CVS Fails to Correct Pricing Violations in Most Boston Stores Surveyed
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Eight out of ten Boston-area CVS stores surveyed have failed to correct overcharges even after being notified of the errors according to a study released on Thursday at a City Hall press conference. The study was conducted by Cure CVS, the same group that surveyed local CVS stores for instances of overcharging in April. Surveyors went back to some of the same CVS stores where they were overcharged two months ago and found in many cases that CVS had still not corrected the problem --surveyors were overcharged again on the same items.
"It is important to me that consumers in Boston are protected from unfair business practices, especially during these difficult economic times. People need to have the tools to protect themselves from being overcharged, and I have always supported item pricing and other reasonable consumer protections. I will continue to urge state lawmakers and the administration to ensure that every business in the Commonwealth plays by the rules," said Boston Mayor Thomas Menino.
City Councilmember Sam Yoon called on CVS to stop overcharging its customers and introduced a City Council resolution to oppose all proposed state legislation that would weaken item pricing laws.
"People are struggling to make ends meet in this economy, and we need to ensure that consumers are being protected and that the laws of the commonwealth are respected and enforced," Councilmember Yoon said. "Still, there are attempts to water down the existing laws in this area. This week, I am filing a resolution that opposes the pending legislation in the State House to weaken consumer protection laws, and I call on my colleagues in the City Council to join me in this act."
CVS Caremark Corp., the nation's largest pharmacy chain, is by far the most penalized food retailer in the state for overcharging and other pricing violations, according to the Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation. There are multiple bills under consideration by the state legislature that would weaken item pricing laws currently on the books, thus giving the state less power to protect consumers from
retailers that overcharge customers.
Your Total Comes To...More Than The Advertised Price [Cure CVS Report]
After CVS report, city officials push pricing laws [Boston Globe]
"People are struggling to make ends meet in this economy, and we need to ensure that consumers are being protected and that the laws of the commonwealth are respected and enforced," Councilmember Yoon said. "Still, there are attempts to water down the existing laws in this area. This week, I am filing a resolution that opposes the pending legislation in the State House to weaken consumer protection laws, and I call on my colleagues in the City Council to join me in this act."
CVS Caremark Corp., the nation's largest pharmacy chain, is by far the most penalized food retailer in the state for overcharging and other pricing violations, according to the Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation. There are multiple bills under consideration by the state legislature that would weaken item pricing laws currently on the books, thus giving the state less power to protect consumers from
retailers that overcharge customers.
Your Total Comes To...More Than The Advertised Price [Cure CVS Report]
After CVS report, city officials push pricing laws [Boston Globe]
Posted by Alex G. on June 23, 2009, 3:42 PM
6 Comments
Comments posted to the Cure CVS Blog are the sole property of the individual posting them, and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoints of the Cure CVS campaign, Change to Win, its affiliated unions, or its leadership.
Has the FTC heard about all the stuff on this site recently? Cause this is some crazy stuff. Selling like expired infant formula? Doesn't that have to be illegal or something?
for this price cheating stuff, this is a shame, especially because the poor areas of Boston, roxbury and dorchester, are probably the ones being hit.
The reason for the price differences is due to poor management. Price changes come down on a daily basis and are to be printed out and put up. Does this happen everyday in most stores? No. It's rather impossible when you have 1 manager or shift supervisor and one cashier for morning and the same at night. CVS gets what they pay for when putting up stores in lower income areas. People can't afford to shop, store doesn't get the hours, and when we work we have less time to complete everything. As a former employee of CVS, I can tell you that there are just as many expired items of all kinds on the shelves of Wal-Mart, Kmart, etc. When a truck comes in with the new items, lazy employees stock the new item up front pushing the one with the most recent expiration date to the back, thus creating the problem. Since when is a store wrong for locking up high left items like condoms and baby food? If an item is constantly being stolen does it not make sense to do so? No one's being denied the right to purchase the items so this is a stupid agenda. I am curious about the pictures posted on the website. FIRST PICTURES...Could it be that one picture is taken first thing in the morning when the store is opened and items have been faced the night before? Could the other picture in question have been taken midday after having many customers? Could the milk vendor have just come and stocked the dairy case? SECOND PICTURES... The first picture is of a seasonal aisle either just before or after Halloween as indicated by the items still on the shelf. You could take a picture like this is at any store at even given time when a store is transitioning products between holidays. The second aisle shown in the pictures is the hair care aisle and represents no contrast to the other aisle because they carry entirely different products! THIRD PICTURES....First picture is of the household and paper product aisle. The hole in the shelf is for a sale item. Sale items like the toilet paper (missing in the picture) go fast and are often times placed elsewhere in the store as a display to allow for more of the product to be out and more readily accessible. Second picture shows the baby aisle and compares in no way to the previous aisle pictured. Look at the fourth shelf down and notice that hole? Notice the sale tag in front of it? So here we have two stores, two completely different ails, both are void of a sale item, what is the point here? My Lord, how can a store run out of a product, who has ever heard of such a thing? FOURTH PICTURES.....First picture household and paper good aisle missing Dawn. Dawn and Palmolive go on sale almost every other week at CVS and just as with other big sale items are placed on end caps to allow for more products on the floor and tend to go fast due to the low price. Second picture is yet another of a hair care aisle, what is the deal here? An expensive line of product is on the shelf and on sale. FIFTH PICTURES...First aisle household and paper goods with a new planogram going up? Don't know what a planogram is, look it up. Second aisle show in skincare, again not seeing the point of the type of comparison. SIXTH PICTURES...First picture was taken Oct. 10, 2008, at that time the store was still under construction as it was a brand new store. Second picture, pointless. SEVENTH and EIGHTH PICTURES.....First pictures are indeed gross and inexcusable and again this falls on management and employees.
the MOST pointless cause ive ever seen in this world. i saw an ad on facebook saying their was a petition to stop CVS from locking up condoms. especially in areas where minorities live. GOOD! there should be no complaints!! unless you were planning on stealing them!! in that case, sign the petition. i cant spend more than 2 minutes on this site, without laughing hysterically. this is a JOKE CAMPAIGN!!!
If CVS can demonstrate that more theft happens in "minority neighborhoods," then fine, I won't blame them for locking stuff up. If they can't demonstrate this then they are being RACIST and Dan is standing up for RACISM.
You know... if we better funded outfits like Planned Parenthood and state health departments to hand out free condoms, I bet the theft rate of condoms at CVS and other drugstores would drop significantly, where it actually exists.
But I gotta say this, and here I'll sound like a bleeding-heart, and I don't care... You know WIC only gives out so much infant formula per month, right? I was on WIC once, and I didn't need the formula (I was nursing my daughter), but I heard from more than one person that it was never enough to finish out the month. So. You're saying you'd rather see someone's baby starve than, God forbid, CVS lose any profit. WTF is that? It's not the baby's fault, and putting more kids in foster care where they will never have a home is not the answer either. So either donate more baby formula to food banks or you can STFU about that one.
jenn and dan, amen to everything yall said. i agree 100% and glad that someone said it.
dana, i know dan isnt racist but, dan can be racist if he wants to. it aint like it doesnt happen everyday. acording to the U.S. constitution, he has that right. also stealing is wrong. ok. i want you to understand that before i continue. i know this isnt always the case but MOST of the time, people who are on wic and foodstamps dont have a job anyway. if those said people would have gotten a job along with the government help then they wouldnt have the running out of food problem. and sometimes it takes sacrifices for your children to survive which means giving up something you want for them. no we dont want to see babies starve but you cannot honestly tell me that there isnt someone out there that wont help these people with a little money to buy some food.
They are overcharging in California as well. As President of the Consumer Federation of California, I have sent the following letter to CVS:
September 18, 2009
CVS Corporate Headquarters
One CVS Drive.
Woonsocket, RI 02895
Sirs:
This is the second letter I am writing to CVS Corporation regarding deceptive and misleading price labeling practices CVS is employing in its stores. I wrote to CVS on August 29, 2009 (copy attached) about other deceptive practices but to date have not received any reply.
The most recent repeat experience I have encountered was once again, in CVS store #9980, in Folsom, California, where the shelf display for “Sensodyne Toothpaste” was advertised as, “Buy one and get second item at ½ price”. But, at the register I was charged full price for both items. When I questioned the price, the clerk went back to the shelf and brought back two tubes of “CVS Brand toothpaste” stating that this was the sale item not the “Sensodyne Toothpaste”. I escorted the clerk back to the shelf again and pointed out the shelf display ‘sale price sticker’ pasted right on the “Sensodyne Toothpaste” price sticker, which did not say “CVS Brand”.
To the credit of your sales clerk, he said it was an error and gave me credit for the ½-off price on the second item. However, the misleading shelf sticker was not removed from the shelf and I am sure some other consumer will wind up being deceived and overcharged.
In my earlier letter, I gave CVS the benefit of the doubt when I said, I did not know if these CVS procedures and practices were deliberately calculated or not and I called for CVS to correct these practices. Since there has been no response to this letter and these practices continue, I am now convinced and I can only conclude that they are deliberately calculated to deceive consumers.
Again, I call upon CVS to discontinue these deceptive and misleading shelf pricing tactics. I am also asking the California Department of Consumer Affairs and the Attorney General of California to look into these deceptive practices.
Sincerely,
s/s
James B. Gordon, Jr.
President