Price Scanner Accuracy 2005 October 11
Lately it seems that the accuracy of checkout scanners around here have gone down the hill. I don’t believe that it is so much that the scanners themselves aren’t accurate, but instead the data behind them is out of date. I’ve noticed this at many different stores and so has the Philadelphia Inquirer (free registration required). I did a little searching and the latest federal government research I could find on this topic is a 1998 report entitled Price check II in which they found only 43 % of price scanners showed 100% accuracy during inspections. My guess is this overall number may actually be lower now.
My experience is that food stores seem to be the most accurate, something that a 2001 FMI (Food Marketing Institute) report, Shelf Price Accuracy in Supermarkets that Scan, backs up.* I’m not sure what consumers can do about it but to make sure that they get charged the correct price and point out to the cashier the mistake. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer article in some places the law requires that if the price is scanned wrong, you get it for free. So, it may also pay to know the law in your area. I was going to look for the NJ law, but it seems that the NJ law database is not working right now.
I have noticed that some stores empower their employees to quickly rectify the problem of a price scan problem while others do not. Today I caught a $5.00 error and the store employees (yes, it took four of them) corrected the price and did so in a friendly, positive manner, but it still took them almost 10 minutes to correct it. In another store the cashier just fixed an error of about $2.00 without making me wait for a manager. And of course there was my horrible Home Depot experience a while back. The one new thing I have started doing because of this is that when I’m in a store that has self price check scanners to check the price of everything that doesn’t have a tag on it. The self price check scanners [appear] to run off the same price database, so you shouldn’t have a problem if the self price check machine shows you the correct price – and if it shows the wrong price, and you still want the product, you know to expect a possible problem and can be ready to deal with it at at the checkout line.
* Yea, I know, not the most impartial source, but they do have some good facts and it does match my experiences.