Warren County Department of Weights and Measures staff are champions of the consumer, responsible for assuring measurement and pricing accuracy in the marketplace. This includes checking prices at stores, fuel quality and volumes at fuel pumps, merchant scale accuracy and more.
Weights and Measures Departments throughout the country are participating in the National Conference of Weights and Measures national pricing accuracy survey, and Warren County Weights and Measures Director Jeff Woodell is taking part.
Woodell has been working to inspect at least one store a day on top of his NY State-mandated inspections, checking 100 items, and as of this week had completed 14 additional inspections. Woodell said he hoped to do 25-30 extra inspections during the national effort.
A passing score is 98%. A pharmacy he visited in Queensbury on Thursday failed at 94%, while a clothes store he visited on Friday as part of the national effort passed at 98%.
Woodell said educating proprietors of the laws and regulation is most important, but fines have been imposed on repeat violators in Warren County, leading to a greater frequency of inspection.
He said local grocery stores usually fare the best; the two he visited earlier this month as part of the national effort scored 100%.
"We are working to ensure that the price charge after the final total has been determined is equivalent to the retail price," Woodell explained. "Most of the stores in our county do pretty well."