Philadelphia
Philadelphia’s beverage tax is costing supermarkets $300,000 a month in lost sales as shoppers head to suburbs to make their purchases, according to a new study by a St. Joseph’s University professor.
Philadelphia enacted a 1.5-cent-per-ounce tax on sweetened beverages on Jan. 1, 2017. Since then, beverage companies have said their sales are down as much as 45%.
The new study by John L. Stanton, an expert in food marketing, found that total beverage sales in five Philadelphia supermarkets dropped by more than $80,000 each month, and the damage extended beyond beverage sales, hurting employment opportunities for beverage manufacturers and other related businesses, the Philadelphia Tribune reported.
“The average monthly loss in sales per Philadelphia store of $304,433 will lead to some reduction in labor force,” Stanton wrote in the study. Furthermore, the drop in supermarket sales will negatively impact distributors and other channels of distribution companies serving those supermarkets.”
Philadelphia hopes to raise $91 million in the tax's first year to help fund the city’s school system as well as its parks and recreation centers.