IGA and Metro slow to comply with new price display law—comments from Pascal Thériault

In the IGA and Metro grocery stores visited this week by Le Journal de Montréal, the price per pound of discounted products appeared on signage, but the regular price per pound was still not indicated, contrary to a new regulation that came into effect on May 7 which requires that grocers to "indicate a single unit of measurement for all goods of the same type." This rule aims to allow consumers to easily compare prices.

Customers can already face confusion in the grocery aisles, with multiple signs making it hard understand which price corresponds to which product, Le Journal reports.

“You always wonder if you've chosen the right product, because you see the big red label, but in the end, it wasn't that product that was on special,” Pascal Thériault, economist and agronomist at McGill University, told Le Journal.

Of the three major chains, only Loblaw (Provigo and Maxi in Quebec) complies with the new law. Its labels clearly display the regular price and the discounted price in the same unit of measurement.