Marketplaces: Why ‘deceptive pricing’ tops consumer complaints –Report

*Experts explain that inflation and the Labour shortage are fast creating nightmares for retailers in several economies

Emmanuel Akosile | ConsumerConnect

Imagine you’re going up and down the grocery aisle, and pick up an item that has a shelf label showing its one price.

However, when you check out a moment later, you discover the price is actually higher than you have thought. It appears to be happening more and more, according to report.

A Twitter user named Brandon posted his experience at Whole Foods, suggesting the Amazon-owned chain is ripe for a lawsuit,  ConsumerAffairs report said.

Brandon stated: “An advertised $1.69 became $1.99 at the register and $3.99 became $4.39 at the register.”

Another Twitter user, going by the handle LingCod, was said to have complained of “price deception” while shopping at Kroger.

LingCod also wrote: “Not placing items in the correct shelf space, so that you think you are getting one price, only to find out at the register that it is actually much higher.

“Time to boycott #Kroger including #FredMeyer stores.”

It was gathered the complaint is not limited to supermarket chains.

For instance, a Home Depot shopper recently complained on Reddit that he found a lawnmower he wanted with a price tag of $999.

But that’s not what the mower actually cost, report noted.

The consumer wrote: “Go to self-checkout, scan it, and boom, $1,099.

“Cancel and go to the register for further assistance and it rings up as $1,099.

The shopper also said they ask him to take a picture of the display showing $999; “so I do.

“They try to manually mark it down and can’t,” he related.

At first glance, it appears to be a rampant epidemic of deceptive pricing sweeping through American retail.

But could there be another explanation for this trend?

Francois Chaubard, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Focal Systems, providing retail AI solutions, says inflation and the labour shortage are creating nightmares for retailers.

Role of inflation and Labour issues

“In higher inflation environments, retailers need to change price tags a lot more often than normal,” Chaubard said.

“For example, if the price of a can of Coke needs to change once a year, now it is increasing in price by 1%-2% every month it so needs to be updated 12 times more.

“However, retailers don’t have enough labour as it is, so tags do not get updated fast enough. Retailers will change the price file, but won’t update the tags, leading to a discrepancy between what is on the shelf and what the customer gets charged.”

Consumer laws may vary by state but there is no federal law that requires a business to honor a price that’s wrong on the shelf. If a company can show the pricing error was a mistake, many legal experts say it won’t be considered false advertising.

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