With food prices rising, is your grocery bill enough to make you choke? Consumer Reports says one of the best ways to cut those bills is to check unit-pricing labels.
Unfortunately, unit pricing isn’t universal. Only a handful of states require it: Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, plus Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
And Consumer Reports finds that even where unit prices are required, the labels can vary radically. That can make it difficult to compare prices.
Consumer Reports sent shoppers across the country to assess unit-pricing labels. They found plenty of problems. The labels can be a jumble of numbers. And in some cases, quantities couldn’t be easily compared. For example, tuna was priced by the ounce for
one can and by the pound for another.
Consumer Reports is calling for a law that requires a universal standardized unit-pricing label.
