It amazes me that with the ubiquitous nature of price scanners that stores are able to keep their computers and shelf tags reconciled. I’ll argue that the scanners themselves are 100% accurate, but it is human error that causes the shelf tags not to match what’s in the computer either due to a special ending or a mistake ended for the price. Today we were shopping at Target and picked up some candy for our trip to the movies tomorrow. We purchased 5 separate candy items (2 of one of them) and as we’re checking out, I caught a mistake on 2 of them…the shelf said 3 for $4 or $1.33 each; I bought two and got charged $1.49 each. The cashier corrected the mistake. Then after we checked out, I looked at my receipt and saw the other 3 items at $0.57 each when the shelf tag said $0.44. My wife let me go over to customer service to get my $0.52 back; it wasn’t the money, it was the principle. I told the associate about the issue and maybe it will be corrected, but I doubt it.
So the question is, how many unsuspecting people overpay all the time? Like a good citizen, I dutifully prepared a complaint and faxed it into the San Diego County Agriculture/Weights & Measures department.
While checking the website of San Diego County Agriculture/Weights & Measures, I saw their list of complaints to be quite short which is amazing. Several years ago, a few drug stores and grocery stores were sued for repeated violations of this and now post accuracy guarantees which probably drives the complaints down. I have used these guarantees on a number of occasions. Now if stores had electronic tags everywhere instead of paper ones, this probably wouldn’t be an issue. However, the shelves would have to be wired or have everything wireless and put batteries in every tag which would be a waste. Alternatively, if each item was only in one place, it would be significantly easier to keep paper tags in line with what’s in the computer because when a price change happens, there would be only one tag to change.