Business Insider is an excellent source for social media and internet trends. Today they published Marc Andreessen’s prediction, (Marc developed Firefox while a student at University of Illinois) of the demise of local hard goods retailing due to inefficiencies of carrying inventory. www.businessinsider.com/marc-andreessen-retailers-should-be-scared-about-2012-2011-12
The author does not point out one unfair advantage on-line retailers enjoy. Internet companies like Amazon get to sell retail without collecting sales tax while our local merchants with far fewer resources still do. Think about how much money is not being collected and remitted to our local city and towns! Do you believe for a second that they don’t have the technology to pull it off? How has Amazon or a big box retailer contributed to your local school system, police or fire department?