I worked at Border's. It is just market pricing with convenience mark up they have a lot of costs good try though. Read sperm wars.

Went to Best Buy to listen to a sounbar system with the intention of buying it on Amazon recently. System at Best Buy ended up being cheaper even with sales tax. Not sure if Amazon would have charged me sales tax or not.

If Amazon owns or leases any property in your state then you would, otherwise no.

Think it depends on if it's a third party seller or not. I live in Washington and quite a few things I order from Amazon don't have tax, even some items that are sold 3rd party but are fulfilled by Amazon.

Interesting. Gotta love them loopholes.

The laws for sales tax vary state to state and are stupid complex. I took a seminar on it on behalf of my company and the burden to collect tax can fall in various places, surprising to me attempting to comply is generally enough for the IRS.

One thing to know, if you don't get charged tax and you live in a state that collects it, you are responsible for paying it yourself. (Lol)

I get almost all my books from the library. They have a big selection and if something isn't at my local branch, they deliver it there. They have e-books and audio books too. It's free (cheap anyway if count the portion of my taxes), my house isn't even more crowded with books, and as Benjamin Franklin said, "**** Amazon".

In Illinois there is a sales use tax for anything you buy online that will be used in Illinois. If the vendor (Amazon, Dell, etc) doesn’t charge you state sales tax then you are responsible to put what you owe on your state tax filing.

Although I think there might be different rules between vendor types on amazon that cover that tax. Haven’t really had to deal with it in years so can’t remember.

I forgot about this. One of my dogs who recently died had to have a grain free, expensive, but high quality dog food. Used to buy it on Amazon but a brick and mortar store near me came in with a cheaper price so started getting it there.

On books, I always google for books related to software that I am interested in first before buying on Amazon. Many times I can get them for free as I only do eBooks. Then email the files to Amazon where I get access to them on my Kindle account.

Wasn't the B plot of You've Got Mail about how Barnes and Noble was putting independent bookstores out of business?

Meg Ryan: Serves you right! Ha!

Have you ever actually tried to "borrow" an audio book from the library?

hahah, yeah. That movie is pretty unique in that of the movies that have computers as a central plot element, the depiction of how they work was basically 100% accurate.

also, one of the best gifs

Libraries are the last remaining refuge from commodification of like all public spaces and things. I would have predicted the right wing would have already targeted them for elimination or privatization ala public transportation and schools, but it does serve as the place right-wingers will gleefully point to as Boot Strap Central: the only place in the world poors can find heat, something to do, a place to make themselves literate in the face of neglected public schools, a place for poors to train themselves for their next job, whatever. Without the library, I think we'd be down to literal shrugging.

Well-to-do neighborhoods I've been in seem to have very busy libraries. It's strange in the age of Amazon, but even the upper-middle-class types seem to appreciate the usefulness of public libraries.

I assume we're less than 5 years away from public libraries merging with Disney.

Yes. It's quite easy. There's an app called "Libby" and I download to a tablet. When the audio or e-book is due it won't play anymore (unless you renew it). The library has limited "copies" and if they are all out on loan you put a hold on it like a regular book.

I've borrowed audiobooks and e-books from my library with no problems.

We have a massive public feature in California: the beach. And at least around here, public transportation has been expanding a lot. The outdoor public exercise stuff is expanding too. Lots of smaller old downtown areas are being redone to have more public space and be more walkable. LA river has a lot going on to create usable public space. And we're going to keep trying to get universal health care.

The LA river is for car chases imo. Leave it alone.

here's my experience borrowing audiobooks:

1) go to library website
2) try to login
3) dig out my library card
4) wait for email with my pin
5) get logged in
6) try to figure out where the audiobook downloads are
7) waste 20 minutes
8) oh, I need to click on this 20-year-old looking banner ad that says R.E.A.D.S. which apparently means something something audio download system
9) go to READS site
10) login again
11) search for audiobook, hey I found it!
12) where is the download link?
13) ****, I need the app
14) install app
15) login to app
16) search again
17) wtf, The app is just like a dumb web browser wrapper
18) login to library website again through the app even though I'm already logged into the app
19) find audiobook, still no download link
20) there's a "place hold" link
21) wtf, four people in front of me? To "borrow" a MP3?
22) oh there is another version of the same book
23) four other people waiting in front of me for that one too
24) go to Amazon, find audible version and have it downloaded within 15 seconds

FWIW I wouldn't disagree an 80 billion dollar retail company that specializes in selling published content and web services will often have a better user experience than a public library.

You probably don't mean it like this since this feels tangential but remember rich idiots that are like Amazon > public library are basically the first step down the road to gutting their funding and telling the serfs to sign up for Prime with their Bitcoin trading profits.

pvn,

Do you lose your amazon login in between every time you use it? That might slow things down there as well.

Dunno why you have such a hard time navigating, but you obviously don't use it often which is probably the main thing. The audio/ebook app being different than the library website is pretty trivial to deal with and is obviously because the audio/ebook system is shared among many libraries whereas most libraries (at least mine) has it's own system for physical books. The first time you use it maybe that causes a few minutes extra looking, but after that it's a non-issue.

Yeah, libraries only have limited copies. Obviously it has to do with them not buying unlimited uses and users not paying for the audio/ebook. YMMV, but waiting for a book doesn't bother me one iota. I have enough things on my list, available and ready that I can wait.

I have not tried borrowing audiobooks from the library. I have an audible account and make use of it quite a bit.

Does it somehow help the library to use this feature and reduce the likelihood of them being defunded?

I also feel like I am supporting the content creators by buying books/audio books. Is this not a valuable aspect of the equation or am I overweighting it?

Boomers preferring physical books because they're too old for Kindles may play a role in the continuing relevance of libraries.

Amazon's one-click is marginally easier than my library's ebook page and selection is obv massively better, but the library has a pretty elite price point.