Summary: New York City officials have found thousands of violations with Whole Foods prepackaged weights, affecting the prices consumers pay for the products.
Last year Whole Foods paid almost $800,000 to Los Angeles, San Diego, and Santa Monica for pricing violations. An investigation by the state of California discovered the violations in the three cities. It appears that Whole Foods has been caught again.
The New York City Department of Consumer Affairs or the DCA claims that they have discovered severe pricing discrepancies on prepackaged foods. The department’s commissioner, Julie Martin, says it may be the worst case that they have seen of mislabeled prices.
The investigators looked at 80 different prepackaged foods and found that none of them had the correct weights. Federal rules allow for a package’s labeled weight to deviate a specified amount from the actual weight but 89 percent of Whole Foods packages violated this rule. Some of their findings include:
- A package of coconut shrimp was overpriced by $14.84.
- A package of pecan panko was overpriced by $.80.
- Chicken tenders were overpriced, on average, by $4.13.
- A package of berries was overpriced, on average, by $1.15.
- Vegetable platters were overpriced by $2.50, on average. One platter was $6.15 overpriced.
The city officials stated that packages labeled with the same amount for all the packages were found to be the worst offenders of overcharged prices. It is extremely difficult to make every package the same weight.
Whole Foods calls the allegations outrageous and will defend its reputation. They have requested evidence from the DCA but have yet to receive anything. They state that the DCA jumped to media before actually trying to work things out with the company. If the allegations of overpriced prepackaged foods are true, Whole Foods may have to pay millions of dollar in fines.
Read What I Ate Wednesday–Whole Foods Style to learn what foods the national grocer has to offer.
Or consider Top 5 Favorite Foods From Trader Joe’s if the prices at Whole Foods make you wary.
Read this article to find other places to pick up healthy and quick food, 5 Places You Can Find Healthy Snacks on the Go.
Source: http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/25/news/companies/whole-foods-overcharging/index.html
Photo: wholefoodsmarket.com