[cure]

> there’s nothing really that can be done

I very much doubt nothing can be done - this is just a matter of (political) will and appropriate enforcement.

Here in MA we also have a law that says that items for sale must be priced. The law must have teeth, because all big stores have dedicated price scanners spread out through the store. The scanners can be used to check the price of any item, in case a price tag was not applied. In general, price tags are present, even in small corner stores.

[gumby]

Here in California the posted price has to include the price in “natural” units (per oz, or per dozen eggs, or whatnot) for easy comparison. Whole Foods gets around this by often displaying the unit price as “per item” (so the two prices on the shelf are the same).

They’ve been getting away with this practice for decades.

[ghaff]

In my experience in MA, in larger stores shelved items usually have a price (and price/pound or price/quart) label on the shelf along with an item description. But it's a lot less common for individual items to be tagged than it used to be. The availability of scanners varies.