Wine and Spirits Are About to Get More Expensive

Your weekend party might be a little pricier soon.
 
New Jersey’s new wine and spirits taxes go into effect Saturday. The tax per gallon of wine and spirits will increase by 25 percent. Customers will pay $5.50 in tax per gallon of liquor and 87 1/2 cents per gallon of wine. Beer will not be impacted.

Here in Scotch Plains and Fanwood, liquor store managers say that they will be upping their prices to reflect the change.

Jay Patel, manager of Fanwood Liquors on South Avenue, said that he'll start increasing the store's prices when new shipments come in next week.

While he said he probably won't increase the cost on cheaper bottles that are only going up by a few cents, larger and more expensive bottles will be marked up to make up for the nearly $1 tax increase.

A manager at Vineyard on US-22 in Scotch Plains said he will also begin raising prices soon. Anything that's currently in the store won't go up on Saturday, he said, but anything new that arrives will. Tax on a $7.50 bottle of wine, for instance, will increase by about 35 cents. Bottles that are around 1.5 liters will go up by about 75 cents. Five liter bottles will increase by a $1.

"It's a steep impact," he said. "Initially, the first two weeks the impact will be felt, but after that the customers will get used to it."

In terms of restaurants and bars, it's not yet known which ones will pass the cost onto their customers.

Eldin Kehres of the Stage House Restaurant and Wine Bar said that while he's sure the new tax will impact them to a degree, they have no plans to charge more for drinks just yet.

"We have no plans to raise our prices tomorrow," he said.