Posted on 02/22/2017 5:07:46 AM PST by Prov1322
Two months into the city’s sweetened-beverage tax, supermarkets and distributors are reporting a 30 percent to 50 percent drop in beverage sales and are planning for layoffs.
One of the city's largest distributors says it will cut 20 percent of its workforce in March, and an owner of six ShopRite stores in Philadelphia says he expects to shed 300 workers this spring.
“People are seeing sales decline larger than anything they’ve seen up to this point in the city,” said Alex Baloga, vice president of external relations at the Pennsylvania Food Merchants Association.
In response, the city questioned the legitimacy of the early figures and predicted that customers responding to the initial sticker shock by shopping outside the city would return.
“We have no way of knowing if their sales figures and predicted job losses are anything more than fear-mongering to prevent this from happening in other cities,” said city spokesman Mike Dunn.
Mayor Kenney harshly rebuked reports of coming layoffs late Tuesday night.
(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...
"ShopRite could ditch hundreds of jobs because of soda tax"
So, as usual, the unintended consequences of liberal/democrat decisions result in real-world disaster for employer, employees and consumers. Yet, Democrats continue to ruin the city.
“...undexpectedly!”
Bwa-hahahaha
Somehow I doubt this.
And again.... for the millionth time... it is NOT UNINTENTIONAL! Nothing POS liberal scum do is unintentional; it is always intended to lessen freedom, weaken or harm moral and societal norms, and damage this country. IT IS ALWAYS INTENTIONAL!
I would think that the Soda Stream would be flying off the shelves for the soda junkies. Screw the stupid pols and make your soda at home.
What has happened to sales in surrounding suburbs that do not have the soda tax? I know what Econ 101 says should have happened...
Didn't some nanny state bureaucrat determine that sodas were bad for you and you were too stupid to make your own decisions so they had to put a punitive tax on to discourage you from purchasing them?
What actually happened, I'm guessing, is that people simply make a trip outside the city limits and stock up a couple times a year, it's not like soda goes bad, after all....
The 1.5-cent-per-ounce tax on sweetened and diet beverages....
Doesn’t seem like a 1.5% tax would drop sales 30% - 50%. Plus, you can still use EBT to purchase soda. Fake news?
Me too
The Philly retailers might suffer but not the distributors. What should happen is smuggling of soft drinks from the adjacent non tax areas
Hey, thanks for putting people out of work with your warped, 2-dimensional thinking ideology put into law.
Impossible. Taxes don’t affect behavior. Everyone continues buying exactly the same products no matter how expensive they become and the additional taxes fund government spending that helps the economy. The left has told me this.
In response, the city questioned the legitimacy of the early figures and predicted that customers responding to the initial sticker shock by shopping outside the city would return.
**************************************************************
Obviously STUCK on STUPID ..... which seems to be a congenital condition with Libs/Left/Democraps/Progs
That means a two-liter bottle of soda has about a $1 tax on it. Those things typically sell for $0.99 to $1.29, depending on where you are shopping. Adding a $1 tax to an item that costs less than a dollar means the tax exceeds 100% of the sale price of the item.
Fantastic news! Even more reason for Indra Nooyi of Pepsi and Muhtar Kent of Coke to keep supporting Democrats whom they love so much while they fear Trump and Republicans.
Couldn’t happen to nicer companies.
Can people get out of the soda tax if they order soda via Amazon.com?
They thought of that. The tax includes soda concentrates. Not only that, the tax is assessed based on the volume of the diluted end product.
Understand that I stated that tongue-in-cheek...expecting that I would not have to explain it to my FReeper family. That said, for the blue-pill democrat residents of Philly that would be "unintended consequences", since anything a liberal/democrat enacts would only be for the good of the people. The evil corporations would simply absorb any cost increase, as they must with their vast piles of cash...just like paying $15/hour or more for unskilled, minimum wage workers.
As you noted, the 1.5 percent is PER OUNCE .... and this is on TOP of the 8% sales tax that already applies to soda in Pennsylvania. Soda is classified as food, which is tax exempt in some states, but not in Pennsylvania.
The 1.5% per ounce tax adds 18 cents to the cost of a can of soda, $1.08 for a six-pack or $1.02 for a two-liter bottle.
Link: http://money.cnn.com/2016/06/16/pf/taxes/philadelphia-passes-a-soda-tax/index.html
“...and predicted that customers responding to the initial sticker shock by shopping outside the city would return.”
Good luck with that. Once they find another place to buy to save the tax they ain’t coming back.
Just like the massive hike in cigarette taxes, those smokers will just buy online with no taxes and keep smoking.
wouldn’t that be a million and one time then?
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