(inspired by George Dooley’s article on airline baggage fees, here)
In a timely move as shoppers get ready to hit the stores in preparation of making their Thanksgiving feasts, Senator Mary Landrieu, D-La., has introduced legislation to protect shoppers from having to pay more for additional groceries. The Grocery Shopper BASICS – or “Buy All the Stuff you can fit Into your Cart for the Same-price - Act would require grocers to allow shoppers to pay one price for as many items they can fit into a shopping cart. Sen. Landrieu also plans to introduce the Fair Adjustment to Revenue Today (FART) Act to impose fines on grocers that do not comply, according to the Senator's office.
“When a grocer advertises that you can buy groceries from their store, it should just cost one amount, plain and simple. Shoppers should not be charged additional fees for buying more or other reasonable requests. Grocery shopping around the holidays can be a stressful experience for many reasons, but unfair fees for the basics, like a Butterball® turkey or Stove Top® stuffing should not be one of them,” said Sen. Landrieu. “Shoppers have been nickeled and dimed for far too long and something has to be done about it. Grocers should be required to provide a minimum amount of food, say a cart-full, to their shoppers or face additional fines – that is what the Grocery Shoppers BASICS Act and the FART Act will do.”
Grocers have started charging for almost every item you buy in their stores, whether you are in the 10 Items or Less aisle or not. The U.S. retail grocery industry includes about 65,000 supermarkets and other grocery stores with combined annual revenue of about $470 billion – that nearly represents an unconscionable 1/5 of global grocery receipts, according to Landrieu.
“Many grocers consider a Butterball turkey not to be a right, but a privilege - and one with a hefty cost attached. The Grocery Shopper BASICS Act will guarantee shoppers as many Butterball turkeys as they can fit into their carts without the financial burden of paying more for them, or the headache of trying to sneak past store security,” said Sen. Landrieu.
Earlier this year, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano testified before the Subcommittee on Homeland Security - which Sen. Landrieu chairs - that total annual cost of groceries for Transportation Security Administration (TSA) personnel was $71.9 million a year based on US per capita consumption – though based on the photo of the guy on the TSA Wikipedia page, that number may actually be higher.
These costs are the direct result of grocers actually charging for groceries purchased, rather than by the cart-full, and shoppers are unfairly being forced to pick up the tab for what they consume, Landrieu says. According to Homeland Security, the number of full grocery bags has decreased by 20 percent since the recession started, leading to an increase in wanting more groceries without paying for them, not to mention slower moving lines at checkout as shoppers debate about whether to buy a copy of People® magazine or a Snickers® bar, which grocers unfairly place in front of them before they have to pay. In a recent survey released by Occupy™ Safeway®, more than 72 percent of respondents said that the increased amount they have to pay for a full cart of groceries (compared to a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk) is their top frustration with the shopping experience. Not being able to park in handicap spaces came in at a close second.
The Grocery Shopper BASICS Act requires grocers to provide one price for as many items (regardless of what they are) as a shopper can fit into a single grocery cart. A Republican amendment, sneaked in while no one was looking, allows that any item that falls out of the cart, and actually hits the floor, would not count in the cart total, but could be added to another cart (editor’s note: it was undetermined at the time of publication if this would actually have the expected result Republicans intended, since people tripping on groceries in the check out aisle could result in scrutiny by OSHA). The FART Act would result in fines for any grocer that has a policy in place which charges shoppers for their first grocery bag or for anything other than a single cart-full price.
