“We know they are unintentional because the mistakes are both in the customer’s favor and sometimes not in the customer’s favor”, Robb said.
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Top Whole Foods executives have apologized on YouTube for making “mistakes” following a probe by New York City authorities alleging the supermarket was overcharging its customers. Whole Foods reports quarterly financial results on Wednesday, May 6, 2015. In all, the Department of Consumer Affairs tested 80 different types of prepackaged products and found that each had some items with mislabeled weights. Kroger’s has stepped up its produce game, and Trader Joe’s is favored by many shoppers as a cheaper alternative to “Whole Paycheck”. They said they only endeavored to bring the freshest food to the customers.
We’ve reached out to Whole Foods for comment.
The company not only plans to increase training, but it will also start a “third-party auditing system” to monitor any progress to make sure this issue does not happen again, according to the Washington Post.
“We are gratified that, as a result of our investigation, Whole Foods is admitting the deficiencies in how they label their pre-packaged foods and taking steps to ensure that no New Yorker is overcharged”, said Menin. “We don’t want there ever to be any mistakes”.
The CEO’s also pledged that if customers are overcharged for an item, he or she will get that item for free. Mackey said, “These mistakes have to do with the things that we do in the store with mostly our fresh product”.
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Last but not least, the duo encourages people who think there is something suspicious about their package to ask the cashier to check and see if the weight of a product is accurate or not. The fine for a the false labeling of single package is already at $950 for the initial violation, and can add up to $1,700 for further violations. The investigation came just one year after Whole Foods paid an $800,000 settlement for overcharging customers in California.
