BACKFIRE: Philadelphia has introduced a tax on soft drinks, but it did not go as planned

Citizens of Philadelphia were hit by a tax on sugary drinks like sodas, though the hike was aimed at improving their health.

As Saturday's Hotair highlighted, the "tax on sodas" has led Philadelphians to move to the outside of the city to buy their sodas (and possibly other products), has reduced the income of the city and led to layoffs in the local beverage industry and at reduced hours. for employees in small markets. However, this did not result in an increase in healthier beverage purchases in the city.

When the soft drink tax was announced for the first time, Pepsi workers were hit. "With sales plummeting due to the new Philadelphia sweet drink tax, Pepsi announced on Wednesday that it was going to fire 80 to 100 workers in three distribution plants serving the city," philly.com announced in March. 2017.

And last month, the local store announced that the owner of Acme Markets, which has 16 stores in Philadelphia, had to reduce the hours of work of its employees because of the tax: "The tax on beverages raises about 4,000 items. In Acme City stores, soda sales dropped by 80%. Sales of other items covered by the tax, such as fruit juices, creamers and energy drinks, decreased by 30% and the number of customers decreased by 5%. Philly stores eliminate an average of 150 to 200 hours of employees per week, which reduces employee salaries. "

But the blow the employees suffered was not synonymous with victory for the "health" of its citizens. As Hotair noted, Philadelphia residents were traveling outside the city to avoid rising taxes on their consumption.

A CNN report on a JAMA medical journal study reported a 51 percent drop in soft drinks purchases in cities, but admits: "The researchers found that sales of sweetened beverages dropped in Philadelphia after tax, Sales of beverages in cities and the tax went up, suggesting that people may have traveled to get their soda at a discounted price. "

"People stopped buying their sodas in the city (and probably many other items from the shopping list) and decided to shop where prices were lower," noted Hotair.

Has there been at least a slight increase in healthier beverage purchases because of the tax? Nope. "Philadelphia has not seen any increase in sales of untaxed drinks such as bottled water," CNN reported.

CNN did not discuss the recipes that hit Philadelphia, but Hotair said, "The tax on sodas has increased by 17%, but sales have dropped 51%. Let's take a look at this, assuming that one million ounces of soda are sold each year before the tax comes into effect. If sales had remained the same, the city would have earned $ 62,400.00 instead of $ 54,300.00. But with the volume cut in half, they managed to reduce their revenues to $ 31,200.00. "