“It’s getting tougher for small business to survive,” says the owner of specialty Shrewsbury-based children’s boutique Kidegories.
A Level Playing Field for Online Sales Tax Helps Small Businesses?
Eileen Buriani, owner of specialty children’s boutique Kidegories in Shrewsbury, has seen a lot of change for small businesses in the past 15 years.
“I used to specialize in all American-made products, but that changed 15 years ago when most of my manufacturers closed because they could not compete with overseas production and prices,” Buriani says. “I call it the Walmart and Target mentality: Only the best for no money.”
With the American manufacturing loss, Buriani had to widen her search for unique, high-quality and often custom-made products. In the meantime, she has also had to compete with Internet sales.
“It would be nice if brick-and-mortar stores had a level playing field when it comes to sales tax,” she says. “Every sale I make is taxed, as it should have been or should be on the World Wide Web. I get killed because if I want sales, I have to discount in order to match prices. There is no policing of Internet sites. There definitely should be better legislation for the Internet to help individuals as well as brick-and-mortar businesses.”
NFIB is neutral on internet sales taxes per member ballots showing almost equal support and opposition to such a tax.
In addition to the uneven sales tax burden for her brick-and-mortar store compared to web-based companies, the area has been slow to recover from the recession as well as Superstorm Sandy. As a result, Buriani had to downsize in the last year, although she would like to expand.
“It’s getting tougher for small business to survive,” she says.
