Agriculture commissioner outlines price‑verification program; inspectors found overcharge errors at many retailers

Kamal Baghery, the county Agriculture Commissioner and sealer of weights and measures, and Matt Hochman, agriculture biologist and standards inspector, briefed the board on results from a quantity‑control program launched in January 2025 after the county hired an inspector in mid‑2024. Hochman said inspectors visited roughly 450 retail locations across the county, made about 6,800 purchases and used randomized item selection and undercover buys to create a real customer experience for price verification checks.

Key findings presented: about 7.8% of sampled items were overcharged and 4.4% undercharged, for a combined item‑error rate of roughly 12.2%. By dollars, staff said the overcharge portion represented about 1.3% of transaction dollars sampled (roughly $5,800 across sampled purchases); extrapolating to annual county retail sales (~$24.68 billion cited by staff) yields a range of potential annual dollar impact that staff estimated between tens of millions to hundreds of millions depending on scale assumptions. Hochman compared those results to Sonoma County and state averages (Sonoma ~2.3% overcharge; state reporting ~1.9% for active counties) and recommended strengthening San Joaquin’s program.

Staff proposed a scanner/registration ordinance (charging a fee per scanner device) to fund a more active inspection program similar to neighboring counties. Commissioners asked about penalties, which the presenter said would move from warning letters in the program’s pilot phase to assessed fines based on number and dollar amounts of overcharges if the program is expanded. Presenters said they would return with detailed fee schedule options and resource needs if the board supports creating a scanner registration program.