LANSING - Stockroom workers at west Lansing’s Target store shoot guns for nearly two hours every day - sticker guns, that is.

The company is obeying a Michigan law adopted more than 30 years ago requiring all retail items to be individually priced.  Stockroom worker Matthew Fhaner estimates that he and his fellow employees spend 30 to 50 payroll hours a week ticketing items.

Michigan is the only state to require item pricing, and the Michigan Retailers Association (MRA) says putting the law to rest is long overdue.

“It’s a huge burden, especially for retailers,” President James Hallan said.  “Every box of nails, every hammer, it’s extremely labor-intensive.”

The MRA is working with House Speaker Craig Deroche R-Novi, the sponsor of a bill to update or change the current standards.

“The efforts to make changes have been around for 20 years or more,” MRA Vice President Tom Scott said.  “Modernizing the law has been a priority for a couple of decades now.”

While the MRA pushes for item-pricing change, Attorney General Mike Cox is taking action against Walgreen for not following the law.  He and his office audited two Lansing stores along with nine other stores in Michigan.

“These audits of stores came after seven of these 11 stores had been previously visited and investigated by the Department of Agriculture for the attorney general,” said Rusty Hill, a press officer for Cox. 

“We investigated the amount of pricing done on all items in the stores.  The average for all 11 stores was just barely 30 percent.”

The managers of both Lansing stores declined to comment about the audits.

Hill said Cox supports item pricing but believes the law needs to be modernized.

“Because of the leap in technology we’ve taken since the law passed over 30 years ago, the attorney general hopes we can shift into a more modern fashion,” Hill said.  “We don’t need to lose any more jobs.”

Fhaner said pricing every item out of the carton is extremely tedious.  The job of changing price stickers when items go on sale or clearance keeps employees from handling customer concerns on the sales floor.

MRA governmental affairs director Eric Rule said “utilizing a sticker gun - 20th century technology - when we’re in the 21st century doesn’t make sense when we could just use a barcode or shelf tag that directly ties in with the stores’ computer. There would be less human error, and we’d be able to better compete in the global marketplace.”

Hallan said he believes the item-pricing law contributes to Michigan’s economy being in a recession.

“Michigan is an anomaly in the United States,” Hallan said.  “If you look at other areas, you see robust economic activity.  Michigan is falling behind.”