MA Price Accuracy Law |
October 13th, 2019 |
| food, money |
if there is a discrepancy between the advertised price, the sticker price, the scanner price or the display price and the checkout price on any grocery item, a food store or a food department shall charge a consumer the lowest price. If the checkout price or scanner price is not the lowest price or does not reflect any qualifying discount, the seller:— MGL I.XV.94.184.C
shall not charge the consumer for 1 unit of the grocery item, if the lowest price is $10 or less;
shall charge the consumer the lowest price less $10 for 1 unit of the grocery item, if the lowest price is more than $10
The grocery store is required to put a sign at each register describing the law, which means that when you notice this you can point to the sign. Which is way better than trying to show the cashier the relevant text of the law on your phone would be.
I have fun trying to remember the price I see for each item as I put it into my cart so if it rings up at a different price I can point that out. The law has an exception for cases where the price is a "gross error" (off by half) but in most cases discrepancies are small: ringing up at $4.99 when it said $4.50 on the shelf. Because you get the item for free if they've overcharged you, however, what matters is just that they put a misleadingly low price on the shelf.
I've noticed stores rarely have a good system in place for fixing these problems. When I catch one they generally check and give me the item for free, but that doesn't usually translate into fixing the price on the shelf. Which means that when I come in next time, it's often still wrong.
This seems like something that a group of shoppers could use together. Whenever anyone noticed a mispricing they could post to a mailing list ("the store brand blueberries are marked $3.99 but ring up as $4.29"), and then everyone on the list could go get some free blueberries. This would probably get stores to be faster about updating their prices.
Even if the stores got very fast at fixing things, though, it could still be rough for them. Say one person goes through and notices they've been overcharged for something. They don't say anything to the store, but instead write to the list and name a time. At the designated time a group of shoppers pick up one unit each and fan out over the store's checkout lines. The items are all scanned, the shoppers all object, and the store has to give away one item per checkout line instead of just one item total. This could be a parody heist plotline in a sitcom.
(While this is hard to fix with technical means, if people started doing it, of course, they would update the law.)
What annoys me about the law is that it ignores the "unit price", which is fairly frequently wrong.
In the case of CVS, it appears to consistently be wrong in a way that benefits CVS, when it's wrong, and to frequently be wrong.
Peter I believe it applies to (non-prepared) food even at places like Target
I had this happen in a Target where they sell groceries. The cashier didn’t believe me and it wasn’t worth my time fighting it. But, does the law apply to every store that happens to sell groceries?
Huh, I just posted that I've never had this happen in a Market Basket. The differences in experience is interesting, and that response by the cashier sounds really annoying.
I love Market Basket for their low prices and their lack of loyalty cards and other gimmicks, but every time I call them on this issue, the cashier claims never to have heard of this law, even though it's posted prominently at the checkstand.
The original intent of the law, as I understood it, was to reassure consumers that the prices at the register would be correct in spite of the removal of the law requiring individual pricing of items.
Meh. I don’t object to the legislation, nor to people exercising it. I’m just saying I wouldn’t. There’s always some rate of generally unintentional errors in day to day life. I prefer to be tolerant, assume the best, and and not try to punish every minor infringement. I wouldn’t advocate getting rid of the legislation though.
Chris I think if it as a system where there are small fines for posting inaccurate prices, where the benefit goes to the person who finds the problem. This seems very reasonable to me?
I wouldn’t take the free item. I’d just make sure they charge the right price.
I had numerous pricing errors at the Price Chopper in Worcester in college. Usually I wouldn't notice until I got home, but once when I looked at the receipt while still at the store I caught a mistake, they went and checked, and then gave me the item for free. I didn't know about the law, but I also didn't feel like it was worth it to wait there for five minutes holding up the checkout line while a couple of their employees investigated. I also have no idea if they fixed the pricing.
Jeff commenters above were talking about cashiers who were unaware of the law. It's a law, and it's a law for a good reason. These days, pricing and checkout are computerized, with or without a human clerk. If the shopper can't trust the computer to charge the marked price, that's a hassle.
I think of the small fine as an incentive for the vendor to maintain their billing system correctly, and I'm helping them with a job they should be doing themselves. I'm not that excited about wasting 5 or 10 minutes of my time to save a buck or two. If the business is inspected and found to be in violation, the fines are higher.
Being unaware of a law is not an excuse to violate it. I'm not talking about a victimless crime like rolling through a stop sign when there's no one nearby, this is about stealing people's money.
Andrew I've never needed to go anywhere near that far. Every time I've pointed to the sign it's been sufficient
If you feel like being firm, you can take out your phone and record some video. I always call stores on inaccurate pricing - there's a reason it's illegal. I haven't had to record video yet, but if they gave me a hard time, I would.
Agree on the MB experience. Been shopping there for a couple of decades and can't remember a single instance of mis-pricing over that period, such that I've stopped watching the screen (except for the red peppers - which often get rung as hothouse vs. field).
Market basket rocks. The kinds of cheeses you can get at Formaggio for about 2/3 the price, prime beef at costco prices, super fresh produce (cause it’s always flying off the shelves), the best ice cream at half the price, of course the fab prices on everything else, the deli guys who are so authentically friendly you want to buy from them, a bagger at every one of their 17 fast moving registers, AND the complete absence of any pretention (probably my favorite part), it’s my true love!
Happens in Whole Foods all the time. I get at least one item free every time I shop there. Currently their kale is ringing up incorrectly if anyone is interested ;)
Market Basket, on the other hand, I've been going to longer and more frequently and has *never* had any item of my $200+ order ring up wrong. I'm always amazed, and it makes shopping there so much more pleasant. It is the best grocery store around, imo.