One year later: Berkeley’s Soda Tax significantly reduced sales of sugary drinks
Our 2017 study titled, “Changes in prices, sales, consumer spending, and beverage consumption one year after a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages in Berkeley, California, US: A before-and-after study,” compared prices, sales, store revenue, and beverage intake among Berkeley residents before and after implementation of a sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax on March 1, 2015. We found that the tax led to a drop in purchases of taxed SSBs (-9.6%) and an increase in sales of untaxed beverages (+3.5%), especially water (+15.6%). Store revenue did not fall more in Berkeley compared to cities without a tax, and the average grocery bill did not increase in Berkeley after the tax.
Watch a video summarizing the study above, and read the full study in PLOSMed here. This study was funded by the Bloomberg Philanthropies with support from UNC’s Carolina Population Center and its National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant (P2C HD050924).
Download data sets here.