Six Wake stores fined for price-scan errors

Six stores in Wake County paid fines to the state Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services for checkout scanners that charged consumers too much.

Regular inspections by the Consumer Services’ Standards Division found that registers at the stores recorded an incorrect price up to 13 percent of the time. Law requires that registers overcharge on no more than 2 percent of all items purchased. Stores that show a greater than 2 percent error rate are re-inspected, and fined, until they reach the required level.

The Kmart at 4500 Western Blvd. in Raleigh overcharged on 10 percent of transactions in two recent inspections. Last August, the store had an error rate of 7 percent. At a follow-up inspection in October, scanners overcharged for 32 items out of 300 – a rate of 10.67 percent. A third inspection in January showed no improvement. The store was fined $2,855.

Another Kmart, at 6200 Capital Blvd. in Raleigh, was fined $4,155 as a result of a fifth failed inspection. Over the course of a year, the store averaged an error rate of 6.46 percent.

Two Staples locations – at 2950 Millbrook Road in Raleigh and 11825 Retail Drive in Wake Forest – were fined. The Wake Forest store has failed inspection three times in the past year.

The two other stores fined were Compare Foods at 2215 New Hope Church Road in Raleigh and Rite Aid at 1910 Falls Valley Road in Raleigh.