Here at Sip & Savor, we’ve seen the detrimental effects beverage taxes have on families and communities. A tax that singles out one item in the grocery cart for excessive price increases are unpopular because the tax disproportionally falls on working families living paycheck to paycheck and on small businesses that depend on beverage sales for part of their livelihoods.

Just last week, a needed ShopRite grocery store in a low-income community in Philadelphia announced that it will be closing down because of the city’s beverage tax. Store-owner Jeff Brown said he could no longer keep the store open because it is losing too much money. The ShopRite is located near the Philadelphia border, so many residents are shopping outside the city to avoid the tax and while there are doing all their grocery shopping. This way, the shoppers don’t need to take two separate trips to purchase their beverages, then the rest of their groceries.

The neighborhood where the closing grocery store is located relied on this store for fresh food and many choices for their families. But now the community may become a food desert, defined by the United States Department of Agriculture as an urban neighborhood lacking access to fruits, vegetables and other foods because its residents, many of who are poor and without good transportation options, live more than one mile from a supermarket. Families are distressed now that they’ve lost a store that was considered a staple of the neighborhood.

As policymakers brainstorm on new laws and regulations to implement around the country, they need to take the time to research how it will impact families and the communities they represent.