BERKELEY — Many owners of neighborhood liquor, grocery and convenience stores complain that unlike chain stores, they cannot afford to absorb the 1-cent-per-ounce Berkeley soda tax, and that they are losing business as a result.

Mohammed Assad, owner of St. Helena Wine and Liquors on San Pablo Avenue near Allston Way, said the Berkeley soda tax raises the hackles of customers who point out that there is no such tax in neighboring Albany, Emeryville or Oakland.

“It really has affected our business,” Assad said. “The customers are not willing to pay. They get mad at you.

“I think the city is trying to push out the small businesses,” Assad continued. “Here we are, losing business. Waiting for another hit. I don’t know what’s next.”

Andre Hussein, owner of Ashby Super Market at Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Ashby Avenue, expressed similar concerns.

“The only city doing it is Berkeley,” Hussein said, adding that many of his customers go over to nearby Emeryville or Oakland to buy sodas.

“If everybody is ﻿(taxing sodas), it’s OK, ﻿(the customers) have no choice. If it’s only one city doing it, it’s not right,” he said.

“Sometimes, the customers get mad at us and drop everything and walk out,” Hussein continued. “They think that (the tax is) something we do.

“We tell the customers the people voted for it. I told them they have a vote. Ninety-eight percent of the customers said they voted no. Everybody, we ask them. I’m one of them, I voted no.”

At Marina Liquors on University Avenue at Bonar Street, shopkeeper Sundar Timilsena said the tax seems to baffle many customers.

“If we explain to them nicely, they understand,” Timilsena said, “but some of the customers, they just leave without buying anything.”

But at Mi Tierra Foods on San Pablo Avenue at Addison Street, which sells a variety of fresh vegetables besides sodas, manager Antonio Allen downplayed the effect of the tax on his business, adding that customers did not seem to mind or, at least, “not as much as we thought they would.”

Contact Tom Lochner at 510-262-2760. Follow him at Twitter.com/tomlochner.