I may not be a great fan of buying things electrically using a computer however an awful lot of people do it these days.
It is widely accepted that people buying on the interweb has been a major contributing factor to the demise of the nations High Streets.
The steady march of the online e-tailers, as the young and trendy call them, seems unassailable or so it seems however after reading an article on a national news site yesterday that may be about to change.
A proposal to introduce an online sales tax similar to that currently in use in America would make shopping in the High Street cheaper and more attractive.
But would this proposal ever make it onto the statue books? Well, the sales tax would also raise revenue for the powers that be so that would surely make it more likely to come about.
The economic climate is still not that good and like my good self other people are glad of every penny they can save so the removal of cheap goods sold on the line would be a financial blow to many households.
I also fear the faceless warehouses that supply the goods purchased electrically would close and there would be unseen job losses.
While we are all familiar with the empty retail units that blight our High Street I think an online shopping tax is the wrong way to go about reversing the decline of our traditional shops.
Everyone has to start somewhere and we must remember there are now an awful lot of small businessmen operating out of their homes, garages and sheds selling items on interweb auction sites and the like. It would be awful to kill them off.
Maybe such a tax could be brought in for the bigger stores who sell online in order to cut their dominance of the retail market?
With the stories of tax avoidance being mentioned from some larger businesses something needs to be done to make them pay their fair dues.
Of course what would be really great would be if there were places in Wycombe were small traders could rent space and sell items on an adhoc basis. Unless people can market test their sales ideas on a small scale how will they know if they are a success?
We have so many empty shops in Wycombe maybe a large shop could be divided into smaller sections and turned into a mini arcade where entrepreneurs could market test their ideas by selling from tables if necessary.
Sadly our modern society is all about tax and I fear the source of cheap goods that so many have come to rely on may be about to get that little bit dearer.
What do you think?
*Don't forget to read my regular column in this Friday's edition of the printed version of the Bucks Free Press!
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Readers who submit articles must agree to our terms of use. The content is the sole responsibility of the contributor and is unmoderated. But we will react if anything that breaks the rules comes to our attention. If you wish to complain about this article, contact us here
