Probably because their decision about where to do shopping based on taxes isn't one that most people like to admit they do themselves. Likely more to do with the way it was phrased than the actual sentiment; hell, I was tempted to downvote it as a knee-jerk reaction to any complaints about taxes, but I do it too. I'd rather buy from a shop closer to home than pay the 10% sales tax in Downtown Minneapolis, unless I want/need it now, or I can't find it elsewhere, but in that case I'm not going to complain about it either because that's simply the price of doing business.

Of course, I doubt this will be much of a boon to local/small businesses, since Amazon is really killing retailers in terms of price and availability.

For example: trying finding a Panasonic Lumix G6 anywhere in the area. Or Sennheiser headphones. Or hard disks: Best Buy wants $118, Amazon wants $102. Micro Center has them too, but they want $110, and they're way the hell out on the other side of the metro area from me.

I don't think this is going to hurt Amazon or help local businesses as much as people think it will.