69FunnyNumberGuy420 t1_j4wbr3w wrote
Reply to comment by CltAltAcctDel in Dear PLCB, it's now cost-effectiove for me to drive out of state to buy alcohol. Why aren't you passing your volume buying discounts to Pennsylvanians? by pm_your_masterpiece
If they ever privatize, the businesses that replace the state stores will have no pressure to reduce prices, either. Why charge you less than you've already shown you'll pay?
CltAltAcctDel t1_j4wfbha wrote
Because it there will be multiple places to buy from. The state won’t hands its monopoly over to a single company. It will sell licenses to multiple liquor stores and you’ll have options
69FunnyNumberGuy420 t1_j4wiljo wrote
The companies will just pricefix and collude just like companies collude on everything else, and the state will do nothing about it.
Washington privatized their liquor system and prices went up.
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2017/dec/13/5-years-after-privatization-washington-liquor-sale/
CltAltAcctDel t1_j4wp29x wrote
It sounds like state fees and not collusion are leading to higher prices. If it’s still cheaper in Idaho than there’s probably something else at play that makes Idaho cheaper than Washington
69FunnyNumberGuy420 t1_j4wp9at wrote
Yes, the state fees in Washington are making it more expensive to buy booze from the businesses than it was to buy liquor from the state itself. That's definitely it, and not just businesses colluding and taking profits.
Businesses will never charge you less for a product than you've already shown a willingness to pay, and you're a fool if you think privatization will bring about cheaper liquor.
CltAltAcctDel t1_j4wt4to wrote
>When comparing liquor prices between Washington and California across all store types, the latter’s prices were 24.1% lower for 750 mL containers and 29.6% lower for 1.75 L. Washington has the highest spirit tax rate of any U.S. state and tax differences likely explain the price differences between the two states. Researchers chose California as the comparative state as it allows liquor sales in similar store types and has the same large licensed chain stores such as BevMo, Costco, and Safeway.
https://arg.org/news/liquor_prices_continue_to_grow/
>https://www.seattletimes.com/business/in-aftermath-of-liquor-privatization-spirits-everywhere-not-cheap/
>Data posted by the Tax Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, indicates that Washington residents pay about $35.22 per gallon in spirits taxes, about $8.52 more than before privatization, even though Washington already was the state that taxed liquor the most.
It costs the business $8.52 more to sell the product than it cost the state to sell the same product. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that prices would be higher.
69FunnyNumberGuy420 t1_j4wul6w wrote
California's prices are irrelevant to whether or not Washington state's prices went up after the state system was privatized.
No business is going to charge you less than you've already proven you'll pay.
Privatization has been a massive failure everywhere it's been tried, but this time it'll work for real.
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