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A BILL to amend the Code of Virginia by adding in Article 1 of Chapter 51 of Title 3.2 a section numbered
3.2-5104.1
, relating to Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services; Virginia Family Grocery Basket; civil penalty.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That the Code of Virginia is amended by adding in Article 1 of Chapter 51 of Title 3.2 a section numbered
3.2-5104.1
as follows:
§
3.2-5104.1
. Virginia Family Grocery Basket; civil penalty.
A. For the purposes of this section:
"Average retail price" means the sales-weighted average price charged for an item in a locality during
the reporting month that is inclusive of generally available discounts reflected at checkout
and
exclusive of any taxes.
"Basket" means the Virginia Family Grocery Basket established pursuant to subsection B.
"
Large g
rocery
retail chain
"
means a for-profit self-service retail establishment that sells meat, seafood, fruits, vegetables, dairy products, dry groceries, household products, and sundries
that (i) has at least $1 billion in annual national
gross revenue
and
(ii) operates 10 or more retail establishments in the Commonwealth
.
"URL" means the Uniform Resource Locator associated with an online website.
B.
1.
The Department shall establish
an
d
maintain
on its website
a standardized list of
no more than 25
essential grocery items known as the V
irginia Family Grocery Basket that includes common household staple food items including milk, bread, eggs,
and various types of proteins, grains, and produce.
The Basket shall include commonly purchased grocery items that are essential to household affordability.
Basket items shall be specified by
(
i
)
unit of measure
(e.g. per pound, per dozen, per gallon)
and (
ii
) standardized package size, where practicable.
The
Department shall annually update the
list of
Basket items and maintain on its website all prior revisions to the Basket so as to allow for longitudinal comparison.
2.
Each
large grocery retail chain shall submit to the Department
average retail prices for all
Basket
items
on a monthly basis
for each locality in which the large grocery retail chain operates.
Such submission shall be made no later than the 15th day of each month for the preceding month.
3.
The Department may collect additional
pricing information
for
Basket
items
listed pursuant to
subdivision 1
including sale or promotional prices, loyalty program prices, or oth
er similar discounts that should be taken into consideration when evaluating household affordability.
Nothing in this subdivision shall be construed
to require
a large grocery retail chain to disclose the wholesale price paid for such
items.
4.
Each
large
grocery retail chain
shall
publish
,
on
its website and in a conspicuous location, a Virginia Family Grocery Basket Price Report that details the average retail price for each Basket item by locality for the applicable month
.
The Department
(i) shall publish on its website a
template for the Virginia Family Grocery Basket Price Report to be used by a large grocery retail chain and (ii)
may publish on its website
an aggregated list of
the
URLs o
f
all large grocery retail chain
Virginia Family Grocery
Basket
Price
R
eports.
5
.
The Department shall not publish
, nor shall a large grocery retail chain be required to publish
, (i)
any personally identifiable data or any
individual
store data
for
such
large grocery retail chain
or (ii)
locality-level Basket data where fewer than three
such re
tail locations operate in such locality. In such cases, the Department shall
require such dat
a to be published
at a regional level
.
6. The Department may establish any guidance documents necessary to effectuate the provisions of this subsection.
C.
The Department shall issue a written notice of noncomplianc
e
to any large grocery retail chain that
violates any provision of this section
. Such notice shall specify
such
violation and shall require the large grocery retail chain to
rectify such violation
within 30 days.
A
large grocery retail chain that fails
to rectify such violation
during
such 30 day period
may
be
subject to a civil penalty
not to exceed
$1,000
for each
day of violation
following
such 30 day period
. Such penalty shall be collected by the Commissioner and the proceeds shall be deposited into the
state treasury and credited to the
general fund
.
2. That beginning on April 1, 2027, each large grocery retail chain, as defined in §
3.2-5104.1
of the Code of Virginia, as created by this act, shall submit the initial Virginia Family Grocery Basket Price Report to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and publish such report on its website pursuant to §
3.2-5104.1
of the Code of Virginia, as created by this act.