Whole Foods has just been fined $800,000 after a state investigation determined the supermarket chain has been overcharging its customers.
The inquiry into Whole Foods stores centered around branches in California which have allegedly been charging more for products than the advertised price. According to Money MSN News, the hefty fine is now due, and has been been imposed due to numerous small but obvious malpractices which have mounted up.
While Whole Foods is known to be a more upmarket chain, selling pricier and more exclusive produce than regular supermarkets, that doesn’t justify their overcharging customers on the West Coast on advertised prices.
The year long investigation uncovered a whole host of bad practices carried out by the company, including marking less weight on packaged meat labels than was actually in the pack.
As well as this, a failure to deduct additional weight of containers for some foo – like plastic to-go boxes at the salad bar – meant that customers were regularly getting overcharged.
New Max reported that Whole Foods have accepted the blame and taken on board the findings of the investigation. They also confirmed that they will pay the $800,000 in the near future. They will also pay $100,000 towards a local consumer trust fund, and a further $70,000 in overall costs for the accumulated malpractices.
The company released a statement when the shock revelations about their bad business practices came to light. They said: “We will continue to refine and implement additional processes to minimize such errors going forward.”
The comapany owns around 75 stores in California alone and have been quick to point out that 98 percent of their pricing was honest and correct, and, therefore, most customers had not been overcharged.
