New evidence suggests that Seattle’s soda tax is working well
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Re: New evidence suggests that Seattle’s soda tax is working well
#2Interesting. Does the partial increase in compensating sugar purchases give an idea of how many actually got some benefit from the sugar, as opposed to the caffeine, flavor and bubbles?
Once more of these policies have been in place for a few years, some will likely be repealed. At that point, a study of similar magnitude to analyze to what degree the habit changes are permanent will be even more interesting.
Re: New evidence suggests that Seattle’s soda tax is working well
#3Depends how closely you watch your spending on food. I'm so disconnected that I only learned just now that we have a soda tax. I will still buy my favorite sludge water without concern for the price.
Re: New evidence suggests that Seattle’s soda tax is working well
#4I'm...skeptical. Mostly that in a city where houses stretch into the millions now, people forego a can of Coke over a 20 cent price increase.
Soda consumption has been on a long decline since the late aughts. I even noticed as much anecdotally - often when dining out I would be the only one or maybe one of two to order a soda at all.
I'm completely willing to be proven wrong, but the data set is much too small to conclude anything either way. Why not include the top x cities, instead of just one 200 miles away? Because it rains a lot in both?
Re: New evidence suggests that Seattle’s soda tax is working well
#5A lot of people will point out that the difference of a relative handful of cents doesn't matter much to the individual buyer, and they're probably right. I think the change has happened largely on the supply side. Businesses didn't want to change the price of a soda and so swapped in zero-sugar versions that don't carry the tax. Anecdotally, I've noticed a distinct rise in the number of places offering several more zero-sugar options (though, for some blasted reason, it's still easier to find Coke Zero at restaurants in the suburbs than it is in the city and no, Diet Coke is not OK come on now).
(Alternatively, they did raise the price of all sodas, sugared or not, but I haven't seen much of that.)
Re: New evidence suggests that Seattle’s soda tax is working well
#6I'm...skeptical. Mostly that in a city where houses stretch into the millions now, people forego a can of Coke over a 20 cent price increase. Soda consumption has been on a long decline since the late aughts. I even noticed as much anecdotally - often when dining out I would be the only one or maybe one of two to order a soda at all. I'm completely willing to be proven wrong, but the data set is much too small to con…
When I arrived to the UK, a can of Coke was about £0.45. They kept increasing the prices each year and now it's probably about £1. It's not that I couldn't afford a can, but for me, paying a £1 for it became much less attractive and I only bough it a couple of times over the last two years.
Re: New evidence suggests that Seattle’s soda tax is working well
#7 Armed with three years of grocery shopping data, researchers found that total sugar sales are down by almost 20 percent, driven largely by falling soda purchases.
If they could prove that it would be an incredible breakthrough in public policy, but I wouldn't bet on it. The science on the effect of sugar in the diet, sugar in and of itself, is far more eqquivocal than popular press would make you believe. It is exceedingly likely that people just ate more fat instead of sugar, which is plausibly just as dangerous as sugar when one is eating calories in excess of daily energy requirements.
Re: New evidence suggests that Seattle’s soda tax is working well
#8I'm...skeptical. Mostly that in a city where houses stretch into the millions now, people forego a can of Coke over a 20 cent price increase. Soda consumption has been on a long decline since the late aughts. I even noticed as much anecdotally - often when dining out I would be the only one or maybe one of two to order a soda at all. I'm completely willing to be proven wrong, but the data set is much too small to con…
It's possible the decrease is driven largely by spending habits of low-income families:
> Last year, researchers at the University of Washington found that low-income families in particular saw a significant decrease in soda consumption following the implementation of the tax. The findings were based on a survey of residents, meaning that it relied on self-reporting, which is less accurate than sales data.
This leads to interesting policy questions. For example, some people might complain that the tax is regressive and hits poorer families harder. A rebuttal to this is that obesity is also regressive, and if you wish to fight obesity you need to change behaviors of the people whom it afflicts. One way around this knotty issue is to take the money from this tax and use it for public services that disproportionally benefit the populations from whom it is generated. (I have no idea what the tax revenues in Seattle are used for.)
Re: New evidence suggests that Seattle’s soda tax is working well
#9How's coffee sales doing? With coffee you can add as much sugar as you want without increasing the price!
Re: New evidence suggests that Seattle’s soda tax is working well
#10This tax does not apply to diet sodas, [1] which have been shown to prompt food cravings, especially in women and obese people. [2]
So it's possible that people just substituted from regular to diet soda, and still eat just as much.
1: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/washington/articles/...
2: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/10/07/1044010...