On Feb. 17, 2009, all television stations will begin broadcasting in a digital format. That means that people who rely on free over-the-air transmissions will be in the dark after that date.

Consumers can solve the problem by purchasing a converter box. The government is offering two $40 coupons per household to help with the cost of the converters, which run between $40 and $70.

But when the North Carolina Public Interest Research Group sent secret shoppers into the country's top five retail stores last fall, they found store employees were as confused as customers.

According to the study:

In North Carolina, employees at Wal-Mart, Circuit City, Best Buy, Target and Radio Shack gave inaccurate information about the date of the switch 30 percent of the time.

They gave inaccurate information about converter boxes 70 percent of the time.

And 20 percent of the stores had analog TVs on their shelves and 100 percent of the time the TVs were mislabeled or had tags that were hard to read.

"Retailers across the country are woefully misinformed," said spokeswoman Kat Scott. "And they are misinforming millions of consumers."