- WASHINGTON (AP) _ Holiday bargain shoppers beware: Before you tote home
that super-sale item, make sure the price at the checkout counter matches
the number on the clearance sign. One of every 28 sale items scanned the
wrong price at checkouts, overcharging customers two-thirds of the time,
according to a study being released today by the Federal Trade Commission.
The rest of the time, the inaccurate price was too low, undercharging the
consumer. Overall, this year's survey of scanner pricing found an improvement
in accuracy from a smaller study done in 1996. Of the 107,096 items checked
in food, department, drug, hardware and other stores, one of every 30 was
mispriced. Two years ago, scanners showed an incorrect price for one of
every 21 items. ``That's an incredibly low error rate given the amount
of price changes that take place in a single department store,'' said Pamela
Rucker, spokeswoman for the Washington-based National Retail Federation.
``It's nothing for retailers to be ashamed of.'' Retailers have made concerted
efforts to improve their pricing accuracy, she said, for example by making
in-house auditors responsible for overseeing price changes or by offering
managers financial incentives for maintaining accuracy.
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- In addition, some new inventions help
ensure accuracy, said Mona Doyle of the Philadelphia-based Consumer Network,
such as electronic shelf labels at supermarkets. The digital screen automatically
shows an item's new price when it is changed in the store's computer. Consumer
complaints about price scanning have decreased this year, Doyle said. ``I
think you have more attention to it in the industry,'' she said. ``It has
definitely gotten better _ not that it still doesn't drive consumers up
the wall.''
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- Consumers headed to the grocery stores
can relax their guard slightly, but those doing home repairs should be
more careful: Food stores were the most likely to meet standards for acceptable
accuracy; hardware stores were the least likely to do so. More stores today
have acceptable accuracy in pricing _ defined as having at least 98 percent
of the items scan correctly _ than they did two years ago, according to
the survey conducted by weights and measures officials in 36 states and
the U.S. Virgin Islands. The study found 71 percent of stores passed inspections,
compared with only 45 percent in 1996.
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- In 29 percent of the stores inspected,
officials found an average of only 91 percent of the items scanned correctly
_ a figure that the survey and most states consider an accuracy problem.
An error occurs when the price charged for an item at checkout does not
agree with the lowest advertised, quoted, posted or marked price. The report,
prepared in conjunction with the Commerce Department's National Institute
of Standards and Technology, also showed that consumers are doing even
better than they did two years ago when scanners undercharge for an item.
Undercharges run an average of $5.38, compared with $2.96 in 1996. The
cost of overcharges averaged $3.20.
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- The frequency of errors in non-sale items
was slightly lower than for sale items. One of every 32 non-sale products
came up with pricing mistakes. More than one-third of the errors were overcharges.
Inspectors attributed incorrect prices on sale items to several factors,
including incorrect prices displayed on shelves, out-of-date signs and
incorrect prices in the computer. Rucker said the problem lies not with
the electronic scanners but in ``human error,'' as employees try to keep
all the posted material updated with the latest price.
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- The National Consumers League favors
``item pricing,'' particularly at grocery stores, so that each product
carries a price tag listing its exact cost, including markdowns or discounts.
Exact prices on each item ``doesn't put the onus on the consumer to remember
what the price should be,'' said spokeswoman Cleo Manuel.
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