Does your Home Depot and Lowe's have free wifi?

Steve Sobol wrote:
> On Sun, 28 Nov 2010 21:35:05 +0000
> Fred <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> DevilsPGD <[email protected]> wrote in
>> news:[email protected]:
>>
>>> If you believe your store has the lowest price already, you don't
>>> need to worry that customers have one more way to verify this fact.
>>>
>>
>> Precisely why Best Buy tries everything it can do to prevent you from
>> comparing online prices. They KNOW their prices are all way
>> inflated..... (c;]
>>
>
> If I wanted to price-shop, I wouldn't be at Best Buy in the first
> place.
>
> There are any number of places I could go to get the exact same
> merchandise for less money.
>
> I get the convenience of being able to walk out of the store with my
> purchase. Best Buy's management knows that. Plus, Best Buy has a lot
> more overhead than, say, Amazon. Amazon doesn't even maintain a
> significant inventory. It costs money for Best Buy to purchase the
> inventory, and every year, they have to pay taxes on it. (Inventory
> is a taxable business asset.)
>
>
I'm not an accountant, but I am a small business owner. I don't know where
you got your information from, but I believe it to be virtually totally
incorrect.

It is my understanding (and my practice) that inventory is tax-exempt if
it's purchased for the purpose of resale. That's why businesses fill out tax
resale certificates. In NY State, this is known as Form ST-120, and you can
see it here
http://www.tax.state.ny.us/pdf/curre...20_fill_in.pdf. Read the
requirements.

Secondly, inventory is depreciable, which means that you get a tax reduction
for every tax period that you are still in possession of that same
inventory. As the inventory gets old, it becomes worth less, and you get to
write that loss off.

Here's some general business tax information for you:
http://taxguide.completetax.com/text/Q14_2910.asp

If your accountant is doing otherwise, I suggest you find a new one.

---

› See More: Does your Home Depot and Lowe's have free wifi?

On 11/28/2010 1:49 PM, Steve Sobol wrote:
> On Sun, 28 Nov 2010 21:35:05 +0000
> Fred<[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> DevilsPGD<[email protected]> wrote in
>> news:[email protected]:
>>
>>> If you believe your store has the lowest price already, you don't need
>>> to worry that customers have one more way to verify this fact.
>>>
>>
>> Precisely why Best Buy tries everything it can do to prevent you from
>> comparing online prices. They KNOW their prices are all way inflated.....
>> (c;]
>>
>
> If I wanted to price-shop, I wouldn't be at Best Buy in the first place.
>
> There are any number of places I could go to get the exact same merchandise for less money.
>
> I get the convenience of being able to walk out of the store with my purchase. Best Buy's management knows that. Plus, Best Buy has a lot more overhead than, say, Amazon. Amazon doesn't even maintain a significant inventory. It costs money for Best Buy to purchase the inventory, and every year, they have to pay taxes on it. (Inventory is a taxable business asset.) Plus, they have all of the other expenses associated with a brick-and-mortar retail store. Amazon doesn't have most of those expenses.

Exactly. Normally I'd just order from Amazon, it's less hassle, but
sometimes you need the item fast. I.e. my GPS stopped working just
before a Thanksgiving trip. Amazon and Best Buy both sold the
replacement unit I wanted, and actually they had the same base price,
but I had to pay $13 more at Best Buy because of sales tax. But I picked
it up about 30 minutes after I placed the order.

"Carl" <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:

> To the best of my ability, I just START with Amazon. No need to leave
> the house. Home Depot is not going to beat them. And I save the gas.
> So stay home with me and we'll have a hot chocolate... :-)
>
>

I like to kick the tires before I hit the credit cards online. Isn't that
why Best Buy built a store near me?....(c;]

In message <[email protected]> "Carl"
<[email protected]> was claimed to have wrote:

>Steve Sobol wrote:
>> On Sun, 28 Nov 2010 21:35:05 +0000
>> Fred <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>> DevilsPGD <[email protected]> wrote in
>>> news:[email protected]:
>>>
>>>> If you believe your store has the lowest price already, you don't
>>>> need to worry that customers have one more way to verify this fact.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Precisely why Best Buy tries everything it can do to prevent you from
>>> comparing online prices. They KNOW their prices are all way
>>> inflated..... (c;]
>>>
>>
>> If I wanted to price-shop, I wouldn't be at Best Buy in the first
>> place.
>>
>> There are any number of places I could go to get the exact same
>> merchandise for less money.
>>
>> I get the convenience of being able to walk out of the store with my
>> purchase. Best Buy's management knows that. Plus, Best Buy has a lot
>> more overhead than, say, Amazon. Amazon doesn't even maintain a
>> significant inventory.
>>
>>
>It's not that I know for a fact, but my experience has implied to me that
>this is incorrect. I get things from Amazon sometimes within one day.
>Apparently, they actually have storage warehouses around the country which
>enable them to ship things inexpensively, and because the warehouses are
>closeby, they arrive to you quickly.

For stuff that Amazon fulfills, they don't necessarily have everything
at every location, just enough to fulfill the expected volume in a
particular region until the next shipment to that particular warehouse
arrives, and should there be a spike, they'll simply ship from another
warehouse (possibly at higher shipment cost)

They likely don't have particularly significant standing inventory
either, especially not vs a retail store since Amazon won't lose a sale
for being out of stock on any one item at any particular location
whereas a retail store can't simply ship from another location while the
customer is still in the store. For tax purposes they probably have a
tiny fraction of their inventory on-hand in states that charge higher
tax rates on inventory.

One of their biggest tricks though is not just locating themselves
geographically but also locating themselves near their shipping
company's hubs (and of course presorting, so entire pallets or even
truckloads from Amazon can go straight from Amazon to the appropriate
truck/plane/train, saving them from having to be sorted like a package
you might send at a retail outlet)

As a result of their optimizations and sheer volume, they likely pay
some of the lowest shipping rates available on average, even if the odd
item is higher due to fluctuations and it's amazingly difficult to
compete with them. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, I'm not
sure.

As a consumer I'm certainly not complaining, I'd rather have things show
up at my door for less money than delivering them myself at higher cost
and my own traveling expense, but just the same, competition is healthy
for everyone including Amazon.

>We were talking about this the other day. I believe Amazon may very well be
>the best business model anywhere. Where else can you buy anything from books
>to guitars, at the lowest prices, and get free delivery and get it quickly?
>I think it's an amazing organization.

Not everything on Amazon is fulfilled by Amazon, and anything that isn't
will come from another store entirely. I'd hazard a guess that guitars
and similar are probably fulfilled by a third party company, not Amazon
themselves (although I've honestly never looked, maybe they do have some
guitars on-hand themselves)

On Mon, 29 Nov 2010 12:23:05 -0500
"Carl" <[email protected]> wrote:

> It is my understanding (and my practice) that inventory is tax-exempt if
> it's purchased for the purpose of resale. That's why businesses fill out tax
> resale certificates. In NY State, this is known as Form ST-120, and you can
> see it here
> http://www.tax.state.ny.us/pdf/curre...20_fill_in.pdf. Read the
> requirements.


I'm talking about income tax. Goods purchased for resale are exempt from SALES tax in most states. New York's ST-120 is an exemption from sales tax.


> Secondly, inventory is depreciable, which means that you get a tax reduction
> for every tax period that you are still in possession of that same
> inventory. As the inventory gets old, it becomes worth less, and you get to
> write that loss off.

Over several years, yes. That doesn't mean you don't pay income tax on said inventory.

And actually, I'm not 100% sure that inventory is depreciable. Capital assets like your equipment, computer, and buildings are depreciable for sure. Inventory, not sure. I've never run a company that carried inventory, so I've never needed to know.


--
Steve Sobol <[email protected]>

On Mon, 29 Nov 2010 12:11:35 -0500
"Carl" <[email protected]> wrote:


> It's not that I know for a fact, but my experience has implied to me that
> this is incorrect. I get things from Amazon sometimes within one day.
> Apparently, they actually have storage warehouses around the country which
> enable them to ship things inexpensively, and because the warehouses are
> closeby, they arrive to you quickly.

They may maintain SOME inventory. But they have third-parties that fulfill many of their orders (check the website and you can see whether or not a third party will ship any given item).

Same with Walmart.com.

> We were talking about this the other day. I believe Amazon may very well be
> the best business model anywhere. Where else can you buy anything from books
> to guitars, at the lowest prices, and get free delivery and get it quickly?
> I think it's an amazing organization.

Yeah, I like Amazon too.



--
Steve Sobol <[email protected]>

On Mon, 29 Nov 2010 12:23:05 -0500, Carl <[email protected]> wrote:

> I'm not an accountant, but I am a small business owner. I don't know where
> you got your information from, but I believe it to be virtually totally
> incorrect.
>
> It is my understanding (and my practice) that inventory is tax-exempt if
> it's purchased for the purpose of resale. That's why businesses fill out tax
> resale certificates. In NY State, this is known as Form ST-120, and you can
> see it here
> http://www.tax.state.ny.us/pdf/curre...20_fill_in.pdf. Read the
> requirements.

Different strokes for different folks, different rates for different states.
In CT, business property (and that includes inventory of items for sale)
is entered upon the Grand List each October 1, to be subject to the local
municipal authority's property tax mil rate the following July 1.

A lot of pre-October clearance sales around here to minimize that inventory,
and those inventory-Grand-List-valuations, every year :-) .

> Secondly, inventory is depreciable, which means that you get a tax reduction
> for every tax period that you are still in possession of that same
> inventory. As the inventory gets old, it becomes worth less, and you get to
> write that loss off.

That's a valid Federal write-off, perhaps, irrelevant to the state of CT.

> Here's some general business tax information for you:
> http://taxguide.completetax.com/text/Q14_2910.asp
>
> If your accountant is doing otherwise, I suggest you find a new one.

Be aware that in these benighted states we have literally hundreds of
different taxation requirements, and those that apply to you are but a
tiny minority, hardly representative of the great diversity of the rest.

Cheers, -- tlvp
--
Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP