For sale items, pricing errors were found in 1 of every 28 items checked. For non-sale items, pricing errors were found in 1 of every 32 items checked. Some stores have achieved outstanding pricing accuracy. In 43 percent, or 720 of the 1,669 inspections, no price errors were found. Most stores have acceptable pricing accuracy.
Some stores have pricing accuracy problems.
In these inspections, an average of 91 percent of the items checked were correctly priced. Wide variations were found in pricing accuracy from chain to chain and store to store. Among the types of stores inspected, food stores as a group had the highest pricing accuracy, while hardware stores as a group had the lowest pricing accuracy. Electronic checkout scanners are in retail stores everywhere. When a cashier passes the UPC symbol over an electronic scanner, a computer decodes the symbol, sending the product's name and price to the register.