this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2024
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In 1993, Alberta said a private liquor model would bring more choice and stable prices. Did it? (www.cbc.ca)
submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

There's way more to it than that.

He said consumer prices in Alberta are influenced by supplier-set wholesale prices, store and government markups and the timing of limited-time offers. All the factors at play means it's challenging to track retail price changes over time.

"What I concluded in the data that I looked at in my own study, is that there was some increase in retail prices as a result of privatization, but it was not large," West said.

"But it depends on product category, and the time period."

In addition, when Alberta privatized, it changed the tax system from a percentage of the price to a unit tax.

"It doesn't matter what it costs. The tax is flat," Enoch said. "Which dings lower-cost alcohol, right? Because everything is charged at the same tax rate."

There's other positive things mentioned in this article, too, so what you're doing is almost cherry picking.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (2 children)

None of this refutes what was said above.

Privatization resulted in alcohol prices increasing.

I've also not seen any numbers that suggest that the Alberta government makes more revenue from the private system than they would have a public system.

Every back-of-the-napkin calculation I've done suggests that the move to a private system increases access to alcohol for citizens while reducing the government revenue related to alcohol sales.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Yeah, I don't see why tax collection would increase.

The article mentions more selection, which is unambiguously good, and more locations which is good from a buyers perspective (although less so from a public health perspective). To be fair, it also mentions a lot of the jobs being minimum wage, but that seems like it has less to do with liquor and more to do with trends in the whole economy.

I don't know, it just doesn't seem like something the private sector couldn't do for any reason, so I'm unsurprised the sky didn't fall, and the situation even improved in some respects.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Much of Europe is privatized and their prices are much less than here. The main reason our prices are so high is the special alcohol tax the government puts on to discourage drinking.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

To clarify your point. The privatization in Europe has nothing to do with the lower prices, it's the lower tax rate.

In places like Ontario we "double dip" on revenue where the LCBO marks up alcohol as any retailer would and makes revenue for Ontario, but at the same time, alcohol tax is also collected.

When people talk about privatization of the LCBO, it's a portion of that retail markup revenue which we would be unnecessary giving away.