Well good, fuck ‘em. Pepsi I mean. I had a gf who was obsessed with Diet Pepsi and the price has over doubled in the past few years. In 2020, you could easily find 2 liter bottles for $0.99, $1.25. Then they went to $1.75… $2.49… $2.99. You can still find them on sale 3 for $5, not not often or all the time. I’m pretty sure that the cost of bringing Diet Pepsi to market has not increased 300%.
Depends on location. In parts of the US like Philadelphia and DC diet sodas absolutely are included in the tax. Meanwhile in Seattle Starbucks beverages were specifically excluded as not being “sugary” because they include milk which makes them “healthy” thanks to a lot of lobbying. I don’t know of any European taxes that function the same way but it has certainly tainted the concept since, like everything, shitty lawmaking ruined the entire point in actual execution.
Yeah where I was living in Seattle diet sodas were exempt from the tax. I do recall that Starbucks thing but that’s a whole other issue.
I live in an EU country now and apparently they’re gonna be rolling out sugary drink taxes soon and I’m not yet clear on whether diet sodas are included but I haven’t looked into it closely yet.
I was living in the Seattle area when they implemented theirs and that is when I looked into the taxes and found out about Philly including diet soda. I can’t find a source now with quick googling but the reason I came across back then was that statistically white middle class consumers drink more diet soda so zero calorie drinks were included in the “sugary” tax to promote equity… while completely destroying the health push that was the very reason for the tax.
Meanwhile diet or not I just wish I could get Mezzo Mix at my local store.
So you’re talking about 14p difference on a large soda.
The bottled stuff, it depends, a lot of it got reduced way the fuck down to limit it or fall under the limit entirely. Honestly, it was a good thing. I genuinely can’t stand full sugar soda … makes my teeth itch.
Well good, fuck ‘em. Pepsi I mean. I had a gf who was obsessed with Diet Pepsi and the price has over doubled in the past few years. In 2020, you could easily find 2 liter bottles for $0.99, $1.25. Then they went to $1.75… $2.49… $2.99. You can still find them on sale 3 for $5, not not often or all the time. I’m pretty sure that the cost of bringing Diet Pepsi to market has not increased 300%.
About a year ago I was at a grocery store and bought one of those 473ml bottles of pop at the till. It rang up on the till as $2.99
I told them to remove that, it’s ridiculous, went to the pop section, and got the exact same 2L pop on sale for $1
Oh yeah, small bottles in convenience sizes are absurd. Same for water. You can buy 1/2 a quart for $2.00 or an entire gallon for $1.50.
Or turn the handle on your faucet for $0.00
Well, technically you do pay for tap water, but sure, it’s like 2 cents. I use bottled water when I’m camping or otherwise away from my faucet.
I pay something like $5 per 10,000 gallons, so for me a bottle of water definitely rounds down to $0.00.
Those mini-cans of soda are more expensive too. So nuts.
Are there extra taxes on sugarly drinks in EU countries?
It seems they do in individual countries but not EU-wide. Not very much though, it says an average of 7.5 cents a can.
So, that can not explain rise of the price then…
Sugary drink taxes don’t apply to diet sodas either
Depends on location. In parts of the US like Philadelphia and DC diet sodas absolutely are included in the tax. Meanwhile in Seattle Starbucks beverages were specifically excluded as not being “sugary” because they include milk which makes them “healthy” thanks to a lot of lobbying. I don’t know of any European taxes that function the same way but it has certainly tainted the concept since, like everything, shitty lawmaking ruined the entire point in actual execution.
Yeah where I was living in Seattle diet sodas were exempt from the tax. I do recall that Starbucks thing but that’s a whole other issue.
I live in an EU country now and apparently they’re gonna be rolling out sugary drink taxes soon and I’m not yet clear on whether diet sodas are included but I haven’t looked into it closely yet.
I wonder if they will do that with wine as well.
I was living in the Seattle area when they implemented theirs and that is when I looked into the taxes and found out about Philly including diet soda. I can’t find a source now with quick googling but the reason I came across back then was that statistically white middle class consumers drink more diet soda so zero calorie drinks were included in the “sugary” tax to promote equity… while completely destroying the health push that was the very reason for the tax.
Meanwhile diet or not I just wish I could get Mezzo Mix at my local store.
That logic is insanely frustrating. You see it in policy all the time and it drives me crazy.
They would probably keep the same cost for diet and non-diet Pepsi and pocket the difference.
Honestly wouldn’t surprise me
Where I’ve seen such a tax implemented that was not the case. But sure, I wouldn’t be surprised if that happened somewhere.
So you’re talking about 14p difference on a large soda.
The bottled stuff, it depends, a lot of it got reduced way the fuck down to limit it or fall under the limit entirely. Honestly, it was a good thing. I genuinely can’t stand full sugar soda … makes my teeth itch.