‘Significant increase’ in scanning errors found at North Carolina stores

The North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ Standards Division spot checks stores to assess the accuracy of prices charged at checkout versus what is posted on the shelf. When overcharges due to scanner errors exceed a 2 percent rate, the agency works with the store to try to correct the problem, but will impose fines if the violations continue to be detected upon repeat visits.  The division has recently collected fines from 70 stores in 38 counties and seen a 26 percent increase in price scanner inspections failures, which the commissioner attributes in part to labor shortages at stores.