COLUMBUS COUNTY, N.C. (WECT) – Stores in Columbus, Brunswick and Pender counties were among 61 stores across the state forced to pay fines for price scanning errors by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Standards Division.
“It is always a good practice for consumers to check their receipts as well as the price on the shelf to make sure that they are paying the correct amount and alert managers if they are not correct,” said Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler in a news release.
Per the NCDA&CS, they conduct unannounced inspections to make sure the items at stores ring up correctly. The tests are done on a certain lot of items, so if 13 items are overpriced out of a 100-item lot, that is considered a 13% error rate. In order to pass inspection, the store can have no higher than a 2% error rate. If a store fails the test, they are re-inspected every 60 days until they meet the standard.
Stores given penalties included:
- The Dollar General at 8 Bell Swamp road in Winnabow paid $3,840 in fines after an inspection in April found a 78% error rate. The May inspection found a 15.33% error rate, and the department plans on conducting another inspection in the future.
- The Dollar General at 124 E. Sam Potts Highway in Lake Waccamaw paid $4,235 in fines after an inspection in January discovered a 20% error rate. After a few subsequent inspections, the store passed in June
- The Family Dollar at 127 E. Strawberry Blvd in Chadbourn paid $3,285 in fines after an inspection in February discovered a 12% error rate. That error rate was reduced to 8% in March, and the store passed their inspection in May.
- The Walmart at 200 Columbus Corners in Whiteville paid $1,665 in fines after an inspection in January found an 8% error rate. The store reduced the rate to 4% in February and passed in April.
- The Dollar General at 14062 N.C. 50 in Surf City paid $975 in fines after an inspection in March found a 16% error rate. The May inspection found a 4.67 error rate, and the store will be re-inspected another time.
You can find the full list of stores given fines on the NCDA&CS website.
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