Business Student Blog

Businesses: We Didn’t Enlist With Anti-Bloomberg “Beverage Choices”

At a City Hall rally, businesses protested Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposed ban on super-sized, sugary beverages.

Some businesses that are listed as members of New Yorkers for Beverage Choices, which opposes Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposed ban on super-sized sugary drinks, do not know exactly how they got on that roster.

“We do not take a stand on issues like this,” said John Bonomo, spokesman for Verizon, which is listed on the beverage choices Web site. “I called the organization to take us down.”

“I’m not sure why … somebody put us on there,” said David Urbanos, operating manager of The Ginger Man, a Midtown Manhattan restaurant.

“Maybe the owner heard about it, but not me,” said Larry Lum, manager of
Sushi Sen-Nin, also a Midtown restaurant.

However, Eliot Hoff, spokesman for the beverage group, said no businesses were signed up without their permission. “Somebody with the authority did hear about the coalition. We just don’t sign up businesses. They have to sign up themselves,” said Hoff, adding that supporters could sign-up directly on the Web or with in-person canvassers hired by the organization.

BAN WOULD CUT PROFITS?

Leaders of the beverage group, which hosted a Monday rally at City Hall, said they have 90,000 individual and 1,300 business supporters. At the rally, people waved banners and chanted in opposition to Bloomberg’s plan to ban the sale sugary drinks weighing more than 16 ounces at establishments inspected and ranked by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

“We are outraged by the mayor’s proposal to ban sugar-sweetened beverages,” Liz Berman, owner of Continental Food and Beverage and regional chairwoman for the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce said, addressing those at the rally. “We’ve talked to business owners. We have been advocating with business owners [concerning] how they are impacted.”

Joe Vitta, secretary-treasurer of Local 812 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, also spoke at the rally, which drew food industry workers, food and beverage distributors, City Council members and union members.

“If the ban was instituted, it would have a devastating effect on sales in our industry,” Vitta said. “If sales are reduced, then so is the need [for] production workers. It will result in temporary and permanent layoffs.”

City Council Daniel Halloran, who also addressed the rally, said losing the ability to sell the larger drinks will cut into distributor profits and, in turn, distributors might make up those losses by increasing prices on beverages weighing less than 16 ounces.

Countering those claims, Marc Lavorgna, a spokesman for Bloomberg, said businesses may adjust their prices to offset any increases passed onto them by distributors. “If … you would like to sell [large drinks], you can simply just sell two 16-ounce drinks for the same price [as a larger drink] easily,” Lavorgna said. “They set the price in their store.”

THE OBESITY PROBLEM

Lavorgna also said that businesses are not the focal point. “The ones paying the consequences are children that are becoming obese,” Lavorgna said, and a “primary driver of that are sugary drinks.”

Studies from several of the nation’s leading researchers have proven the link between excessive sugar intake and obesity.
Nevertheless, Halloran said a beverage ban is not the solution. “Do we want our kids fit? Of course we do. The first way we do that is by making sure that every school has gym,” Halloran told those rally.

Halloran also said the city needs to provide more resources for parks: “We need money to ensure the track fields are there, to ensure the basketball courts are playable, the tennis courts are playable. Where’s the money for those resources?”

Lavorgna countered, saying that Bloomberg has presided over one of the largest expansions of city parks since Robert Moses. “The soda ban is one component of the mayor’s agenda but it’s an important one,” he said.

NEW YORKERS DIVIDED

Wendy Gomez, 26, is one New Yorker who opposes the proposed ban. As she waited in front of the Regal Union Square multiplex, she said she consumes regularly consumes sugary drinks. “America was not founded on socialism and this is a socialist act,” Gomez said.

Shelly Omar, 35, disagreed. She spoke while sitting in Bagel Café-Ray’s Pizza on St. Marks Place. “There are a lot of super-sized things. If you super-size everything, the customers will be super-sized as well.”