Section 184D Food stores or departments utilizing automatic checkout systems; exempt items; violations
Section 184D. In addition to the exemptions in section one hundred and eighty-four C, food stores or food departments which, for a majority of the items offered for sale, utilize an automatic checkout system which is at least ninety-five per cent accurate as determined by the director of standards may also exempt up to a maximum of four hundred additional items; provided, however, that they are coded and subject to the following limitations and qualifications and those in section one hundred and eighty-four C:
(1) The exact number of additional exempt items allowed by this section shall be based on the number of operable cash registers or terminals located at the seller’s main checkout location, but not to exceed four hundred. Cash registers at the seller’s courtesy desk, or otherwise away from the main checkout location, if the seller maintains such main checkout location, shall not be included in the calculation, unless approved by the director of standards.
Sellers with one operable cash register shall be allowed to exempt twenty additional items of their own choosing. Sellers with two, three to four, or five to six operable cash registers shall be allowed to exempt fifty, one hundred or two hundred additional items respectively. Sellers with seven or more operable cash registers may exempt up to four hundred additional items. In the case of a food department, the number obtained in the above calculation shall be reduced by seventy-five per cent. In no case shall the number of exemptions permitted by this exception exceed four and one-half per cent of the number of packaged grocery items carried by the seller.
(2) Any food store or food department permitted to exempt additional items under this section shall establish at each store location a dated written list of the items it has chosen to exempt. The list shall include a readily understandable description of each item and the code number understood by the seller’s automatic checkout system. The list shall be maintained so that any item may be referenced easily. Deletions may be made from the list at any time, but no additions, substitutions, or changes may be made to the list except twice a year in January and July starting with July nineteen hundred and eighty-seven. The exemption permitted by this section shall not apply to any item not on that list and shall not apply unless such list has been established and is available upon request at the store to any consumer or any representative authorized by the director of standards. The director of standards may require the periodic filing of such list with his office. No seller may choose to exempt items required to be price marked by other laws or regulations governing specific types of items, or may exempt more than two hundred items in any one department except in the dry grocery department.
(3) All food stores and food departments shall maintain a current and accurate price list of all items exempted under the provisions of section one hundred and eighty-four C and this section. Such list may be maintained in any reasonable manner, including by an automatic checkout system or merged with nonexempt items; provided, however, that information contained therein can be referenced easily by the person requesting it. All food stores and food departments shall also maintain a separate, current, written or printed list of the items it chooses to exempt under the provisions applying to end-aisle displays. Such lists shall be made available upon request to any representative authorized by the director of standards, and the price for any item contained therein shall be provided to any person upon request.
(4) Violations of the provisions of section one hundred and eighty-four B to one hundred and eighty-four E, inclusive, for which fines shall be levied shall include: having no price marked on any unit that is required to be priced and is not exempted; having an incorrect price on any unit; having an incorrect or missing sign; or overcharging on any unit. A unit shall be deemed to be overcharged once it is rung up at a price higher than any represented price.
There shall be a tolerance for error on all fineable violations discovered during an in-store inspection except overcharging. In the case of a display checked for unmarked and incorrectly marked units, the tolerance shall be such that the one display of an item most in violation out of each twenty displays checked shall be excluded in computing that fine. Said tolerance shall not be less than one display per inspection. In the case of a violation for incorrect or missing signs, the tolerance for error shall be calculated such that the number of sign violations actually found among those checked shall be reduced by ten per cent, but by not less than one violation, and such violations omitted shall be excluded in computing any fine. Each unit or sign in violation shall constitute a separate violation; provided, however, that no item may be subject to violations for both overcharging and incorrect price markings. Multiple units from the same display of an item which are found in violation of the same infraction shall be considered one fineable violation. An inspector may inspect any or all units in any display of any item. The seller shall allow the inspector access to the seller’s automatic checkout system.