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Council Meet- 11-13-79 Santa Monii , California
STAFF REPORT
NOV 1 3 197,
TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: City Attorney
SUBJECT: Item Pricing Ordinance
INTRODUCTION
This report transmits for introduction and first reading
an ordinance requiring food items to be individually priced
in grocery and other retail stores. i'he Council directed the
City Attorney to prepare this ordinance at the October 23,
1979, meeting (Item 6W).
BACKGROUND
Current state law requires grocery stores and other
types of stores with arocery sections tc use a labeling
system called "item pricing", which requires easily legible
prices in Arabic numerals on individual packages and cans.
Business and Professional Code Section 13300, et. seq..
Exempted items include unpackaged fresh food produce, items
less than three cubic inches in size or less than three ounces
in weight and those priced under thirty cents ($0,30). Also
exempted are items offered as sale items or as weekend
specials. The item pricing requirement does not apply to
any business which. has as its only regular employees the
owner thereof or the spouse or immediate family of such owner
or, in addition thereto, not more than two other regular
employees. The state law is enforceable by civil fines and
injunctions, but not by criminal penalties, ru
fV ®V 7 3 1979
The law applies to packaged consumer commodities
offered for sale from January 1, 1978, to January 1, 1980.
Thus, if not extended, the law will expire.
Senator Roberti introduced SB 92 during the current
legislative session, which would extend indefinitely the
present law requiring item pricing. On March 27, 1979,
the Council adopted Resolution Number 5253, which endorsed
SB 92.
The Consumer Division of this office has received numerous
communications from citizens and consumer oriented groups
expressing concern that a valuable consumer protection will be
lost if SB 92 is not passed by the legislature. Evidently,
there is little possibility that the bill will pass.
Therefore, consumers in Santa Monica will be left without
the protection of item pricing unless the City adopts its
own item: pricing ordinance.
The proposed ordinance would enact the provisions of the
state law on a local level, by adding Chapter 8 to Article IV
of the Municipal Code. The council may choose to impose
criminal sanctions as well as civil penalties for violations
by deleting the last section of the law.
Opposition to the item pricing requirement comes from
retailers who deal mainly in food products. .They state that
shelf prices should be adequate for consumers to compare food
prices and that, with the advent of the UPC (Uniform Product
Code} automatic scanning machines, the customer actually
receives a more detailed breakdown of his grocery costs on
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the cash. register tape than in the past. Retail grocers also
state that the. labor hours devoted to item pricing (time
spent stamping prices on individual packages) would be
better spent by store personnel at other tasks and that
employees would have more chance. for advancement due to
their availability for other positions. Grocery store
officials and other retailers maintain that no one would lose
his job because item pricing is not required.. They state
that to continue item pricing will raise the already high
cost of food, though they cannot guarantee that it would lower
the cost of food not to have item pricing, because there
are too many variable factors (rate of inflation, cost of
food production, etc.).
Proponents of item pricing contend that shelf prices
are often illegible or out of place and that the item
being Bald is hard to identify from the writing on the shelf
label. They note that the UPC register tapes .are not easy
to understand and useless for purposes of comparison shopping
because the tape is not issued until after the customer is
through the checkstand. Other proponents of item pricing,
including grocery workers' unions, fear that loss of item
pricing will cost some jobs. They estimate that, in a store
that does a business of five to seven million dollars per
year, one to two clerks per store will be lost.
Other expressions of concern Have come from elderly
persons and senior citizens' groups, many of whom are on fixed
incomes and need to shop comparatively before reaching the
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checkstand. Many seniors have limited vision, which make
it difficult for them to read shelf prices, or poor hearing
which impairs communication with store personnel. Foreign
students living ih the Santa Monica area have stated that
lack of item pricing will compound their shopping problems.
Finally, individual consumers and concerned groups have
stressed that item pricing has had a high degree of both
retailer compliance and consumer acceptance, and is an
invaluable consumer protection in these inflationary times.
ALTERNATIVES
The Council may introduce the ordinance as recommended,
may modify the ordinance, or reject the ordinance. In
particular, the Council may provide for criminal or civil
penalties, or both.
RECOMMENDATION
It is respectfully recommended that the Council introduce
the ordinance as proposed.
Prepared by: Richard L. Knickerbocker
Stephen S. Stark
Rosalind Smith
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