Tell me about the proposed Seattle coffee tax

started a thread about it already...

I'm not too sure I like the precedent, but people who are making a big hoopla over it should, well, get over it. Like a dime is really going to make that 16 oz. breve seem that much heavier.

It's bad for small coffee shop owners. Chains like Charbucks can afford to absorb the cost of the tax to keep prices the same, but small independent stores cannot and will end up losing money.

Well, I totally agree that a slight raise in the overall sales tax is a much better idea than this. I do have issues with the tax proposal, mostly to due with the bureacracy and resulting loopholes of the proposition and not necessarily the notion of coffee being taxed.

That said, the whole coffee economy here doesn't see a lot of people going out of their way to stop by the coffee shop down the block because their drinks are a dime cheaper. Usually the chain stores (Starbuck's, Tully's, Seattle's Best, Caffe Laddro, etc.) don't have different prices than the independent ones. If so, it's barely enough to matter, I think. (but apparently, other coffee fanatics disagree)

I think the worst part of the proposition is that we're wasting government money on something that couldn't have possibly been designed to be ANY MORE FUCKING UNPOPULAR. Why don't we tax other fun, like dildos, DVDs, and Derringers, while we're at it?

(Then again, if Bloomberg was mayor of Seattle, he would have just banned coffee in Seattle.. so I'm counting my lucky stars.)

I'd like to see him try to ban coffee in Seattle--> the whole city would shut down for 9 months while it rains.

And yeah, I'm continually surprised why people pick the coffee shops that they do. I mostly care about what the coffee tastes like (ok, as long as it's less than $3). Some of my friends at work will only stop at places on their block, and there are a few crazy folks who will only go to Starbucks or only to an independent coffee shop, regardless of price/what their latte tastes like/etc.

And my new favorite coffee craziness: get off plane in Detroit's airport monday 7:40 AM. Have 80 minutes to next flight. Go to *only* freaking Starbucks in the terminal (it's Detroit, I don't trust non-Starbucks lattes), find line is about 50 people long. Catch up on vmail & phone calls while inching forward. Get towards front of the line. Lady & a guy two people in front of me reach registers, bitch at poor lady there about having to wait for 15 minutes. Then order frappucinos with whip cream & sauce on top & lots of special instructions. Hello, as if people ordering drinks that take 3 minutes to make --like yr frappucinos-- aren't the reason that the line is so long!

Coffee tax! The USA is truly beyond redemption. Is there going to be a law saying y'all have to go door-to-door as missionaries next? Sorry, but yr country is fucked!

Is there *really* no way that a smaller coffee chain can't sell its wares for less than $3 a cup? This is a serious question - the price of coffee is just ridiculous.

I laughed at the name "Caffe Laddro" though - "coffee thief" in Italian, if you ignore the misspelling. How apt.

Surely the real objection to the tax is that it is just a part of the insidious tax burden growing slowly bigger and bigger while at the same time giving government the excuse to divert money away from the areas these "private taxes" are covering. Just my tuppence'th, and apologies if I've missed anyone making the same point (am whizzing through ILE at work).

Well, Washington state doesn't have a state tax, so that probably has something to do with this, too...

But anyway, the initiative failed miserably, as fully expected.

(Slightly more interesting is that the pot initiative looks like it was passing -- basically to direct Seattle enforcement officials to make arrests in pot possession or smoking "their lowest priority". It's a symbolic initiative granted, but its passing would be better than nothing)