Fears of potential Amazon influence on U.S. economy
As Amazon continues to grow, there are worries that the number of big box stores or superstores will diminish, ultimately turning cities in “ghost towns”.
“I believe that Amazon is going to destroy the box stores … and when box stores go under, restaurants go under, the movie theaters go under, the gas stations go under. You become ghost towns,” inventor and CEO of My Pillow Inc. Mike Lindell explained.
Appearing in the latest episode of Fox Nation’s “Wise Guys”, Lindell joined a group of business leaders to discuss the “nature of purchase” and how the shift toward online shopping will affect the U.S. economy.
Offering his opinion as a solution, Lindell called for an “Internet tax” to be put on large online retailers in order to “level the playing field” — advocating against his personal interests as a CEO who largely profits from online sales.
“These box stores, they pay rent, they pay taxes, they charge sales tax,” said Lindell.
“If you buy something on the Internet, and they didn’t collect tax, you’re supposed to pay it — but nobody knows that. So there’s trillions of dollars that were never collected,” he said.
Later in the segment, business leaders were asked to predict where the online market would be in relation to big box stores, 20 years from now.
“I believe right now with our president, he is a businessman,” said Lindell, who is an outspoken supporter of the president. “He will figure out about Amazon. You can’t have this monopoly… I believe you will have a balance of still having box stores and places to physically buy,” Lindell explained.
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