Comment: State lawmakers can lower prices at the grocery store
Published 1:30 am Saturday, December 27, 2025
By Tammie Hetrick / For The Herald
What’s one of the first things lawmakers will do when they return to Olympia next month for the 2026 legislative session?
Visit a local grocery store.
That trip should offer some compelling insight into the cost of food and groceries. Spoiler alert: Everything will be more expensive. And thanks to a bill legislators approved last session, their grocery bill is about to get even steeper.
You may recall this past spring, the Legislature passed and Gov. Bob Ferguson signed into law the largest tax increase in state history: a $9.4 billion tax increase. And while that tax increase was aimed at employers and corporations, the reality is, you — the average consumer — will end up paying more at your local grocery store.
At issue is a 0.5 percent surcharge beginning Jan. 1 that will affect many food wholesalers serving communities across Washington. A food wholesaler provides fresh food and other household products to retail stores, including many of the state’s independent grocers, convenience and neighborhood stores. The family grocer you stop by on the way home from work. The corner store where you take the kids for a treat. Or, in some communities, the only grocery store in town.
This tax increase will be a huge hit to shoppers, who ultimately will pay the added costs on food and groceries.
It’s worth noting that nationwide, consumers are paying 30 percent more for food and groceries since February 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Even pet food has gone up: Consumer price index data shows prices for pet food and treats increased 0.5 percent in September from a year ago.
But now, Washingtonians will pay even more because of this new tax.
I think we can all agree that Washington lawmakers should do everything they can to help curb those costs, not add to them.
Gov. Ferguson and the state Legislature should prioritize reducing the cost of food and groceries when they start the legislative session on Jan. 12. They should take immediate steps to exempt wholesale food/grocery products from the busincess and occupation (B&O) surcharge, as they did with food at the retail level when the bill was adopted during the 2025 session.
Making food more expensive hurts those most in need. It penalizes individuals and working families struggling to make ends meet, for whom buying fresh food and groceries is a constant challenge.
Independent grocers are lifelines in many Washington communities where food insecurity is all too real and access to fresh food is limited. In fact, the tax increase on food and groceries represents almost half the independent grocer’s profit. These stores already survive on razor-thin profit margins, often at 1%, while providing incredible community support, resources and jobs.
So, as it turns out, increasing costs on food suppliers will only exacerbate the cost of food for consumers. When their costs go up — as they will with this new surcharge — your bill at the checkout will go up, too. And in Washington state, we already have the fourth highest food costs in the nation: A new tax on wholesale food is a wholly counterproductive measure.
Neither our stores, nor our customers, can afford these additional costs. If the governor and Legislature thought taxing businesses more would hurt the “villains” in their tax storyline, then they’ve lost the plot.
Consumers are the ones feeling the impacts of higher grocery costs.
Lawmakers must lower the cost of groceries for consumers when they reconvene in Olympia by exempting the B&O surcharge from wholesale food and grocery products. The question is, will they?
Tammie Hetrick is the president and CEO of the Washington Food Industry Association, representing independent grocers, neighborhood and convenience stores and food wholesalers.
