ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, October 23, 1996 TAG: 9610230061
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
PRICES USUALLY ARE ACCURATE when scanned at checkout counters, and if the store scanner fails, the customers usually win.
There's surprising news for shoppers who don't trust those computer price scanners at checkout counters.
The prices are nearly always accurate, and when there's a mistake, the customer usually comes out on top, according to a Federal Trade Commission report released Tuesday.
FTC inspectors made purchases at 294 food, discount, home, drug and department stores over a year and a half. They found they were overcharged 2.24 percent of the time and undercharged 2.58 percent of the time.
``Overall, most stores didn't do badly,'' said FTC spokeswoman Bonnie Jansen. ``To the extent that there are errors, they are more the result of carelessness and inattentiveness rather than willfulness.''
In total, there were errors in 4.82 percent of the purchases. The FTC is not releasing figures for individual stores.
But Archie Fralin, Roanoke spokesman for Kroger Co.'s Mid-Atlantic region, said stores in the Virginia-West Virginia-North Carolina region operate at a 99 percent rate of scanning accuracy, thanks to a system of internal checks and regulatory oversight.
"We consider it a very serious matter," Fralin said. "With 40,000 items in the store, it requires significant diligence on our part to make sure they all scan correctly."
Each Kroger supermarket employs full-time file maintenance clerks, whose sole responsibility is to make sure all the shelf tags and scan numbers are correct. Periodically, clerks also spot-check items by writing down tag prices, then scanning the items at the register.
Also, the Virginia Department of Weights and Measures conducts occasional audits of the stores' scanner accuracy, Fralin said.
Customers who are overcharged by the scanners receive incorrectly priced items free, he said.
Undercharges outnumbering overcharges was good news to John Motley, senior vice president for the National Retail Federation, which represents department stores and, to a lesser extent, grocery and drug stores.
``From our standpoint, we would much prefer to make mistakes on behalf of the consumer. That eliminates anybody's inclination to say this is on purpose and we're being unfair,'' Motley said.
Still, stores lose money on every undercharge and are looking for ways to make the system more accurate.
``It is an ongoing problem within the industry,'' he said.
While department stores had the highest total error rate, with mistakes in 9.15 percent of purchases, just 3.25 percent of items were overcharged.
Scanners have been an industry concern for many years, Motley said, pointing to past accusations of foul play.
Jansen said several states have statutes regulating scanners, ranging from a requirement that stores include prices on individual items to a guarantee that a customer who finds an error will get the item for free.
Several retailers have paid large fines after their scanners were found to be inaccurate, the FTC added.
Scanners allow a computer to read a black-and-white bar code that indicates the item's price. They largely eliminate the days when customers stood in line while a cashier yelled ``price check!'' and waited for the answer.
The scanners also help stores keep track of inventory and conduct market research, and they save time and money by eliminating price tags on individual items.
Consumers benefit from faster checkout times and detailed cash register receipts, the FTC said.
Most mistakes come when the price on the shelf is not changed to match the price in the computer or prices in the computer are not updated, the agency said.
Grocery stores, which pioneered scanners more than two decades ago, did the best in the FTC survey, with errors just 3.47 percent of the time.
Barry Scher, spokesman for Giant Food Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based chain, remembers when scanners were introduced.
``Initially, in the '70s, it was a very hard sell because there was a lot of doubt,'' he said.
Giant began using scanners in all of its stores in 1975 after an internal study found that they saved money and improved accuracy.
``Today, you have a system that's extremely accurate, especially when compared to the older system,'' he said.
The FTC study, conducted in Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Tennessee, Vermont and Wisconsin, also found:
* Food stores overcharged researchers on 1.92 percent of items and undercharged them on 1.55 percent.
* Discount stores: 1.87 percent overcharged, 2.68 percent undercharged.
* Home stores: 2.52 percent overcharged, 2.84 percent undercharged.
* Drug stores: 3.56 percent overcharged, 2.75 percent undercharged.
Staff writer Megan Schnabel contributed to this story.
LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Ken Kane, manager of Easter Foods in Des Moines,by CNBIowa, scans the price on a grocery item Tuesday. color.