DENVER -- Colorado grocery stores would be able to continue discount programs for gasoline under a proposal state lawmakers were contemplating late last week, reported The Denver Business Journal.
House Bill 1208, sponsored by State Representative Cheri Jahn (D) changes the state's Unfair Practices Act, which the Legislature first approved in 1937. The House gave preliminary approval to the measure Friday. It faces a final vote in the House before it can be introduced in the Senate.
The call for reforming the law comes in the [image-nocss] wake of two recent high-profile developments that wound up hurting consumers, said the report. A federal court in November ruled against grocery store owner Kroger Co. for offering its shoppers discounts on gasoline. The court said that under the Unfair Practices Act, selling gasoline too cheaply is against the law. Independent gasoline retailers filed the lawsuit. Rival grocer Safeway voluntarily ended its discount program for gasoline after the ruling in the Kroger case. Kroger owns the King Soopers and City Market supermarkets in Colorado.
In the second development, which also occurred in November, Wal-Mart and Target stores said they would have to charge Colorado consumers more for some generic drugs under the Unfair Practices Act.
The Colorado Retail Council and Kroger are among those supporting the measure.
Jahn said the proposed law will allow consumers to pay lower prices for gasoline and prescription drugs. This is about consumers, about giving them one more tool in the toolbox and helping us lower some gas prices, she said.
One lawmaker, Rep. John Soper, D-Thornton, spoke against the bill, saying consumers pay more for food under retailers' groceries-for-gas programs.
They increase the price of a loaf of bread, he said. The total cost is going to cost you more in the long run.
Earlier this month, the National Federation of Independent Business polled its members on HB 1208, and 67% said they supported it, according to the report.
While amending Colorado law to lift the restrictions on loss-leaders might be a little uncomfortable for some, there was a larger worry that government was getting too much involved in the natural workings of the marketplace, Tony Gagliardi, state director of NFIB, said in a statement cited by the Denver Business Journal. NFIB has since said it is re-examining its position on the bill.
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