HD20 - The Use of Bar Codes in the Commonwealth
Executive Summary: The study requested by House Joint Resolution 180 has identified three groups affected by pricing accuracy. The foremost group, the consumer, is entitled to receive goods at the advertised price. The second group, the retailer, is entitled to receive a fair profit in order to survive in today's marketplace. The third group, one not as readily identified as the previous groups, is the Commonwealth of Virginia. The State and localities are entitled to tax revenues based upon accurate gross sales receipts. Based on the findings of the study, the following generalizations can be assumed: a. This study of scanning/coding point-of-sales systems has revealed varying degrees of accuracy among five major retail categories. The retail industry has stood by the premise that when pricing errors occur, the majority of errors are against the retailer. Results demonstrate, at best, a slightly better than even chance of the consumer prevailing when a pricing error occurs. b. This study has also concluded that 100 percent accuracy is not realistically achievable. c. This study has revealed that accurate pricing by point-of-sales systems has a direct effect on the Commonwealth of Virginia. The final tabulation estimates a loss to the retail food industry of $42,444.33 during each quarter, which also represents a loss to the Commonwealth in uncollected sales tax. d. This study has determined that the accuracy of use for any scanning/coding point-of-sales system is dependent on the accuracy of the item base for pricing and the accuracy of the displayed sales price. All available information indicates that electronic point-of-sales systems are extremely accurate. However, with any electronic device the output of information is only as accurate as the information supplied to the device. e. This study concludes that errors associated with scanning/coding systems are the result of mismanaged information. At no time during this study were any indications of willful wrong doing found to be associated with the incorrect prices. Errors were found to result from correct pricing information not being updated as readily as price changes occurred. STUDY RECOMMENDATIONS The following recommendations are offered to address the current situation as set forth in the preceding report: a. The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Office of Weights and Measures should be designated as the responsible agency in order to assure that the use of point-of-sales systems are monitored. b. The Virginia Weights and Measures Law should be amended to add specific language to address the accuracy of point-of-sales systems. c. To allow for means to enforce this additional law, further amendments to the Weights and Measures Law should incorporate civil penalties. d. Further amendments to the Weights and Measures Law should be made to regulate the pricing of retail merchandise. e. The addition of enforcement responsibilities for point-of-sales systems to the Weights and Measures Law, will require three full-time employees (FTE) and necessary funding. f. In order to fulfill the increasing responsibilities of the Office of Weights and Measures, it will be necessary to amend Code Section 3.1-928. An amendment to remove the 12-month frequency of inspections is called for in order to allocate resources as needed to address expanding consumer issues. |
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