No Respect at the Checkout Line

Idaho’s grocery tax is not fiscal responsibility, it’s legalized exploitation of a necessity every family must buy.

It sounds like the kind of joke Rodney Dangerfield would have told, but it isn’t funny. His famous line was, “I don’t get no respect.” When it comes to Idaho’s grocery tax, that’s exactly how residents are treated — no respect at the checkout line.

In 2025, a LendingTree survey found that nearly 25% of Buy Now, Pay Later users financed groceries, up from just 14% the year before. The past several years have been financially punishing, and Idaho’s grocery tax only deepens the strain. Families who finance groceries end up paying interest on the tax itself, an unavoidable cost of borrowing money to cover a necessity.

Meanwhile, the state is borrowing interest-free from every consumer. Each time you pay sales tax on food, that money is taken up front and held until refund season. It is a loan you never agreed to.

Taxing groceries is not fiscal responsibility, it is legalized exploitation of a human necessity. Food is not a luxury, and taxing it punishes those least able to bear the burden. Until Idaho ends this shell game and repeals the grocery tax, families will keep living out Dangerfield’s line: they don’t get no respect.

References
Broadbent, G. (2025, January 3). Debit cards dominate grocery purchases: Here’s how credit card issuers can gain share. eMarketer. https://www.emarketer.com/content/debit-cards-grocery-purchases-credit-card-issuers

CNBC. (2025, April 26). Americans are increasingly using “buy now, pay later” loans to cover groceries. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/26/americans-groceries-buy-now-pay-later-loans.html

LendingTree. (2025). BNPL tracker: 41% of users late in past year [Data set]. LendingTree. https://www.lendingtree.com/personal/buy-now-pay-later-loan-statistics

Investopedia. (2025, August 12). The hidden dangers of “buy now, pay later”: Why nearly 1 in 4 Americans are at risk. Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/the-hidden-dangers-of-buy-now-pay-later-why-nearly-1-in-4-americans-are-at-risk-11789074