On Monday, after a long quarter-century, West Virginians said goodbye to their state's 6 percent food tax. Now to see what, if any, business we've been missing.

In 1989, retailers warned that sales in West Virginia would go down if legislators imposed a 6 percent tax on food. "Whatever they put on would be passed on to the consumer," Charles Forth, who owned supermarkets in both West Virginia and Ohio, told the newspaper in February 1989. "Six percent is $6 on $100. That will make a difference when people are already hurting and trying to make ends meet."

It's a lot easier to drive customers away than to win them back, a fact legislators should bear in mind when it comes to taxation.

The author is _______________ that eliminating the 6 percent food tax will bring customers back to West Virginia stores.