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on the Seattle bag fee
Aug. 16th, 2009 02:12 pmOne of the ACS's arguments against the bag tax is: "And, somehow, big box stores like Target and Fred Meyer are given special treatment -- if you buy groceries at one of these stores the tax does not apply!"
Special loopholes for big box stores? Which the "yes rebuttal of no" statement does not rebut? That gives me pause. Except on reading the text I think the ACS is distorting the truth.
The ordinance applies to stores by NAICS category: 446110 "pharmacies and drug stores", 446191 "food and health supplement stores", 445110 "supermarkets and other grocery", and 452910 "warehouse clubs and supercenters". So the question is whether your "big box store" falls under 452910, or some other code such as 452111 "department stores".
According to the definitions, the key thing appears to be whether you carry "a general line of groceries" -- "perishable", the 452111 cross-references add. Which the Fred Meyer I go to does, and the Target I go to doesn't.
So it looks like the ordinance is doing about what it says it will do: applying to grocery (and drug and convenience) stores. Yeah, it doesn't cover buying dry cereal at Target, but that seems pragmatic as long as you're not intending to apply to all retail. Which is the larger question, of course, but evaluating cost/benefit of that is also part of the job of the two city employees that the ACS is het up about.
Special loopholes for big box stores? Which the "yes rebuttal of no" statement does not rebut? That gives me pause. Except on reading the text I think the ACS is distorting the truth.
The ordinance applies to stores by NAICS category: 446110 "pharmacies and drug stores", 446191 "food and health supplement stores", 445110 "supermarkets and other grocery", and 452910 "warehouse clubs and supercenters". So the question is whether your "big box store" falls under 452910, or some other code such as 452111 "department stores".
According to the definitions, the key thing appears to be whether you carry "a general line of groceries" -- "perishable", the 452111 cross-references add. Which the Fred Meyer I go to does, and the Target I go to doesn't.
So it looks like the ordinance is doing about what it says it will do: applying to grocery (and drug and convenience) stores. Yeah, it doesn't cover buying dry cereal at Target, but that seems pragmatic as long as you're not intending to apply to all retail. Which is the larger question, of course, but evaluating cost/benefit of that is also part of the job of the two city employees that the ACS is het up about.
