Why cvs charges sales tax on drinks like AriZona iced tea?

Question

other grocery stores like 7-11 and publix don't.

Answer 1

I once pointed out to my grocery store that they taxed bottled Evian, but not bottled Ozarka.  Both are water.  Neither has additives and both clearly were going to be ingested as "food" when I got them home.  (Being an import was a non-issue.)

I also pointed out that one style of Slimfast was taxed and another style wasn't and the ingredient lists were identical....

The clerk offered to submit a comment card to their computer people to review the items in question.

The problem of course is that state law defines which items are covered by the sales tax.  The law has broad definitions (food vs. non-food; 100% juice vs. sugar added juice; food sold in a grocery store and food sold at McDonald's) and someone has to decide which category a specific item goes into.  Any time a human being is involved, the same product can get put into different categories at a different store.  Thus CVS thought it was taxable, 7-11 doesn't.