My microwave died last week. I was willing to pay more to buy local and get one right away but the selection at Target, Sears, and Best Buy was so pathetic I ended up ordering from Amazon anyways.

When buying in-store you still will end up paying 7-10% more due to sales tax. Granted some on-line retailers charge sales tax, however until ALL are required to charge tax then more often than not the Internet retailer will win out on overall price.

When internet sales were a fledgling business, it was correct to subsidize them with sales tax incentives. But they are now big business, some like Amazon bigger than the retailers...and they have no inventory costs! But the bad thing that each of us should think about is what we do to the local economy when we don't at least try to use those retailers with a big investment in 'us'. They have responded by lowering prices and increasing options. Yet, many malls are losing business and with that comes jobs. Also, those taxes you hate to pay go towards supporting our economy and thus even more jobs. Years ago on a business trip I visited Hershey, PA. It was true Americana...and uplifting. Then, driving out of town I saw a brand new Wal-Mart. I couldn't help but think how many of these Americans were now abandoning their friends and neighbors businesses...the same ones who support their service businesses. Sad. Then on the news Friday I saw a story about a man with a manufacturing business that had over 50 employees. He invented a wrench that replaced six wrenches and prevented stripping heads off bolts. Sears loved it and sold it under its Craftsman label. They did this for four years then informed him they wouldn't be buying them this year...why? They found a cheap knockoff from China with just enough differences to not infringe on his patent (which cost him $25,000). He is now forced to lay off employees thanks to Sears following the Wal-Mart model which destroyed Vlasik pickles and Huffy bicycles. I have notified Sears that although Craftsman tools are the best I have used I will never buy another one or anything sold by Sears. What happened to 'buy American'?

Traderbill is spot on. Most Americans just care about bottom line price with complete disregard for the consequences of this practice. Soon almost nothing will be made in the USA and all the jobs associated with it will reside in a country other than ours. More and more outsourcing will result in less and less American jobs at all spectrums (i.e. manufacturing, administrative, marketing, IT, etc). we are already seeing this now and people should be very alarmed. At some point in the future, it is not out of the realm of possibility that Americans won't have the financial ability to buy any products they want/need because the very jobs they depend on for income are now gone due to the practice of demanding the lowest price. By no means am I advocating paying outrageous prices, rather just be more conscientious about the impact of your purchase and that sometimes paying a little more to support local businesses or American companies is the patriotic thing to do for our country and the very economic viability of the our future generations.

You absolutely WILL see year-round price-matching within the next year or so. Each big-box retailer will have to figure out how to make up the difference in profits, but since the alternative is losing the sale entirely to the cheapest competitor, then that's what they're gonna do.

This may not proove to be as good for the consumer as this article leads us to believe. By telling us that they will match the prices charged by online retailers, Target and Best Buy are signaling to the market that they will compete with everyone else on price. They are basically telling companies like Amazon not to have lower prices because if they do, this may cause a price-war through the price matching. Most business people are well aware that to engage in price wars, will cause all companies in the business to have lower profits or even losses. So this is actually a signal to other businesses in the market (like Amazon) that perhaps they should consider raising the price so they can all benefit by earning more profit. They just put the ball in Amazon's court. Amazon can choose not to raise the prices to be equal to that of Best Buy or Target but if they don't raise them Best Buy or Target will still get the sale in their store through the price match (if you're in the BBY store and Amazon now has a lower price, you're still going to buy it at the BBY store beccause you will get the same price). So now Amazon is now going to mostly have to rely on sales from Amazon-only shoppers. This will reduce Amazon's volume of sales and make it so that Amazon will need to demand a higher margin to receive the same profit anyway. Price still goes up!

What really drives me away from a retailer is poor customer service. Also, if the store cannot offer me a product at a competative price I will simply go elsewhere regardless if they offer to match someone's lower price.

I do all my shopping online, with the exception of groceries, and for those I shop at my local Byerly's. Haven't shopped at a Best Buy or Target for years, and one visit to WalMart was enough to end that forever. I see no incentive to change. (And it doesn't matter to me whether or not the online stores start charging sales tax - I don't shop online to avoid that.)

taderbill just spoke right to my heart!! Big box DOES NOT care about who they hurt and will drive EVERY business right out of dodge just for their own profits. I have always utilized the local stores and if they don't have it--the internet is right there now to suffice any needs I have and lets put it this way. I have the stuff now--I'm not living some monopolists dream of me being its potty boy 'displaying' what a good monopolist control freak it is. I dropped the 'big box' almost imeadiately upon the retail insurgence of the internet and it has been mighty refleshing. Go go go--local business and don't let anything stop you especially the 'end' of the 'big box' retailer!!

Up with 'Cheetos' down with fruit!!