As you might imagine, we get calls every day from people who need help finding a particular book. Sometimes, they only know the author’s name, sometimes only the title or a key word or two in it. Most of the time, we can indeed identify the book for them and they usually place an order for it if we don’t already have it in stock.

Last week, we got a call for a woman who needed a book for her book club. She only knew one word in the title and the author’s last name, but with a search through our database we were quickly able to provide her with the complete title of the book as well as the author’s full name.

We told her that although we did not have the book in stock, we could easily order it for her and have it in 2-3 days. And, since it was a book club selection, she would get the 20% discount that we offer to all local book clubs.

“No thanks,” she said, “I’ll get it on Amazon.” She hung up.

I find this very interesting, not because she relied on our being a local business to provide her with free information so that she could do her shopping online, but because she genuinely believed that she would automatically get a better deal there. Maybe some of you may possibly feel the same way.
So let’s look at perception versus reality. Her perception was that an online purchase is always cheaper than a local purchase. The book she wanted was a $15.00 trade paperback. Amazon’s price was $10.50, with no sales tax. Add a shipping charge of $3.99 and her total cost was $14.49. Her book will arrive 3-5 days after her order is placed.

(Ah, you say, but what about free shipping? Doesn’t Amazon ship for free? Yes, it does, but only if you purchase at least $25.00 worth of “qualifying” books. Amazon makes you buy more, more than you might want to buy right now, if you want to avoid shipping charges. And free shipping usually means that you won’t get your books for 5-10 days.)

Back to the comparison. Had this woman purchased her book from us, she would have paid $12.00 for the book ($15.00 less the 20% book club discount). No shipping charges, but we have to add $1.12 sales tax, bringing her total cost to $13.12.

The reality, in this particular case, is that she would have paid less and had her book sooner if she had shopped locally. But her perception was that online shopping is better.

How do we compare if it were not a book club book, without the 20% discount? A fair question. She would have paid $16.40 for the book.

And that brings up the issue of e-fairness.

As a local business, we legally have to charge sales tax on your purchases with us. Until recently, most online retailers, including Amazon, were not required to collect any sales taxes. That situation is changing rapidly. New York State has passed an online sales tax law, which Amazon unsuccessfully challenged, and some 14 other states have done the same. It’s only a matter of time until all states follow suit, including Arizona.

The City of Sedona is almost entirely dependent on sales tax revenues. In this time of financial and economic crisis, at all levels of government, shopping locally and paying sales taxes is a way to help preserve the quality of life we enjoy in Red Rock Country. In the above example, had this woman shopped locally, Sedona and Yavapai County would have received the sales tax. In fact, because she purchased her book from Amazon, Sedona and Yavapai County received nothing.

Please shop locally whenever possible. At least give us local merchants the chance to compete for your business. Thank you.