The Best Buy Distribution Center in Dinuba, California. The city has a 40-year agreement to share tax proceeds with the company.
Photographer: Eric ThayerE-Commerce Tax Deals Pit California Cities Against Each Other
California cities have made deals with retailers — like Best Buy, Apple, QVC and Walmart — to be the point of sale for e-commerce purchases statewide in exchange for a cut of the sales tax proceeds. But who really benefits?
Exit Highway 99 at Mountain View Avenue in California’s Central Valley and drive east past the flat expanse of stone fruit and citrus orchards, fields of grapes that will become raisins, and the occasional packing house.
Nine miles ahead, the gray-and-blue Best Buy warehouse emerges out of nowhere at the Dinuba city limits. At slightly more than 1 million square feet, it dwarfs the nearby shopping center anchored by a Walmart Supercenter — at least five of which would fit inside the warehouse.