An investigation by local authority trading standards services has found a range of pricing issues in shops across Scotland, which are costing consumers millions of pounds.
Trading Standards officers from 22 local councils across Scotland have been taking part in a retail pricing project aimed at identifying where goods in shops are wrongly priced or not priced at all.
The project looked at three things: that goods on the shelves were priced as required; that the price charged at the till was the same as the marked price; and that unit prices were marked where required.
Officers carried out 118 visits to national supermarket chains, and 228 visits to small or medium-sized stores, with a total of over 30,000 products checked in terms of price marking and over 7,000 in terms of unit pricing.
In addition, over 9,000 products were tested at the till in terms of misleading pricing.
The majority of retailers, large and small, understand the requirements of pricing law and were found to provide consumers with the correct price and unit price indications.
However, issues were still identified, and Trading Standards officer are working with the retailers concerned to address them.
In national chains, more than 4% of goods were not priced at all and 6.5% of products had incorrect unit pricing. In addition, 3.7% of products were wrongly charged at the checkout and 71% of these were to the detriment of the consumer.
For medium and smaller stores the situation was worse, with more than 14% of products not priced properly, and 8.6% of unit pricing information wrong or missing. Almost 10% of products were incorrectly charged at the checkout, with again 70% to the detriment of the consumer.
David MacKenzie, chair of the Society of Chief Officers of Trading Standards in Scotland, explained: “Transparency in pricing is at the heart of fair trade in goods and is a core issue for Trading Standards teams across Scotland, making sure that consumers pay the correct price for their purchases and that businesses are diligent in presenting goods for sale accurately and legally.
“With the current cost of living crisis, it is even more important that the processes and systems that should be in place are working properly and that consumers pay the correct amount for their shopping.“
John Herriman, chief executive of the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, added: “The vitally important work being carried out by Scottish Trading Standards in relation to pricing issues could not be more timely.
“With the current cost of living crisis having such a substantial impact on the decisions consumers make around spending, price transparency is crucial to ensure that consumers know that they’re spending their money wisely.”
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