Nope. People won't fall for this trick....I will continue to buy the majority of my goods online. Unless the dinosaur brick-and-mortar companies decide to match prices and offer free (or reasonable) shipping I will continue to use them as showrooms and order my products on the internet. Nice try Mass...not gonna work!

Way to support the local economy Jeff… next week you‘ll be complaining that your taxes went up because all the local business have left.

We live in a money grubbing state that should "legally" change the name to Tax-achusetts! People buy on-line to get cheaper and affordable deals. Tax-achusetts takes the fun out of everything, now even "shopping on-line?" If the prices on deals go up? Whats the sense in even shopping on-line? I think this state and the Federal tax law, they are pushing for other states to follow their lead, is going to be the ultimate demise and loss for Amazon.com

Absolutely I will. If I can buy the same item in NH without the shipping charge and now the Mass sales tax and get value.. certainly I will .. and most probably will pickup many, many more items incuding gas while i'm there. Every sane consumer would. With the shipping charge it was marginal before.. and now this tax cleared the difference hump. Good bye Mass postal worker.. goodbye Mass delivery guy.. Good bye Mass retailer.. Goodbye Mass gas tax. This is just another of the Govnah's means of attacking the middle-class consumer with another tax to support his bloated and underfunded budget. Stay tuned.. the trend line of inept budgetary controls indicate there are more taxes to come.

When politicians (Democrats) say "level the playing field" why is it always via a tax INCREASE?

You could create the same level field by REMOVING the sales tax from books (and then everything else.)

Now that would really be something to cheer.

Local retailers should be careful for what they wish for from the Gov. Most likely they bargained a tax break from the state for distribution center so they can do same day delivery. When you can order same day delivery from your desk, there will be little reason to go to a store.

My only change will be to find alternatives to Amazon who are still tax free. I buy a lot from Amazon and I am in the Prime program so I get two day free shipping. This won't make me or many people abandon online shopping for old fashion stores. Sorry folks, that ship has sailed. The only thing I buy locally is food.

Like others, I hate the thought of my hard earned money going to the patronage, incompetence and corruption that is the Mass. state government.

Ultimately, the place which offers me the best price at the greatest convenience will be the place I shop, whether it supports the local economy or not. In a perfect world, everything I ever wished to purchase would be available in the 10-minute walk it takes to get downtown. It appears I missed that experience by a number of decades, however.

Once the sales tax kicks in a year from now, I'll just have to do a little more research and comparison shopping before I buy online. Is it cheaper to go through Amazon Prime with MA sales tax and free two-day shipping or someplace else with no sales tax yet sometimes costly several-business-day shipping?

It would be nice though if the untold millions of dollars speculated by the Patrick administration that are going to flood the state's coffers were earmarked for something in dire need of fixing, such as the MBTA, I would be all for that.

I hope you all still feel that way when the rest of downtown goes the way of Banbury Cross.

ifyou shop smart you can find free shipping online and tax free.. screw amazon they are too expensive anyway,there are no real deals there.

Does anyone know if this affects digital downloads? I'd be really upset if I had to pay tax on ebooks, music downloads or video rentals.

So instead of boosting state business by removing the sales tax they push to tax the other guys too. Great, once again the little guy gets the short end of the stick. Government has no interest in finding ways to need less money. They only want to find ways to steal more.

You local brick and mortar store owners that think this is great news I hope you are not shipping out of state. You think preparing your taxes is a pain in the rump now wait until you have to send sales tax to 50 different states.

And also, way to fight dirty. Instead of finding ways to compete and make us want to come to your stores you just bring in these bullies to try to maniuplate us instead. It won't work. The only people that should rejoice about this is the small businesses just over the New Hampshire boarder. They are about to get back alot of the Massachusetts business they lost to the internet a decade ago.

Only problem is you'll burn more in gas then you pay on sales tax driving to NH, at least I certainly would from my north shore location.

I will not continue to shop at Amazon once I have to start paying taxes. That was the beauty of shopping at Amazon.

"A win for all sides"???????? UM except for the side of the customers.....this is disgusting.

Some of you simply don't understand the situation. All you look at is me -me -me. That's become the American Way!!! Step outside your world in a bubble for a minute and look at what is going on. Do you think retailers here in this state like having to collect sales tax which we know are driving sales away to online stores and New Hampshire? Do you understand that the retailers have to write a check to the state for all the sales tax they collect and they don't keep not a cent of it? Do you think the in state retailers want to deal with all the problems of online transactions because it's easy to sell someone something online and then when the consumer has a problem, it's just as easy to brush it off on someone else. It's the same someone else that you didn't buy the product from in the first place. It's the same someone else that's laying off your brother or your friend or you son becasue there isn't enough business to keep them employed. I personally don't want to spend more money then I have to and I don't blame anyone for feeling that way in this economy especially, but what you and I are doing effects many other people. Some closer to you than you think so we need to look at the big picture.

I don't think we'll ever see a sales tax in NH anytime soon. There are other taxes up there that offset being able to not put a sales tax in however. In some states, the sales tax rates vary from county to county. I was talking to someone out in the Buffalo area that said they have a state sales tax and another sales tax depending on what county you were in. I think alot of people seem to forget, or maybe just don't know that if you go to New Hampshire and buy something and use it in Massachusetts, you are supposed to still be paying the sales tax on it on your tax returns.... (I know...yeah right......). I think think this sales tax issue is national and has a great burden on fair trade and commerce. The evolution of the internet and online sales has gone way past making changes to these laws. They are long overdue in my opinion. I mean, realistically, I don't see how any retail business , big or small can compete if they are near the New Hampshire boarder. We have people who drive from Rhode Island through Mass to save on the sales tax....... crazy right? I don't know what the fix is but I can't see how it's fair that us retailers in Mass have to charge a sales tax but you can sit at your house in Mass, order something online, and not have to pay the tax. You are still technically shopping in the state.

Don, the point is we don't want to pay another tax when we spend what's left of our earnings after they were already taxed. Pick one, tax our earnings or our spending, not both.

Don, it was voted down because you can't just eliminate it all at once. We were presented with a ridiculous option that they knew we wouldn't be able to go for. They should have asked if we were interested in gradually reducing the tax and offered a list of what money they would stop wasting to balance the budget. We knew that without spending cuts if we voted away the sales tax we would just end up with higher property or income tax. Cut costs first then eliminate the state tax.