[btilly]

You forget that the retailer has several additional costs that you have not considered. The warehouse retailer has to transport goods, run the store, and (very importantly) has to maintain much higher stocks of each product in their stores to guarantee that, no matter which store a customer goes to, the popular item is present. (Do not underestimate the value of this factor. Volume retailers of all kinds are incredibly focused on reducing the turnaround time from when goods are purchased to profits realized from the sale.)

On the whole the advantage is definitely with Amazon, as can be verified from the prices for end consumers.

Now we get the question of fairness. People often argue about fairness as if it was an absolute fact. It is not. Fairness is a subjective opinion. Rather than trying to argue about what is fair or not fair, the best you can do is to try to understand other people's point of view.

There is a point of view from which Amazon is inducing Illinois residents to break Illinois law, and spend their money in a way that creates no Illinois jobs. Every piece of this hurts Illinois, and is not fair to companies that are forced to abide by Illinois law. You clearly do not share this point of view, but is it that hard to accept this mindset?

By contrast your point of view seems to be that Amazon is obeying US law, and it isn't Amazon's problem if Illinois wishes to foist stupid rules on its people that the people don't want to follow. That's a fair opinion, but having that opinion should not prevent you from understanding that there are other points of view out there.

[thaumaturgy]

That's actually not my opinion at all, but I don't know how to state my opinion any more clearly than I already have.