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Kokua Line June Watanabe |
Produce weight
must be visible
to consumersQuestion: Is there a state law requiring fruit/vegetable vendors to reveal the weight and amount per pound being charged for items on the scale? I recently bought bananas at a vendor and discovered on two occasions that I had paid for an extra pound. Although their prices are better than supermarkets, I don't want other people to be overcharged, as I was.
Answer: There is a state law, based on federal standards, requiring weights and measures used in direct sales to have readings readily seen by the customer.
If this is not the case or if you believe the scale used is not accurate, you can file a complaint with the state Department of Agriculture's Measurement Standards Branch. Call 832-0690 or write to the branch at 1851 Auiki St., Honolulu, HI 96819.
Branch manager William Pierpont explained that Hawaii has adopted Handbook 44 of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The handbook's general code requires "a device equipped with a primary indicating element and used in direct sales, except a prescription scale, shall be so positioned that its indications may be accurately read and the weighing or measuring operation may be observed from some reasonable 'customer' position."
The Measurement Standards Branch registers commercial devices and inspects them for accuracy.
Inspections are more difficult with portable or traveling vendors because "they're not a business that we can (just) walk in and do a routine inspection," Pierpont said. However, inspectors try to figure out where a vendor may be, and once located, inspectors will "do an inspection of everyone" at that location.
Measurement standards inspectors (nine on Oahu) inspect and certify a wide range of commercial measurement devices, including taximeters, odometers, gas pumps, scales and timing devices used in parking garages. They also enforce package and labeling laws (checking for net content, pricing, identity and advertising of commodities), as well as laws unique to Hawaii to protect such agricultural industries as coffee, lumber and macadamia nuts.
Q: In Waimalu, people are putting orange traffic cones all over the grassy easements on certain streets so no one can park. Someone also put "no parking" signs up and some people have rocks. Isn't it against the law, and can these people be sued if somebody gets hurt?
A: The grassy "unimproved sidewalk" areas are public property, even though abutting homeowners are required to maintain them. Homeowners aren't supposed to put up cones or other obstructions without a permit.
People are allowed to park on those grassy areas as long as they aren't violating any law, such as parking too close to a driveway, or blocking pedestrian traffic, according to the Honolulu Police Department. Whether you can sue anyone is best answered by an attorney.
Officers were trying to contact homeowners to tell them to remove the cones, said HPD spokeswoman Michelle Yu. Next time, call 911 and report either illegal obstructions or illegal parking, she said.
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Got a question or complaint?
Call 529-4773, fax 529-4750, or write to Kokua Line,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu 96813. As many as possible will be answered.
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