Yesterday, New York’s Department of Consumer Affairs revealed they are investigating the supermarket chain for “continuously overcharging for pre-packaged foods”.
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Food chain Whole Foods has been accused of routinely overcharging its customers.
The Daily News reported that New York City’s eight Whole Foods stores have received more than 800 pricing violations during 107 separate inspections since 2010, totaling more than $58,000 in fines.
The overcharges were especially prevalent in packages that were labeled with exactly the same weight when it would be practically hard for all of the packages to weigh the same amount. The company agreed to pay about $800,000 in penalties after a civil consumer protection case was filed on behalf of the people of the State of California. The DCA claims that Whole Foods has had literally thousands of potential violations.
Abby Lootens, a spokeswoman for New York’s DCA, declined to comment on Whole Foods’ allegations, saying it does not discuss details of negotiations. In a statement to CBS6 News, Whole Foods Spokesman, Michael Sinatra says, “we want to assure our shoppers that Whole Foods Market has never intentionally used deceptive practices to incorrectly charge customers”.
The investigators found that vegetable platters, which cost about $20, were overpriced by $2.50 on average. That said, the city’s Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) says the upscale grocery chain has crossed the line.
The agency said that main question is how products packaged for sale at Whole Foods are weighed and labeled.
“It is unacceptable that New Yorkers shopping for a summer BBQ or who grab something to eat from the self-service aisles at New York City’s Whole Foods stores have a good chance of being overcharged”, DCA Commissioner Julie Menin said in a statement.
According to Lootens, all 80 products were inaccurately or improperly labeled, and a majority of the products were clearly overpriced.
– Store ads must be truthful. If an item is out of stock, ask for a rain check. Incredibly, the findings found mislabeled weights for each of the items inspected.
– Check the weight of packaged goods yourself. The investigatory undercover grocery buyers found similar problems at 73 percent of grocery stores they checked, showing that the pricing problems are endemic to the food industry.
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