Checkout overcharge statistics 2026

No public study measures items scanned twice at the register on their own. The closest measures are government price-verification inspections, which compare the price on the shelf with the price charged at checkout, plus shopper surveys and undercover investigations. They're collected below, with the source, sample and dates beside each figure.

Government price inspections

2024 National Price Verification Survey

Run by the National Conference on Weights and Measures (NCWM) with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and weights and measures officials in 26 states and 20 local jurisdictions. Published 2024. Read the report (PDF).

• Inspectors carried out 7,462 price verification inspections at 7,367 retail stores and checked 419,237 prices against what the register charged.
• 77% of inspections met the national pricing accuracy standard, which requires at least 98% of checked prices to ring up correctly. That means 23% of inspections failed.
• When undercharges were left out and only overcharges counted, 88% of inspections would have passed.

North Carolina enforcement, second quarter of 2025

The North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services fines stores whose overcharge error rate is above 2% on an inspection. Undercharges are recorded but don't count against the store. Published July 10, 2025. Read the press release.

• 11 stores in 8 counties paid fines for price-scanning overcharges in one quarter.
• A Dollar General in Brevard had a 9.33% error rate in June 2025: 28 overcharges in a 300-item sample. Fine: $3,715.
• A Circle K in Kernersville had a 5% error rate in March 2025: 5 overcharges in a 100-item sample. Fine: $1,810.

FTC and state study, 1996 (historical baseline)

The Federal Trade Commission and weights and measures officials in seven states checked more than 17,000 randomly selected items at 294 stores over 18 months ending in mid-1996. Released October 22, 1996. Read the FTC release.

• 4.82% of items scanned at a price different from the shelf or advertised price: 2.24% higher and 2.58% lower.
• Food stores had the lowest error rate at 3.47%. Department stores had the highest at 9.15%.

Shopper surveys

University at Buffalo shopping survey, Fall 2025

An online survey of 2,011 U.S. shoppers by the University at Buffalo School of Management's Center for Marketing Analysis, conducted in fall 2025. Read the report (PDF).

• One in four shoppers report being overcharged at checkout at least once a month.
• 35% of shoppers say they have never been overcharged at checkout.
• 71% say they would switch to another retailer because of repeated pricing errors.
• 91% say they are likely or very likely to point out a pricing error to someone in the store.
• 43% say pricing errors would make them shop at that store less often, and 26% say they would spend less there.

Investigations

Consumer Reports, Kroger stores, 2025

Shoppers visited 26 Kroger-owned grocery stores in 14 states and Washington, D.C. Reported May 14, 2025. Read the coverage.

• Shoppers found more than 150 items with expired sale tags still on the shelf.
• On those items, the register charged an average of $1.70, or 18.4%, more than the sale price shown.

What this means for shoppers

Most items ring up correctly. But a typical grocery trip includes dozens of items, so the chance that at least one line on the receipt is wrong is much higher than the per-item error rate. The quickest protection is to check the receipt before you leave the store, while the cashier can still fix it. How to check your receipt in 30 seconds.

About this page

We include figures only from government agencies, universities and established consumer publications, and we link to each original source. We list each study's sample and dates beside its numbers. Dupe Detective processes receipts on the user's device, so we don't have access to customers' receipt data and don't publish figures from it. We review this page every quarter and update it when new inspections or surveys are published.