Without a doubt, internet sales have changed how America shops. From pre-packaged meals and ingredients to auto parts and hardware, anything you want can be ordered and on your doorstep in a couple of days - or even hours.
As the president of the Tennessee Retail Association, I've watched the growing impact e-commerce has on local businesses. For too many, it has exacerbated an unfair advantage and made it tough for the smaller shops on Main Street to compete.
Thanks to a decades-old loophole in federal law, many online-only retailers aren't required to collect state sales taxes. In Tennessee, that means out-of-state internet retailers have nearly a 10 percent advantage over our local businesses.
Allen Doty, co-owner of Cumberland Transit in Nashville, has seen firsthand how online-retailers take advantage of local shops. "We see it every day - people come in, spend an hour with our staff learning about the products and taking pictures, and then buy the same product online for 10 percent less because they aren't charged state sales tax from these internet retailers," he said.
"We've got to level the playing field and tax online sales just like we do a normal brick-and-mortar store," he added.
Bob Kennedy, owner of B-K Motorsports in Oliver Springs, echoed Doty's comments: "In my business, I see a lot of big online retailers selling tires and parts for cheap, with free shipping and no tax. I can compete with the prices and the shipping, but I can't compete with that extra 9 or 10 percent handicap that I have right off the bat because of sales tax. Why am I held to a different standard for doing business in Tennessee?"
Fortunately, the state is considering a proposal to address this inequity by requiring out-of-state, online-only retailers with more than $500,000 in annual Tennessee sales to collect state sales taxes. The Tennessee Retail Association joins business owners statewide in applauding the effort.
"This proposal is just common sense," said David Echols of P&E Distributors Inc. in Goodlettsville. "It protects the small guys like us and holds the bigger companies that are cherry picking our business accountable for paying the same state sales taxes as the rest of us."
Jennifer Vanderfort owns Jennifer's Discount Gifts in Waverly. She noted that Tennessee depends on sales tax to pay for essential government functions.
"I don't understand why the state wouldn't collect the sales tax that it needs," she said. "To me, fair is fair. If local businesses have to collect sales tax, then online companies should too."
Local businesses serve as the backbone of our communities. As Gov. Bill Haslam recently said, "The economy is shifting so much [to the internet] It's literally not a fair playing field for our in-state retailers. And those are folks who are not only having to collect the tax, but they're paying property tax. They're sponsoring the local Little League team, and these are folks who are contributing in a full way to our economy."
It's past time to demand out-of-state, online-only retailers play by the same rules as local shops across Tennessee. In a free market, fairness matters - and it's paramount to ensuring our state economy can continue to grow and thrive.
Roland Myers is president and CEO of the Tennessee Retail Association, which advocates for the protection, promotion and prosperity of the retail industry in Tennessee.