
PMA announces its support of federal legislation mandating online companies to collect
state sales taxes. Earlier this month, the United States Senate passed the Marketplace Fairness Act, which requires online retailers with annual revenue of more than a million dollars to collect sales tax on transactions across state lines. Foes of the legislation say complying with 50 different tax codes would put an undue burden on online retailers. The bill is now going before the United States House of Representatives.
“Although we oppose more taxes in general, PMA stands in support of legislation to level the playing field for local businesses. Right now, brick-and-mortar retailers must charge sales tax for the same merchandise that people can buy online without paying sales tax. This puts brick-and-mortar retailers at a huge and unfair disadvantage,” said PMA President Allen Showalter. “While PMA also supports its members who do business online, the situation as it exists today is very one-sided. The Marketplace Fairness Act will allow all retailers to operate under the same conditions when it comes to charging sales tax. Provisions in this bill dictate that states have to provide tax software free of charge to online businesses, and update it regularly; thereby mitigating the hardship this legislation will create for online retailers.
“PMA endorses legislation that allows local, brick-and-mortar businesses to compete and thrive, which in turn supports their local communities, and the growth of the imaging industry as a whole,” Showalter added.



working toward the same goal. My most recent first-hand experience with this came earlier this month, with the enormous success of The Big Photo Show. Despite facing some serious challenges, my colleagues at PMA and I, and the board, as well as some other amazing folks who joined with us, pulled together and poured ourselves into making the show work — and work it did!! That would not have occurred had anyone on this phenomenal team not been both driven and empowered to make it happen. This week, that’s the subject of another great Business Success article from 

Wondering what 

In this week’s
McCurry Marketing Idea Exchange #477 – May 9, 2013
What woman doesn’t like a discount? That’s what Kyle Hockley’s wife, Wendy, told him when he was thinking about instituting a 10 percent frequent buyer discount for Picture This Jackson. He explains:
When the customer makes a purchase, we pull the card and write the purchase on it. The program does not include cameras and lenses, and that’s written on the card.
We know building the right team is critical to our business – yet we often miss this critical step of management. Phil Wrzsinksi of The Toy House in Jackson, Mich., is back on the 

Take one Qantas A380 flying from Australia to London, England, via Dubai, in this case the second-newest plane in the carrier’s fleet. Add in a broken refrigeration system about 90 minutes after leaving Dubai. Result: no breakfast or lunch because the crew was concerned about the possibility of food poisoning. Good call. But what do you tell passengers who have paid for a flight which included food?








