Published Date: May 23rd, 2023
Fife Council’s Trading Standards Team recently took part in a nationwide retail pricing investigation, where officers from 22 councils conducted checks within their local authority areas. The review, which was coordinated by The Society of Chief Officers of Trading Standards in Scotland (SCOTSS), involved the inspection of 118 supermarkets and 228 medium or smaller sized stores throughout Scotland.
The aim of the project was to detect pricing problems in retail shops, including goods with incorrect or missing prices, and to ultimately prevent consumer detriment. Although the majority of both large and small retailers were found to comply with pricing laws and provide consumers with accurate pricing information and charges at the checkout, many issues were still uncovered.
During the investigation, Fife officers played their part by checking the prices of over 4200 everyday items in 60 local retail premises. The Trading Standards team conducted spot checks by visually inspecting products and shelves, and also had items scanned at the tills to compare the prices charged with those on display.
Collated national statistics from the visits to big chain supermarkets showed that more than 4% of goods had no pricing information, and 6.5% of products had incorrect unit pricing. Additionally, 3.7% of products were incorrectly charged at checkout, and 71% of these errors negatively impacted the consumer.
In comparison, the situation was worse in medium and smaller stores, with over 14% of products having incorrect or absent pricing, and 8.6% of unit pricing information being incorrect or absent. Almost 10% of products were inaccurately charged at checkout, with 70% of these mistakes negatively impacting the consumer.
Following the inspections, shops that were found to have pricing issues were provided with written advice, and in some cases, warnings were issued. Additionally, some shops were given verbal advice to improve their pricing practices before follow-up visits.
Dawn Adamson, Fife Council Trading Standards’ Manager, said: “Given the recent substantial increase in food prices, it is crucial that consumers are charged accurately and that prices are clearly displayed for easy comparison across different stores in a competitive marketplace. Fife Trading Standards is committed to not only protect consumers from overcharging but also to support local businesses through advice and intervention when necessary”.
