Almost Half (45%) of Canadians Indicate That Checkout Price Not Always Same as the Shelf Price

Toronto, ONTARIO - According to an Ipsos-Reid poll conducted on behalf of NCR Corporation, over four in ten (45%) Canadians say that the price at the check-out counter occasionally (36%), often (8%) or is always (1%) different than the shelf price of an item. An equal number (43%) say that this happens only rarely, while one in ten (11%) say it never happens.

These are the findings of an Ipsos-Reid poll conducted on behalf of NCR Corporation between June 4th and June 5th, 2002. The poll is based on a randomly selected sample of 1,000 adult Canadians. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within 177 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult Canadian population been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were statistically weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to the 1996 Census data.

Almost half (45%) of Canadians say that the price of an item occasionally (36%), often (8%) or always (1%) differs between the shelf price and the price charged at the check-out. An almost equal number (43%) indicate that this happens only rarely, while one in ten (11%) say it never happens.

• Regionally, residents of Quebec (20%) are the most likely to believe that this never happens. This compares to Saskatchewan/Manitoba (10%), Ontario (9%), British Columbia (8%), Alberta (7%), and Atlantic Canada (6%).
• Women are more likely to indicate that this occasionally happens (40% versus 31% of men) as well as often happens (10% versus 6% of men), while men (47% versus 38% of women) are more likely to indicate that it happens rarely.
• Younger (12%) Canadians are more likely to say that discrepancies between the shelf price and checkout price happen than their older (8%) or middle aged (6%) counterparts.
• Canadians from the lowest income households (15%) are more likely than those in upper income households (8%) to believe that this never happens.

To view the complete factum and tables, please open the attached PDF files.

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For more information on this news release, please contact:

John Wright
Senior Vice-President
Public Affairs
Ipsos-Reid
(416) 324-2900