5 Things Chicago Jewel-Osco Shoppers Know That Suburban Illinoisans Don’t

Did you know that the same Thanksgiving groceries can ring up differently at Jewel-Osco, depending on which side of the Chicago city line you shop on?

These are the things many Chicago Jewel-Osco shoppers know that a lot of suburban Illinoisans don’t.

Note: This is general information, not tax advice. Tax rules and rates are subject to change.

1. 15-Cent Bag Tax

A paper or plastic bag you grab at a Jewel-Osco checkout in Chicago carries a city tax of 15 cents in 2026.

Four bags is 60 cents.

The tax started at 7 cents in 2017, rose to 10 cents in 2025, and reached 15 cents in January.

The store keeps 1 cent of each charge, and the city gets the rest.

It’s a City of Chicago ordinance, so it stops at the city limits.

A Jewel-Osco in the suburbs isn’t collecting Chicago’s version.

If you pay with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, the city exempts the bags that carry those items.

2. 3% Soft Drink Tax

Twenty dollars of canned soda in your cart draws 60 cents of tax at a Jewel-Osco in Chicago, thanks to a 3% city levy on canned and bottled soft drinks.

It’s a City of Chicago tax, so you won’t pay this rate in the soda aisle of a suburban Jewel-Osco.

The city puts the tax on businesses that sell canned or bottled soft drinks at retail.

3. Bottled Water Tax

Chicago puts a nickel tax on each bottle of water at a Jewel-Osco, so a 12-pack in your cart comes to 60 cents.

The city taxes each bottle, not the purchase, so you pay more as the bottle count grows.

A suburban Jewel-Osco doesn't add that nickel because the tax is the city's.

4. 1.5% Liquor Tax

Since March 1, 2026, wine at a Jewel-Osco in Chicago has come with a 1.5% liquor tax.

The tax applies to alcohol sold for off-premises consumption, which covers a bottle you take home from the store.

The 1.5% is figured on the retail purchase price.

A $100 purchase of wine adds $1.50 to your total.

The city first planned to start the tax on Jan. 1, then delayed it until March 1.

The tax is the city's, so a suburban Jewel-Osco doesn't add it to your total.

5. No Local Grocery Tax

A Jewel-Osco in Chicago adds no local grocery tax because the City Council didn't approve one when the state's 1% grocery tax ended.

Illinois ended its statewide 1% grocery tax on Jan. 1, 2026.

Cities and counties could replace it with a 1% tax of their choosing.

The Illinois Municipal League found that 656 municipalities, a little more than half, passed the tax.

Chicago and Springfield were the only cities over 100,000 residents that skipped it.

Going without the tax will cost Chicago an estimated $60 million to $80 million.

Naperville passed the tax, so if you buy groceries at a Naperville Jewel-Osco, you pay a 1% local tax that a Chicago store doesn't add.

On a $150 grocery run, that 1% adds $1.50 to your total.

Towns With a Local Tax

A Jewel-Osco in any of the 656 municipalities with the tax adds the 1% to groceries.

Those places have a combined 7.2 million residents, or 56.5% of the state's population.

Aurora, Elgin and Joliet are among them, so a grocery run in any of those cities includes the 1% that Chicago leaves off.

Rockford and Peoria passed it too.

If you live in one of those cities, you pay the 1% at the grocery store, and if you live in Chicago, you don't.

Chicago's Bag Tax Budget

The 15-cent bag charge at a Jewel-Osco in Chicago came out of an alternative budget that the City Council passed in late 2025.

The city projects $38.1 million in bag tax collections for 2026.

Those collections come from bags sold or used inside the city, so a suburban Jewel-Osco isn't part of that total.

If you carry a tote into your Jewel-Osco, you keep that 15 cents.

Cook County's Soda Tax

Soda at a Jewel-Osco anywhere in Cook County, suburbs included, was once taxed at a penny per ounce.

The County Board voted 15-2 in October 2017 to end it.

On a 12-pack of 12-ounce cans, that penny per ounce came to $1.44.

The tax expired on Dec. 1, about four months after collection began on Aug. 2, 2017.

That county tax is gone now, but Chicago's 3% soft drink tax is still on the books, so soda in your cart still draws a tax in the city.

Chicago's Fountain Drink Tax

Chicago has a second soda tax, and it covers fountain drinks instead of the cans and bottles in your cart.

The fountain tax is figured on 9% of the syrup price.