Our recent posting about Amazon‘s new barcode scanner app brought in a ton of comments, including some from champions of the app who say the app encourages “comparison shopping.” But in a smart consideration posted at my3books.com, long-time indie sales rep John Mesjak notes some problems with the claim … such as the fact that the only alternate price Amazon gives you for something you just scanned is, well, theirs.

But, he observes, there is one scanner app that can actually do what the Amazon app purports to do — the open-sourced Red Laser app. Explains Mesjak,

You can tell that Red Laser is interested in more than just serving you up to Amazon because the first question you’re asked when you run it is if you’d like to be directed to local stores who have the scanned products for sale.

The Amazon Mobile app doesn’t really enable the freely moving, frictionless kind of economy that economists aspire to.  It’s not what you might call “fair” comparison shopping.  It doesn’t create or sustain a level playing field.  It enables a greased slide downhill toward Amazon’s checkout page.