IMAGE: Amazon 

BY LAUREN ZIMA

Amazon’s weekend promotion for its new Price Check app has some local retailers -- and even a senator -- seeing red. Here’s WCPO.

“Price comparison apps are popular. You scan an item in a store, your phone shows you where you can find it for less. But Amazon’s new comparison app goes further; it will show you the lowest price you can find it for on Amazon.com, and with one click you can order it -- with no sales tax. And this weekend, it will even give you a $5 bonus for using it.”

On Saturday, Amazon offered Price Check users a 5 percent discount for using the app, and owners of physical stores are crying foul. WPEC explains why.

“The Retail Industry Leaders Association says that that app unfairly uses stores as a showroom. The group added that Amazon is exploiting the tax loophole, and is asking Congress to step in.”

Several groups have joined the Retail Industry Leaders, including the Bookstore Association, the American Booksellers Association -- and even a senator. The International Business Times has Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine’s statement:

“‘Amazon's promotion … is an attack on Main Street businesses … ,’ Snowe said. … ‘Small businesses are fighting every day to compete with giant retailers, such as Amazon, and incentivizing consumers to spy on local shops is a bridge too far.’”

Too far -- or too clever? Forbes says by relying on its users for competitors’ price info, Amazon has brilliantly reduced one of the greatest costs of business: its input.

“ … it’s all such a clever idea … the cost of collecting this information has now been loaded onto the shoulders of Amazon’s customers instead of Amazon’s employees. … they’ll of course get vastly more information from millions of users than anything they could possibly have afforded to finance internally.”

Amazon claims the app isn’t intended to harm local business owners. The Los Angeles Times has the online powerhouse’s rebuttal.

(GFX)
“In its defense, Amazon said Friday that the app is mostly intended for shoppers who want to compare prices at major retail chains. The app also features prices from third-party sellers -- including more than 2 million businesses of all sizes -- that sell through its website.”
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-amazon-app-20111210,0,2186683.story

A writer for Bloomberg tells the San Francisco Gate, while Amazon might be an Internet heavyweight -- the company knows physical stores are still big contenders.

“Amazon is aiming to draw more online purchases from the more than 95 percent of U.S. consumers who still shop in stores, ratcheting up rivalry with traditional retailers. The Seattle- based company estimates revenue will rise to $16.5 billion to $18.7 billion in the fourth quarter -- growth of 27 percent to 44 percent, respectively, compared with a year earlier.”

Still, after all this -- how do consumers feel about the Price Check app? WNYT spoke to some holiday shoppers who weren’t impressed.

REPORTER: “Was it worth it, or would you want to just take it home?”
SHOPPER: “I think I would just take it home. Yeah. I’m right here, I can feel it -- I know what it feels like, I don’t have to wait. I’m just gonna take it home.”
SHOPPER: “If this is a promo from Amazon to get me to switch from the local vendor -- no. That wouldn’t happen anyway.”