|
NYC
Supermarkets May Have To Pay Customers For Pricing Error
Violations
Last year New York City's Department of
Consumer Affairs (NYC DCA) announced it would boost the
number of supermarket inspections due to low compliance
with consumer protection laws and regulations. The
crackdown was initiated by a poor inspection
results from the previous year.
Despite the announcement, between August
2010 and August 2011 the DCA inspected almost 2,000
supermarkets and found that 59% failed and they
subsequently issued almost $1 million in fines. The top
violations found were overcharges at the register,
taxing items that are not taxable, failing to put price
tags on individual items, and improperly weighing and
packaging food products. About 27% of stores inspected
were found to be overcharging consumers at the register.
In response, Patricia Brodhagen of the Food Industry
Alliance of New York State, a grocers’ trade group, said
that many of the violations cited do not affect how
consumers are charged. Ms. Brodhagen added that the
Consumer Affairs department did not seem to be concerned
with all price discrepancies. “Nobody,” she said, “keeps
track of how many undercharges there are.”
It is standard practice at many
supermarkets to give customers their items for free when
they are overcharged. And while the DCS tends to promote
the idea that retailers are "nickel and diming" their
customers for the sake of profits the reality is that
the technology that powers today's price scan and
inventory management systems are imperfect and prone to
error. For the most part the violations are more of an
oversight than an attempt to cheat consumers.
However the DCA has proposed legislation called Grocery
Shoppers Have Overcharge Protection (Grocery SHOP). If
signed into law by Mayor Bloomberg it would require
supermarkets in New York City to pay customers 10 times
the amount of the overcharged item and give them the
item for free. The law would also triple existing fines.
Currently, fines for some violations range from $25 to
$300. Connecticut and Michigan have similar laws on the
books.
For the most part scanner technology is monitored by
state and local 'weights and measures' departments who
are charged with enforcing a hodge-podge of applicable
laws and regulations. Retailers at the local level have
to work diligently to stay in compliance with laws in
their community and work with IT and other staff at the
branch level to make sure that pricing databases,
software and hardware are up to date and properly
functioning.
Should NYC goes the route of requiring
supermarkets to pay consumers for pricing errors it
could spread to other local and state agencies as a way
to boost compliance with consumer protection rules
however it may also have the unattended consequence of
causing further price rises at the store level.
Published: August 2011
|
