After CVS report, city officials push pricing laws
Two city officials called on state legislators yesterday to enforce item pricing laws after a study alleged that CVS Caremark Corp., the nation’s largest pharmacy chain, had not stopped overcharging in some of its Boston area stores even after being notified of the errors.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino urged state lawmakers in a statement to “ensure that every business in the Commonwealth plays by the rules.’’ Meanwhile, Councilor at Large Sam Yoon, a mayoral challenger, went a step further, saying he will introduce a resolution in the City Council on Wednesday to oppose all proposed state legislation that would weaken item pricing laws.
“Why would we be decreasing consumer protection in a time like this?’’ Yoon said. “Overcharging is happening today, and the only way to stop it is to strengthen consumer laws.’’
The moves follow the release yesterday of the survey by consumer advocates and organizers from Change to Win, a coalition of labor unions. Two surveyors went to 10 Boston area stores this month and alerted CVS staff members that the stores charged more than the sticker price or shelf sign on some items.
Eight of the 10 stores allegedly overcharged surveyors a second time when they returned a day or more later. There were 24 overcharges across the 10 stores surveyed, with the average overcharge being 37 cents.
As part of the study, surveyors also checked to see whether CVS had corrected overcharges the group discovered in its May study, which found that the number of overcharging violations - defined as charging more at the register than the price in an advertisement, on a shelf sign, or on the item itself - was up 67 percent to 711. This month’s survey found that CVS still was overcharging on half of the items from the previous report.
“CVS is really not trying to address the issue,’’ said Faron McLurkin, a coordinator with Change to Win.
Michael DeAngelis, a spokesman for the Woonsocket, R.I.-based CVS chain, which has more than 6,900 stores nationwide, said this is the “latest tactic in a misleading campaign’’ by Change to Win.
“We make every effort to ensure that the prices posted in all our stores are accurate, and whenever a discrepancy between a posted price and the price being scanned is found, we always honor the lower price,’’ he said, adding that all 328 CVS stores in Massachusetts have price scanners that enable customers to double check prices.
Retailers long have complained about the pricing laws in Massachusetts, which is one of only three states to have a law that mandates that prices be affixed to most items in stores. Merchants say compliance can be costly because it’s labor intensive to have the price changed on every item when it goes on sale, for instance.
“Technology has come so far to improve pricing accuracy, we think the time is right to embrace those self-scanners,’’ said Bill Rennie, the vice president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts.
But consumer advocates have been calling on lawmakers to strengthen consumer protection laws and increase penalties and enforcement of the law. Currently, there are 10 pricing reform bills before lawmakers that would weaken the law, including making more categories of items exempt from item pricing and reducing fines.
State Representative Vincent A. Pedone, a Worcester Democrat, said he is sponsoring a bill that would exempt big box retailers, such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Costco Wholesale Corp.
“It becomes overkill when we’re forcing stores to price every item in their store,’’ he said.
Outside of the CVS in the North End yesterday, customers had mixed reactions to the alleged CVS pricing violations. Erik Saperstein, 38, of Boston said all the stores should make the extra effort to label merchandise correctly. The physics professor, who shops at the store several times a week, said he hasn’t noticed any discrepancies on his receipts. “If they’re going to change the prices, they should change the labels,’’ he said.
Brian Coleman, 43, of the North End said the neighborhood CVS is the only store he shops in, the possibility of being charged a few cents extra doesn’t bother him.
“I’m not going to walk another 5, 10 blocks to go somewhere else,’’ he said.
Sean Sposito can be reached at ssposito@globe.com. 