The Price at the Checkout or the Price on the Shelf: Sometimes There’s a (Huge!) Difference
Are you the kind of person who always checks the receipt after paying? Let them laugh, because you’re right. Research by the Consumers’ Association showed that there can sometimes be a difference of several euros between the price on the supermarket shelf and the price shown at the checkout when the item is scanned. And no, that difference is never in our favor.
The Consumers’ Association’s research showed that you often end up paying a few euros more at the checkout than the prices displayed in the store suggest. Albert Heijn and Jumbo in particular are making a mess of it: the price was incorrect for 22 percent of the groceries. And those price differences range from a few cents to as much as six euros on a bottle of wine. Additional discounts are also often calculated incorrectly, such as those stickers in the store or special promotional products.
Special offer
The Consumers’ Association conducted the research two years ago. At 28 supermarket locations, they selected 25 random products from the fresh-food section, the regular shelves, and the bins and end displays where special offers are shown. Things sometimes go wrong at the checkout, and often the price is incorrect. The Consumers’ Association found that six cans of cola cost €2.15 on the shelf, while €1.98 appeared on the checkout screen.
Checkout price higher than shelf price
That price difference happened to work in the consumer’s favor, but this is an exception: usually, the prices at the checkout are higher than those on the shelf. According to the supermarkets, it can happen that the shelf labels have not yet been updated even though a price increase has already been entered into the checkout system. That is a worrying argument, says the Consumers’ Association, because it means this is a structural problem.
Don’t put them back
What does the law say? You have to pay the price shown on the shelf, says the association. After all, that is the price you based your decision to put the groceries in your basket on. So if you see at the checkout that you are being charged more, you do not have to put your groceries back; the supermarket is obliged to sell them at the shelf price. So from now on, you’d better check those receipts…
