Sustained Impact of the Philadelphia Beverage Tax on Beverage Prices and Sales Over 2 Years

Petimar, Joshua; Gibson, Laura; Yan, Jiali; Bleich, Sara N.; Mitra, Nandita; Trego, Marsha L; Lawman, Hannah G.; Roberto, Christina A.

doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2021.12.012

Cited by 15 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Participants also reported substituting powdered or liquid beverage mixes as a way to consume nontaxed sugary drinks. This aligns with findings from a recent longitudinal analysis of commercial retail sales data that noted substitution towards beverage concentrates in supermarkets since implementation of Philadelphia's tax ( 33 , 34 ) . Therefore, policymakers should consider including powdered beverage mixes and concentrates to close this loophole in future beverage tax policies.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

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Low-income parents’ perceptions of a sweetened beverage tax in Philadelphia

et al. 2022

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Objective: To characterise perceptions of the Philadelphia Beverage Tax among low-income parents. Design: We conducted semi-structured interviews and administered demographic questions via telephone. We based the interview guide and initial codebook on a conceptual model illustrating perceived fairness and effectiveness as essential for successfully adopting food policies. We performed thematic analysis using NVivo 12. Setting: We recruited from a primary care paediatrics clinic in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from July to August 2020. Participants: Philadelphia parents/caregivers of 2- to 11-year-old children with Medicaid insurance. Results: Participants were predominantly African American (97 %), female (100 %), and had annual household incomes <$50 000 (80 %). Participants were 26- to 72-years old, with an average aged child of 5 years (range 7 months to 20 years). Themes emerged regarding tax perceptions, revenue use and behaviour change due to the tax. Using revenue for highly valued programmes and accountability of city government to use revenue as promised were critical elements in perceptions of tax fairness. Some parents avoided the tax through cross-border shopping and buying drink powders or concentrates, influencing perceptions of tax effectiveness. The tax signalled the health dangers of sweetened beverage consumption to most parents. Conclusion: Our findings bring to light four key takeaways for policymakers designing sweetened beverage taxes. (1) Dedication of tax revenue to programmes highly valued by parents and (2) transparency in revenue spending may improve acceptability. (3) State or national taxes may be more effective at decreasing consumption due to cross-border shopping. (4) Pairing taxes with health promotion campaigns may enhance behaviour change.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

“…commercial retail sales data that noted substitution towards beverage concentrates in supermarkets since implementation of Philadelphia's tax (33,34) . Therefore, policymakers should consider including powdered beverage mixes and concentrates to close this loophole in future beverage tax policies.…”

Section: Pair Tax Policies With Health Promotion Campaignsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Low-income parents’ perceptions of a sweetened beverage tax in Philadelphia

et al. 2022

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“…Moreover, because prepared bakery and deli items are among the top contributors to added sugar and sodium in the US diet, these results also suggested potential cardiometabolic benefits, especially for consumers who respond strongly to the labels. However, given the small overall reductions, the present results suggest that for broader influence on population-level diet, calorie labeling should be implemented alongside other evidence-based nutrition interventions, such as sweetened beverage taxes and improved school nutrition standards …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of Calories Purchased After Calorie Labeling of Prepared Foods in a Large Supermarket Chain

et al. 2022

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IMPORTANCE Calorie labels for prepared (ie, ready-to-eat) foods are required in large chain food establishments in the US. Large evaluations in restaurants suggest small declines in purchases of prepared foods after labeling, but to the authors' knowledge, no studies have examined how this policy influences supermarket purchases.OBJECTIVE To estimate changes in calories purchased from prepared foods and potential packaged substitutes compared with control foods after calorie labeling of prepared foods in supermarkets. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTSThis controlled interrupted time series compared sales 2 years before labeling implementation (April 2015-April 2017) with sales 7 months after labeling implementation (May 2017-December 2017). Data from 173 supermarkets from a supermarket chain with locations in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont were analyzed from March 2020 to May 2022. INTERVENTION Implementation of calorie labeling of prepared foods in April 2017.MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Purchased items were classified as prepared foods, potential packaged substitutes for prepared foods, or all other (ie, control) foods. The primary outcome was mean weekly calories per transaction purchased from prepared foods, and the secondary outcome was mean weekly calories per transaction purchased from similar packaged items (for substitution analyses). Analyses of prepared and packaged foods were stratified by food category (bakery, entrées and sides, or deli meats and cheeses). RESULTS Among the included 173 supermarkets, calorie labeling was associated with a mean 5.1% decrease (95% CI, −5.8% to −4.4%) in calories per transaction purchased from prepared bakery items and an 11.0% decrease (95% CI, −11.9% to −10.1%) from prepared deli items, adjusted for changes in control foods; no changes were observed for prepared entrées and sides (change = 0.3%; 95% CI, −2.5% to 3.0%). Labeling was also associated with decreased calories per transaction purchased from packaged bakery items (change = −3.9%; 95% CI, −4.3% to −3.6%), packaged entrées and sides (change = −1.2%; 95% CI, −1.4% to −0.9%), and packaged deli items (change = −2.1%; 95% CI, −2.4% to −1.7%). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCEIn this longitudinal study of supermarkets, calorie labeling of prepared foods was associated with small to moderate decreases in calories purchased from prepared bakery and deli items without evidence of substitution to similar packaged foods.

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“…Our tax pass-through results are similar to those of other studies that estimated pass-through at pharmacies in Philadelphia using chain retailer data (95%-104%), 5,10 but differ from a study estimating pass-through to be 59% among a smaller number of Philadelphia pharmacies. 9 The observed pass-through in our study is also higher than estimated pass-through in pharmacies located in the San Francisco Bay Area (45%-77%).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[4][5][6][7] In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which implemented a 1.5 cents/oz excise tax on artificially sweetened and sugar-sweetened beverages on January 1, 2017, 8 the mean tax passthrough (ie, the extent to which the tax is passed on to consumers through increased prices) at pharmacies has ranged from 59% to 104%. 5,9,10 In contrast, for several cities in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, a 1 cent/oz tax led to a 45% to 77% pass-through in pharmacies. 4,11 The declines in taxed beverage sales also vary by city from 10% in Berkeley, California, to 38% in Philadelphia.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Philadelphia Beverage Tax and Association With Prices, Purchasing, and Individual-Level Substitution in a National Pharmacy Chain

et al. 2023

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ImportanceTaxes on sweetened beverages are being implemented around the globe; an understanding of these taxes on individual-level behavior is necessary.ObjectiveTo evaluate the degree to which the sweetened beverage tax in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was associated with changes in beverage prices and individual-level purchasing over time at a national pharmacy chain in Philadelphia compared with Baltimore, Maryland.Design, Setting, and ParticipantsUsing a difference-in-differences approach and generalized linear mixed models, this cohort study examined beverage purchases made by loyalty cardholders at a national chain pharmacy retailer with stores in Philadelphia and Baltimore (control city) from before tax to after tax. Beverage sales (in US dollars) were linked by unique loyalty card numbers to enable longitudinal analyses. Data were collected from January 1, 2015, through December 31, 2017 (2 years before tax and 1 year after tax); data analyses were conducted from January through October 2022.ExposureImplementation of Philadelphia’s 1.5 cents/oz tax on sweetened beverages.Main Outcomes and MeasuresThe outcomes were the change in mean beverage price per-ounce and mean beverage volume purchased per cardholder transaction. Individual-level point-of-sale scanner data from all beverage purchases were analyzed.ResultsA total of 1188 unique beverages were purchased from the same stores before tax and after tax. There were 231 065 unique cardholders in Philadelphia and 82 517 in Baltimore. Mean prices of taxed beverages (n = 2 094 220) increased by 1.6 (95% CI, 1.3-2.0) cents/oz (106.7% pass-through) in Philadelphia compared with Baltimore from before tax to after tax. Philadelphia cardholders purchased 7.8% (95% CI −8.1% to −7.5%) fewer ounces of taxed beverages and 1.1% (95% CI, 0.6%-1.7%) more ounces of nontaxed beverages per transaction. Taxed beverages made up a smaller percentage of cardholders’ overall beverage purchases after tax (−13.4% [95% CI, −14.2% to −12.6%]), while nontaxed beverages made up a larger share (9.3% [95% CI, 7.7%-10.7%]).Conclusions and RelevanceIn this longitudinal cohort study of the Philadelphia beverage tax, the tax was completely passed through to prices and was associated with a 7.8% decline in ounces of taxed beverages purchased at a national pharmacy chain.

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Sustained Impact of the Philadelphia Beverage Tax on Beverage Prices and Sales Over 2 Years

Cited by 15 publications

References 24 publications

Low-income parents’ perceptions of a sweetened beverage tax in Philadelphia

Low-income parents’ perceptions of a sweetened beverage tax in Philadelphia

Assessment of Calories Purchased After Calorie Labeling of Prepared Foods in a Large Supermarket Chain

Philadelphia Beverage Tax and Association With Prices, Purchasing, and Individual-Level Substitution in a National Pharmacy Chain

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