The party of smaller government
Tennessee law requires mark ups on cigarettes, milk and wine:
Under a new state law, Tennessee retailers will have to charge smokers at least 15 percent more than the wholesale cost. The surcharge is theirs to keep.
That increase follows last year’s law requiring supermarkets to sell wine at least 20 percent above cost and another longstanding 10 percent markup on milk. State law refers to those margins as “the cost of doing business.”
June 6th, 2015 at 2:12 pm
The “cost of doing business” should be left to business. And it certainly is not a given that a Republican is pro-liberty or a constitutionalist.
June 6th, 2015 at 2:26 pm
In the free world it is referred to as state-mandated protectionism.
June 6th, 2015 at 6:19 pm
The government shouldn’t be in the business of doing business.
June 6th, 2015 at 10:26 pm
But like employees in business, We should expect and demand that our employees in Government go by their job descriptions ( State And Federal Constitutions), be restricted to their delegated powers and only spend what allowance they receive from their employers.
June 6th, 2015 at 11:35 pm
So a wine retailer is forbidden from dumping inventory at say a 10% loss to make room on the shelves? Instead they must literally dump inventory down the drain at a 100% loss if it is not selling? Yeah, I’d say that affects the cost of doing business.
June 6th, 2015 at 11:50 pm
This is what happens when you allow the government to regulate commerce,
June 7th, 2015 at 8:23 am
Funny. I thought price fixing was something communists did. I am pretty naive.
June 7th, 2015 at 10:22 am
An Tennesseans will come across the border in GA to buy and on the way back be taken down by SWAT (Still Wanting All Tax) Teams.
June 7th, 2015 at 1:08 pm
No problem.
The booze, milk, and cigarette sellers can make ‘coupons’ and have the buyers use them to buy the stuff.
They can have a ‘buy three, get one free’ day.
They can have a ‘spin the wheel’ to get free stuff when buying the forced markuped stuff.
Silly regulations invoke transparent evasions.
June 7th, 2015 at 1:58 pm
I think this would favor large chain stores that have their own distribution system as they could ‘buy’ wholesale from their own distro warehouses who only make minimal profit (or even sell at a loss to their retail stores). Small/independent retailers who have to rely on independent wholesalers would be at a disadvantage.
June 7th, 2015 at 7:18 pm
Its called shopping for Groceries in Kentucky!