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Supplemental strategies:

Reducing container / serving sizes;
Alcohol-free events to provide social support

While we know the majority of alcohol is consumed by a relatively small percentage of the population, we also know that the majority of people usually consume alcohol moderately.  Pricing strategies are most likely to affect the majority of individuals, whose personal choice to continue consuming alcohol can be influenced by personal financial priorities.  As a result, increasing the unit price of alcohol has a clear effect on reducing the number of people choosing to consume alcohol and the number of people who consume it in higher quantities.

Many pricing strategies can be easily influenced without formal legislation, such as working with alcohol producers and outlets to adopt responsible marketing practices and limit pricing strategies like happy hours that can concentrate problem drinking.

While pricing strategies have been shown to have a significant effect on individual-level alcohol consumption and correlate with a reduction in alcohol-related harms in a community, taxes have been shown to be a reliable mechanism for affecting unit price that does not rely on vendors voluntarily limiting marketing practices or specials.  It is important to consider both excise taxes on wholesale products, which are levied on the volume of alcohol purchased, paid by businesses and, in turn, incorporated into prices, and sales taxes, which are paid directly by consumers and automatically adjust with inflation.

Learn More!

This CDC website provides helpful information on pricing strategies that could offset any policy/ initiative promoting an increase in alcohol taxes. It will provide the information necessary to negotiate directly with alcohol-related businesses.