[rafcavallaro]

It's been estimated that their entire lifetime profit is about equal to their tax discount (lower price due to not having to collect and pay state and local tax) - makes one wonder what Bezos's genius is other than taking advantage of a tax loophole - and one which may very well go away in the future.

[sokoloff]

There's an argument that Bezos is forgoing short-term profits by re-investing those into growing the business (expanding into AWS, marketplaces, Zappos, Kindle, streaming media, etc, etc) and into aggressively competing on price to not leave much excess oxygen in the room for competitors.

That's very different from the potential profit profile if Amazon were seeking to maximize near-term profit as opposed to maximizing near-term growth, with the expectation that that maximizes long-term profit.

[rafcavallaro]

If Amazon loses it's tax exempt status in all jurisdictions it may well also lose profitability - the long term plan of cornering an unprofitable market is still unprofitable.

[hexis]

Amazon collects sales tax here in Texas and it hasn't changed my buying habits at all as far as I can tell.

[masonhensley]

Pro-tip, see if Amazon fulfills a desired product for a third party merchant. If you don't buy directly from Amazon, but they still fulfill logistics for the third party, you can get an item shipped via prime without sales tax if the third party is located outside Texas.

Note: I'm also a Texan who hasn't decreased his Amazon spend since sales tax started, if anything I've increased my Amazon spend over the last few quarters.