Fliers tomorrow to cite study on incorrect prices

A Massachusetts labor activist group will hand out fliers at seven Wal-Mart stores in the state tomorrow after reports found that the retail giant incorrectly charged customers in four states more frequently than federal standards allow.

Some 100 to 150 people are expected at 9 a.m. tomorrow at Wal-Mart stores in Quincy, Brockton, Raynham, Framingham, Lynn, Methuen and Oxford, said Jennifer Doe, a spokeswoman for Massachusetts Jobs With Justice. The activists are targeting customers on ‘‘Black Friday’’ because it is one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

‘‘We want to make sure people in Massachusetts don’t get ripped off,’’ Doe said.

Fliers will include a new consumer hotline - 1-866-253-1350 - for customers who think that they have been overcharged.

The effort follows two pricing studies that found that in 60 California stores and 78 in Illinois, Michigan and Indiana, Wal-Mart shoppers were charged incorrectly for 6 to 8 percent of the items they bought. On average, customers were overcharged more than they were undercharged and paid an average of $1.09 more for overcharged items in California and $1.33 more in the three Midwest states.

California stores were surveyed in the spring, and Midwestern Wal-Mart stores were checked in the fall of 2004. The reports were released on Monday.

No more than 2 percent of items in a store may be incorrectly priced, according to the federal standard set by the National Institute for Standards and Technology.

The research was conducted by the University of Illinois at Chicago Center for Urban Economic Development and the University of California, Berkeley. It was paid for by the United Food and Commercial Workers, a union that has been one of Wal-Mart’s loudest critics.

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