We Can... Because its New York... Part II

After yesterday's posting, I was reminded of another interesting curiosity of NYC. Why are there price tags on all my stuff?... My curiosity drove me to a Google search... which revealed yet another factor contributing to groceries being obscenely overpriced in New York City. It is burried section 5, article 67 in the summary of the New York City Consumer Protection Law (link is a pdf), I found the following:

"5-67. ITEM PRICING IN FOOD STORES - Stores are required to mark individually the prices of most food items. This applies to stores, or chains, doing at least $2 million of business yearly. Exemptions include frozen foods and sales items that appear in special displays."

So, that means pretty much all food stores are required to put price tags on nearly all merchandise. How much does the union labor for that drive up the cost of food? (5 cents an item perhaps?) Now, I understand that it is nice to have a little paper label on everything that I put in the basket (I haven't seen price tags on merchandise in a grocery store for the better part of twenty years), but is it really necessary?

The reliance of shelf labels and use of scanners has worked pretty well in the rest of the country since the last century, and when faced with penalties for not charging the correct price, retailers elsewhere are pretty good at self regulating. Besides, it cost more to do business when a customer has little or no faith in the scanner system, and it is in a stores best interest to get it right.

And what about the two million a year in sales requirement? That equates to an average of about $5,500 in business a day.... Or, 220 customers spending $25 bucks on groceries.

Given the 99.5% reliability of scanners, I would rather take my chances.