
Philadelphia's Soda Tax Just Killed a Grocery Store - MagicPropmaker
https://reason.com/blog/2019/01/04/philadelphias-soda-tax-kills-another-gro
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HarryHirsch
That assertion - that the soda tax killed a small supermarket in West Philly -
doesn't sound remotely plausible. Even if soda sales dropped, non-alcoholic
beverages aren't high-markup items, the lunch counter and the magazine aisle
is where profit is made. A retailer doesn't lose too much profit if soda sales
drop (apparently sales did drop, Reason concedes that the tax was a success).
Apart from that, the article is suspiciously scant on details.

On the other hand, obesity, especially childhood obesity, is a massive public
health problem, and the costs on the public purse are immense. If the
Philadelphia soda tax manages to put a dent into that problem, one can easily
live with one Shoprite less.

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Tommah
It sounds as though sales of everything dropped, not just soda sales. If you
have a choice of two mostly equivalent stores at which to do your shopping,
and if soda is on your shopping list, you would prefer the store that doesn't
have to tack an extra $1 on to each bottle of soda.

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HarryHirsch
Looking at the map, there's a surprising number of supermarkets within a one-
mile radius. You find an Aldi just up the road, two Save-a-Lot's, a
Freshgrocer, nevermind the abundance of corner stores. You'd think they depend
on foot traffic, which is less likely to decamp across the city limit to Upper
Darby. I still think there are other factors at play. The _Inquirer_ has data
that per-capita income dropped substantially from 1999 to 2013, and it was
always poor:
[http://media.philly.com/storage/special_projects/income_and_...](http://media.philly.com/storage/special_projects/income_and_poverty_in_the_philadelphia_region.html)

You also think that it's _corner stores_ that would be more affected by the
soda tax because soda is a larger percentage of sales, yet _Reason_ rolls out
the Shoprite.

