You’re visiting a local retailer and see a product you want, but your smart phone app let’s you know it’s available online at Amazon for 5 percent less. You jump in your car, go home and purchase it from Amazon.

That scenario is making small business advocates and even lawmakers fume as holiday shopping heats up and attempts at boosting business at Main Street shops are barely getting off the ground.

A furor has erupted over Amazon’s Price Check shopping app that allows users to compare prices with “brick-and-mortar” retailers – the post-Internet jargon for your local store.  Amazon recently launched a campaign to gives customers a 5 percent discount off (up to $5.00) on up to three qualifying items. The discounts are available only if the customer checks the price of the goods on the Price Check app while at a physical store carrying the goods.

But a growing voice of critics say it amounts to “showrooming,” where shoppers visit a store to browse products in person, only to purchase them online from Amazon.

“Amazon’s promotion – paying consumers to visit small businesses and leave empty-handed – is an attack on Main Street businesses that employ workers in our communities,” said Sen. Olympia J. Snowe, R-Maine, ranking member on the Senate’s Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. “Small businesses are fighting everyday to compete with giant retailers, such as Amazon, and incentivizing consumers to spy on local shops is a bridge too far. “

Current proposed legislation, the Marketplace Fairness Act, would overhaul the current system in which taxes only need to be collected from consumers if a retailer has a physical location within the state. It would give states the authority to collect sales taxes on online retailers.

Read the full article: Amazon’s Price Check App Stirs Small Business Outcry