Prices ROSE after MI's GOPer govt repealed the state's item pricing law. Thanks, GOPers! [View all]

[Bozita]

October 2, 2012 at 8:17 am
Study: Prices rose after law's repeal
Group: Store wages dropped when state halted item pricing
By Karen Bouffard
Detroit News Lansing Bureau
36 Comments


Lansing — The repeal of Michigan's item pricing law didn't bring prices down and resulted in fewer hours for retail workers, according to a study to be released this morning by a consumer advocacy group.

Michigan Citizen Action visited nine major grocery stores each month from June 2011 to April 2012 to track the prices of 156 staple items such as bread, milk, peanut butter and toilet paper.

"We were worried about the impact that the act was going to have on consumers, so we thought the best way to test that was to go out and shop for a period of time," said Linda Teeter, executive director of Kalamazoo-based group. But a retail association official said the study did not take into account findings of a group that analyzes public policy that showed potential benefits of dropping item pricing requirements.

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According to state labor statistics cited in the report, in the fourth quarter of 2011, the months immediately following the start of the law, grocery store wages dropped 3.5 percent from $346 million to $334 million when compared to the fourth quarter of 2010. Teeter attributed the decline in wages to shortened hours for clerks.

Supporters of the repeal, including Gov. Rick Snyder, had estimated Michiganians would save more than $2 billion as a result of the repeal of the requirement stores put price stickers on each item. In his January 2011 State of the State address, Snyder called the item pricing law an "undue burden on retailers (that) costs Michigan's economy over $2 billion dollars a year."

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http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20121002/METRO/210020344#ixzz28BsaBzee