Michigan's item pricing is costly, outdated

[Dave]

As most of us all shop in stores of some sort most days, we've all noticed how everything is priced separately.... the days of every single item being priced could be numbered. Governor Rick Snyder in his State Of The State address mentioned that he wants to do away with the Michigan pricing law in the near future. Being in the retail sector myself, I can say without any doubt that from my perspective that it would be a godsend. I do understand the concerns of many shoppers that not having every item individually priced, that it can be an issue on how much a certain item is. What most people don't realize is that Michigan is the only state with a pricing law... most states have no law and a few have very lax pricing laws. When you go to other states, do you ever notice that not every item is not marked? Granted I don't make it out of state as much as I use to but I've never really noticed such an issue whenever I have left the state. Another reason this would be a godsend for businesses such as the one as I work at is simply for when we have to do price changes. As it stands right now, doing price changes is extremely time consuming.. as you have to not only change the self tag but you also have to reprice every single item per price change. There are times when there are literally 100's of price changes that have to be done and when you factor that some of those items that need a price change might have 25 or 50 or more individual items to reprice, well you can see where that is going to be time consuming. It would also make stocking items so much easier for us as we can simply take the item out of the box and put it on the shelf or on the hook. Anyhow, judging by the study recently done, the law might be outdated, myself, I hope that Rick Snyder's idea to do away with the law comes to fruition.

 

Michigan’s strictest-in-the-nation item pricing law adds $2.2 billion to retail costs in the state without providing tangible benefits to consumers, according to a study commissioned by the state’s retailers and released this morning.

The costs of complying with the regulation is reflected in higher prices and reduced customer service compared to other jurisdictions without an item-pricing requirement, said the study’s lead author, Scott Watkins of the Anderson Economic Group in East Lansing, reinforcing the impression that Michigan is stuck in the 20th Century.

Watkins extrapolated the $2.2-billion cost in Michigan from a price study conducted in 2007 between Westchester County, N.Y., which then had strict item-pricing requirements, and neighboring New Jersey, which did not.

James Hallan, president of the Michigan Retailers Association, said at a news conference announcing the study results that the expense of item pricing leads to higher prices and prevents stores in Michigan from deploying new technology or customer service employees to other tasks.

Hallan acknowledged the Michigan law, enacted in 1978, remains popular with many shoppers. “Change is hard,” he said, but somehow those same shoppers don’t find their consumer experience spoiled when they visit any of the 49 other states with no, or less stringent, item pricing requirements, he said.

Gov. Rick Snyder in his State of the State address last week called for repeal of the state’s item pricing law. Legislation to amend the law has not yet been introduced.

Contact Dawson Bell: 517-372-8661 or [e-mail]

Read more: Study: Michigan's item pricing is costly, outdated | freep.com | Detroit Free Press http://www.freep.com/article/20110124/NEWS06/110124026/Study-Michig...

[XLFD]

Good idea, Lisa, the hours and money that have been freed up by individually pricing each item, can be used to get more price scanners, bigger price tags on shelf, and offer more services, expand, or pass on the savings to Joe Consumer. 

Joe C. also has to wise up and keep track of their purchases-- it would be a nice gesture for some of these stores to throw a cheap but durable calculator built into their shopping carts to keep the merchants honest.

[Sweater Cows!]

What about employees losing their hours or even workdays as they won't have to do the pricing? If we have a goal of keeping people employed then why cut the things they have to do?

[Dave]

I think in a good number of stores, they will be able to find enough for most everyone to do. I know in my store that we never seem to have enough time to get done everything that is asked of us... saving time not having to price will help us and hopefully we will be able to have more people available to help the customers in the long run.