WPCNR QUILL & SCANNER. By John F. Bailey. April 23, 2009: Johnny Story missed it. NYPIRG missed it. Consumer Advocates missed it. Your mom missed it. But your grandmother would be hopping mad.
And, surprise, the County Legislature isn’t telling you too much about it. No big press conferences.
On the eve of County Executive Andrew Spano’s “economics-oriented” State of the County speech, Item pricing – a landmark of the consumer protection movement,and money-saving tool, will be done away with at complying supermarkets accross the county, perhaps within weeks. Why? Because the supermarkets think it will help them and “help consumers.” The County Executive in his press release of January 29, said, and we quote, “My proposal would continue to protect consumers but at the same time reduce the costs to some businesses.”
The Westchester County Department of Communications disputed the New York Public Interest Research Group that the county is eliminating item pricing “under the radar,” due to pressure from a supermarket lobbying group. A spokesperson for the County Department of Communications said a news release was sent out January 29 on the bill to be voted on Monday which would, if supermarkets passed a scanner inspection with 98% accuracy, allow those stores to eliminate individual item prices in their stores. The legislation has been sailing along from press release to vote (coming Monday) for11 weeks.
The spokesperson, Donna Greene told WPCNR that consumer-available scanners would be available in stores should the law be enacted Monday evening so persons could check individual prices of items, and they would also be able to check scanner price with the shelf prices. The county news release of January 29, 2009, said similar legislation had been enacted in Nassau, Suffolk, Rockland, Erie, Renssalear and St. Lawrence counties.
Asked if consumer scanners would be available in stories at each aisle so consumers could check to see if prices scanned matched the shelf prices or circulars, Ms. Greene said the number of scanners was provided for in the law.
In a copy of the proposed legislation, the following provisions are made for “consumer scanner availability”:
A store under 1,500 square feet – No Consumer Scanner necessary.
Under 3,000 square feet – 1 Consumer Scanner
Between 10,001 and 30,000 square feet – 3 Consumer Scanners
Over 30,001 sq feet – Minimum of 3 Consumer Scanners and such additional scanners as the (County) Sealer may deem appropriate.
The law also states a shelf price for each stock keeping item should be visible to the consumer directly under the item displayed.
Asked, if once the establishment has passed a 98%scanner accuracy, how often the county would reinspect to insure the supermarket accuracy standard was still being maintained, Greene said that depended on the Department of Consumer Affairs.
Tracy Shelton, spokesperson for NYPIRG said when NYPIRG testified before the County Board protesting the item pricing law, they called for a mandatory minimum number of reinspections. WPCNR asked Shelton if there was any way a consumer could check to see the price turning up on the scanner and on the shelf were correct, Shelton said the consumer had to rely on shopping circulars or the actual store “Audit List” which supermarket workers use to enter in prices into their scanners. The law does not appear to require audit lists be conspicuously available in the supermarkets once the law is passed.
Shelton said the minimum number of Consumer-access scanners required by the law was “ridiculous,” predicting that in a supermarket, consumers would not bother taking one item across a store to one scanner and waiting in line to scan it. She also pointed out that without item pricing, it becomes harder to total up the amount of money you were about to spend – if you did not have access to a credit card for overruns. “What are you supposed to do, bring “Post-IT” notes?” she sarcastically suggested.
Shelton said NYPIRG had no information on how the law was affecting consumers in the counties mentioned in the county news release.
Ms. Shelton told WPCNR she was hopeful legislators would table the law so more safeguards and stricter reinspection standards could be built into the law.
Shelton said NYPIRG had only become aware of this law about a month ago, and the county legislators NYPIRG had addressed with their concerns were angry that NYPIRG opposed the law, and reversed their original support of some of NYPIRG’s suggestions.
Shelton said the county was kowtowing to the suggestion of a spokesperson for the supermarkets, whose name she could not recall.
NYPIRG in its “Opposition Sheet” writes,”The law would essentially give supermarkets and other retailers the green light to overprice up to 2% of all store items with impunity. This would enshrine in law that it is acceptable and lawful for retailers to overcharge consumers — potentially tens of thousands of consumers on any given item — so long as no more than two per cent of the store’s items are not incorrectly priced.”
Gary Brown, the County Director of Consumer Protection, is quoted in the release as saying, “Our commitment to protecting consumers — and making sure they have full pricing information — remains the same.”
In the county overseeing of gasoline prices, the Department of Consumer Protection monitors gasoline prices in the county, but does not check to see if changes in the gasoline wholesale price are accurately reflected in the price at the pumps the county inspects.
