Governor Snyder says he expects consumers will benefit from lower prices and better service now that retailers do not have to assign workers to put price tags on almost every item on sale.
The governor signed a law today that repeals the requirement.
Michigan was the only state in the country to have such a sweeping price-tag law.
The new law requires retailers to prominently display prices near items on sale.
Governor Snyder says he does not expect consumers will be inconvenienced:
"And I always like to ask the question: When people went out of state, when we went on vacation, or people went out of state and went into a grocery store, I don’t know many of us who as we purchased these goods, we stopped in the aisle and yelled we were outraged because there wasn’t a sticker on them," Snyder said.
Mark Murray, the president of the Meijer retail chain, says his stores do not expect to lay off people because of the new law.
He says the new law will allow his stores to compete with shopping clubs that were not covered by the item-pricing requirement, and retailers in neighboring states.
"They don’t have to item price. This is a competitive leveling of the playing field, and we believe we can take advantage of it to grow sales in every store and have that, in turn – hours are related to how much we sell," said Murray.
But retail employee unions say they fear there will be layoffs.
Item-pricing was popular with much of the public. The law just signed by Snyder has a provision that makes sure the new law cannot be reversed by a citizen referendum.
