KANSAS CITY, Mo. - An NBC Action News Investigation uncovered grocery store scales padded with as much as five pounds at the checkout register. NBC Action News Investigators poured through more than 2,000 state inspections of Jackson County cash register scales conducted in 2007 finding 30 scales so far out of calibration, agents shut them down. In addition to reviewing the state inspections, NBC Action News went undercover in 30 grocery stores testing scales all over the metro. We used a scientifically calibrated weight certified as 2 pounds by nationally known Rice Lake Weighing Systems. “Two pounds,” said a clerk recorded on hidden camera after accurately weighing our metal cylinder at his register. Only 25 out of the 30 cash register scales we tested were accurate.
“It was a zero, so that was ok,” said Greg Stiens, an inspector with the State of Missouri, as he runs a scale though a series of state tests in Kansas City. Stiens tests scales for the Weights & Measurements Division of the Missouri Department of Agriculture. “We put a pound on there and it comes up a pound,” Stiens said as he placed a weight on the scale for a routine test. “OK, so that's good.” At capacity, a 30 pound scale is allowed to be off just three-eighths of an ounce, the equivalent of about three grapes. Beyond that, it fails state standards.
Kansas officials say 6 percent of scales failed inspections there last year. In Missouri, 3 percent failed. If it fails, scales get a rejection tag and agents shut them down. State inspectors cited a Lee's Summit Wal-Mart for weighing items five pounds heavier than they actually were. “That's probably the worst of the worst, I'd say,” Stiens says. At a Blue Springs Wal-Mart, agents found the opposite problem. Inspectors cited the store for a scale that under weighed by nearly 5 pounds. Although that inspection was in the consumer’s favor, officials shut it down. “Unfortunately, sometimes machines malfunction,” Wal-Mart spokeswoman Ashley Hardie said. “When we are notified of or discover technical difficulties with our scales, it is our practice to make repairs within 24 hours.”
Our undercover test found more errors that meant grocers were losing money at the register. “That's what it says, 1.98,” a cashier at Target in Olathe said about our test weight. “Supposed to weigh two pounds isn't it?” She was right, but that scale was not. With our certified 2 pound weight, our undercover test found five metro cash register scales inaccurate. “It was one pound and ninety 99/100,” said a clerk at the Overland Park Target, acknowledging that it appeared his scale was one/eighth of an ounce off when he saw the “2 lb” label on our weight. Three Target stores under-weighed our weight during our test. A Target spokesman says its scales are regularly tested by an independent agency and the company is reviewing scales tested by NBC Action News. Our test found a cash register scale at a Price Chopper at 63rd and Blue Ridge Cutoff off by five division points. That's more than half-an-ounce and a difference, if caught by a state inspector, that would shut the register down. But in this case, as was every cash register scale we tested, the error was in the consumer's favor.
Stage agents spotted a Brookside Price Chopper out of calibration by more than four pounds. “The best we can do is make sure they are as close to accurate as possible,” says Price Chopper Spokesman Scott Wagner. In Missouri, inspectors like Greg Stiens say they're lucky to get to each register, at most, once a year. In Kansas, inspectors check even less. Wagner says grocers rely on independent state inspectors to catch irregularities in their scales. “We’re dependent upon the state,” says Wagner. “We're depending upon third parties, for the most part, to tell us if we've got an issue.” State agents say even if a scale passed our two pound weight test, it could still fail a more thorough inspection. The scales cited by Weights and Measures that failed by four or more pounds, passed accuracy tests at lower weights, but failed when tested with 15 pounds or more. Grocers argue that they seldom, if ever, weigh items for sale at 15 pounds or more, saying it is unlikely customers paid extra at those faulty scales. Inspectors say the scales are just as likely to fail in the consumer’s favor as they are to be ripping a customer off.
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