Watch out, shoppers: Only 33 percent of supermarkets in the city are following the law when it comes to pricing food accurately — and many are overcharging customers at checkout.
The majority of the city’s big supermarkets, from Whole Foods to C-Town, don’t display proper prices on items; tax food items that are not taxable such as medicine and milk; and use inaccurate check-out scanners, the Department of Consumer Affairs revealed yesterday.
From August through December 2010, the DCA inspected 500 supermarkets citywide. The most common violation was that many food items did not have price tags on them — particularly troubling, given that nearly 1 in 3 times supermarkets got it wrong at the cash register, said DCA Commissioner Jonathan Mintz.
The charged supermarkets could face more than $310,000 in fines to the city. Shoppers who think they are getting overcharged at supermarkets can file a complaint with 311.
