Sears to linger onwards for the time being

[s0me0nesmind1]

Wow that sounds like it would be a pain in the ass. It should just be that you need to collect for your own state/province. Does not matter who buys, you just charge the tax. Not sure how status cards would work though.

Correct - which is what it should (and was) for a very long time. Quill v. North Dakota used to be the de-facto ruling that regulated that one must have some kind of phyiscal presence in a state in order for them to be liable to collect it on their behalf. Wayfair just totally nixed that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quill_Corp._v._North_Dakota

The complexities of some 15,000+ jurisdictions in the US that impose a sales tax of some sort, is exactly why I'm employed We sell + Implement a software package specifically to calculate sales tax on sales (and purchases) to ensure compliance and easy filing of returns.

I think the complexities is this: Sales tax is based on the jurisdiction in which the item is consumed (or used, etc...) - this means if you're shipping a product from Texas to Louisiana - the product is being consumed in Louisiana, hence Louisiana sales tax is what takes precedence. On top of that, local jurisdictions in Louisiana may also have sales tax on top of the state sales tax (Parish's, Counties, Cities, etc..).

You can't just ship your product all over the US and charge Texas sales tax - because the product isn't being sold to someone in Texas.

 

[manly]

Agreed - Lampert ran Sears into the ground over the course of many years and it was all to his benefit. I don't think he ever seriously wanted it to thrive.

Not to defend the guy, but this is somewhat of a false conception. Yes, he did some deals as CEO that question if he was harming Sears to his own benefit.

However, the bulk of his net worth is his investment in Sears. So his net worth has hit the crapper ever since he bought Sears. I highly doubt this was intentional as many people suspect. In hindsight, Sears had a better chance of survival if he never came around but we'll never know.

Wow that sounds like it would be a pain in the ass. It should just be that you need to collect for your own state/province. Does not matter who buys, you just charge the tax. Not sure how status cards would work though.

Decades ago, this was impossible. Nowadays, it's just computer software that anybody can license.

@rh71 must be crazy. The shopping experience in Kohl's is not worse than the mayhem of a typical Walmart.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

The ambience of the stores alone is a factor. Last time I stepped in a Sears it felt like I was still in the 90s and plenty of old people. I don't know how Kohl's does it but I get the same feeling there - guess that's where most of Sears shoppers have gone. Walmart is only slightly better but they also have some weird clientele (not just a meme). Lots of people dread the thought of having to step in a Walmart. Target on the other hand is just more clean and modern with bright lights and the bold red. I'm sure all of that drives a lot of traffic.

I will never go into a Walmart for the rest of my life. No thanks, not my kind of crowd. I'll pay 19.99 at Target Instead of $19.83 at Walmart to take the high road and avoid Walmart customers, Walmart employees, dirty diapers people throw in the parking lot as well as brown bagged beers.

And even then, their prices suck. Plenty of times it's cheaper at the grocery store or Target.

Also personally, I think Kohl's is pretty good and doesn't look old at all. Business wise they are definitely not doing horrible.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Not to defend the guy, but this is somewhat of a false conception. Yes, he did some deals as CEO that question if he was harming Sears to his own benefit.

However, the bulk of his net worth is his investment in Sears. So his net worth has hit the crapper ever since he bought Sears. I highly doubt this was intentional as many people suspect. In hindsight, Sears had a better chance of survival if he never came around but we'll never know.


Decades ago, this was impossible. Nowadays, it's just computer software that anybody can license.

@rh71 must be crazy. The shopping experience in Kohl's is not worse than the mayhem of a typical Walmart.

You should not have to buy some expensive software just to run an online store though. Making stuff super complicated discourages small business. Then again that's exactly what the government want, they don't typically like small business. Try running a business out of your garage see how long you last! Some arm of government will be there to stop you.

As a side note why is it different to buy online vs in person? If I'm from out of town and go to a store I pay whatever tax is local to that area. Should be the same online.

 

[manly]

You should not have to buy some expensive software just to run an online store though. Making stuff super complicated discourages small business. Then again that's exactly what the government want, they don't typically like small business. Try running a business out of your garage see how long you last! Some arm of government will be there to stop you.

As a side note why is it different to buy online vs in person? If I'm from out of town and go to a store I pay whatever tax is local to that area. Should be the same online.

Huh, I can't decide which side of the argument you are on. On the one hand, you complain about the regulatory burden of local taxation applied to mail order. My answer is that this was solved a long time ago, and to my limited knowledge is far from a crippling burden to small businesses. We're not talking about machine learning or AI here, just a database for looking up a tax rate based on postal code. Heck, many small businesses in the U.S. have wholeheartedly farmed out the entire fulfillment process to Amazon. Amazon already collects sales tax for items it sells directly, so applying these locally determined rates to FBA orders is trivially simple.

And I agree with your opposing "side note," that online orders should not get preferential treatment vis a vis B&M sales. This is partly why many B&M retailers have struggled, or gone out of business entirely. I used to love the fact I could avoid paying sales tax for online orders, but it's been years since I actually cared. Maybe that's because I'm a libural, but those tax dollars are spent locally. And because of California Prop. 8, property taxes are often insanely low, so sales tax has unfortunately become a primary funding source for local governments. I gladly pay my fair share, but that's probably because I'm not in the upper class.

 

[Sgt. York]

Prop 13

 

[darkswordsman17]

The ambience of the stores alone is a factor. Last time I stepped in a Sears it felt like I was still in the 90s and plenty of old people. I don't know how Kohl's does it but I get the same feeling there - guess that's where most of Sears shoppers have gone. Walmart is only slightly better but they also have some weird clientele (not just a meme). Lots of people dread the thought of having to step in a Walmart. Target on the other hand is just more clean and modern with bright lights and the bold red. I'm sure all of that drives a lot of traffic.

Yeah, Sears felt like a decade behind for like 3 decades now (in the 90s it felt like the 80s, in the 2000s like the 90s and has since). Honestly, I think Sears could've possibly carved out a nostalgic niche, by intentionally stylizing for like 50s-90s (have like sections of the store for each, and then carry things that are stylized for those decades - even if it is largely style mostly - think like Nintendo selling the NES Classic).

Kohl's, they just seem like JCPenney and the rest.

Wal-Mart is its own thing. They've massively updated their stores the past few years and it feels more like what people say they like about Target to me (which while you'll get people dressing like they don't care at Wal-Mart, I don't see a lot of these "People of Wal-Mart" WTF stuff and I see the I'm scared for their health obese people at lots of other places like Costco as much if not more than Wal-Mart. Target just seems overpriced as fuck and I don't know why people shop there as the stuff I get is easily 25% or even higher than it costs at Wal-Mart for the exact same thing (and Target is just as bad about having 50 lanes but only like 2 open, and they push their credit card a lot). Its cleaner but not drastically so, and I just don't like the aesthetic of Target's stores. I think they might be doing remodeling of their stores though as several I've seen have said something like that. Oh and Target's electronics section reminds me of how K-Mart was, where its not really bad (like even shittier off brand retailers like Alco, Pamida, Shopko, etc), but weird. Like I got my Gamecube at K-Mart. Just about everywhere else was sold out (or if they weren't they had like one purple one left). I go to K-Mart and they have like a dozen, several purple, like 3-4 black, and one orange. I guess no one even thought to try KMart or something (yet they bought all the ones at like Sears?). They'd often have some games that others wouldn't as well. But for the most part their electronics was worse than other places. Target seems the same. They have some popular stuff (Apple stuff although I'm not sure its as good a selection as Wal-Mart has these days). And they might have some unique stuff (Stranger Things Blu-ray releases for instance) but overall worse selection than Wal-Mart and there's generally absolutely no one around to help you (which for how much people bitch about Wal-Mart for that, I think Target is as bad, and in my experience Target employees are even less well-informed).

 

[jpiniero]

Speaking of dying companies, seems that Gamestop is getting to the end.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Speaking of dying companies, seems that Gamestop is getting to the end.

Yep, I can't see them surviving much longer. Too slow to change and AFAIK, really didn't do much with Impulse when they bought it. I don't think they can survive, at least with the current footprint, selling used and new hardware.

I do miss the days of going to Best Buy and having an entire aisle of PC software to choose from, and Gamestop got rid of their PC stuff even earlier than Best Buy did. I still prefer physical media to some extent but I understand that it probably won't exist in a few years at all.