June 25, 2008
It soon may be harder for Massachusetts shoppers to find out the price of groceries if a bill approved by a legislative committee becomes law.
The bill, House 4858, ironically entitled ""An Act Relative to Clear and Conspicuous Price Disclosure," would allow supermarkets and other sellers of groceries to remove price stickers from most items if they install price scanners in some store aisles so shoppers can check prices.
Consumer advocates aren't thrilled with the prospect.
"It is unreasonable to expect harried shoppers to lug a cartful of groceries three aisles over in order to find out the right price," said Edgar Dworsky, founder of ConsumerWorld.org, and a former assistant attorney general and author of the current food store item pricing law.
While the bill also requires a small price label on displays or shelves, even that price will be harder to read because the bill eliminates the current minimum one-inch high price requirement. Dworsky foresees other difficulties with the signs because stores often fail to update them with current prices, misalign them, or fail to post them for sale items.
"Given these tough economic times, shoppers need more and better price disclosure, not less," said Deirdre Cummings, MASSPIRG legislative director. "This bill is a one-sided, anti-consumer piece of legislation benefiting retailers at the expense of consumers.""
The bill not only weakens price disclosure, but gives retailers a Christmas in July bonus of substantially reduced fines, and an impractical and crippled enforcement mechanism:
• It allows supermarkets to remove price stickers on items, and substitute in-aisle self-service scanners located one every 5000 square feet (equivalent to being only in every 2nd or 3rd aisle);
• Fewer violations are fineable. Despite eliminating many of the current pricing requirements, the bill invites even less compliance as it eliminates or fails to impose fines for incorrect prices on item, certain aisle scanner violations, overcharging customers, erroneous checkout scanners, failing to make price lists available in stores with aisle scanners and failing to post and honor price guarantees;
• Aisle scanners would only momentarily display the price and would not have to be capable of printing price stickers as the Attorney General currently requires;
• The law governing inspections of checkout scanners would be abolished, thus eliminating mandatory periodic store inspections; and there is no explicit 98% accuracy standard set for checkout scanners;
• Wholesale clubs would be exempt from all price disclosure requirements, as well as checkout scanner and in-aisle scanner accuracy inspections, and any state oversight;
• Inspections and fines are reduced. Retailers with aisle scanners could not be inspected more than once a year generally. Fines for them would be reduced 90%, and require time-consuming criminal court action to assess the $250 per inspection fine. Currently, inspectors can impose civil administrative fines, issued like parking tickets, of up to $2500 per inspection per week. Without strong financial disincentives, compliance with even the new minimal price disclosure requirements will likely be low.
The food store item pricing law has been in effect for 21 years in Massachusetts and generally provides that most items in supermarkets and grocery items in other stores need to be price marked. Legislative attempts to water down the law have become an annual event, consumer groups say, but this bill is viewed as the most serious threat ever.
"Although the price sticker is old fashioned, no technology has yet been developed that provides the same benefits of helping shoppers find prices easily, compare prices in the store, tally one's shopping cart while shopping, catch overcharges at the checkout or at home, and check the last price paid for items in one's cupboard," said Paul Schrader, treasurer of the Massachusetts Consumers Coalition.
The proposed substitute for item pricing -- in-aisle scanners -- has proven to be anything but reliable. A 2004 test of some 400 in-aisle scanners at 32 retail stores by Consumer World concluded that 75 percent of them failed to function properly or meet state requirements.
The public has historically rejected aisle scanners as a substitute for item pricing. In a 2003 study, nearly two-thirds of those questioned did not approve of the substitution, and 86 percent wanted to keep the current law on the books.
