product is shipped to. This will put many businesses like me out of business since there is no way I could afford to collect and send in these taxes. Just one example is Illinois which throughout the state there are over 100 sales tax rates I would have to figure, do the paperwork and send them their sales tax. That is just one state out of 50. And then what do I do if I am audited by say California. In the meantime States are complaining about loosing the sales tax while putting businesses out by excessive taxation which causes businesses to jump on the internet ban wagon. Now that the states won the right to collect sales taxes and have just about eradicated the small business through taxation their next step is and some states have already begun the process of collecting assessment taxes on any business. My point here is that to blame the brick and mortar business for high prices is like blaming the toilet paper for your diarrhea.
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