Whole Foods admits “mistakes,” promises to improve
Following accusations of overcharging customers in their New York stores, the Whole Foods grocery chain has announced plans for nationwide improvement.
New York’s Department of Consumer Affairs recently concluded an investigation that seemed to show a pattern of charging customers too much for items, specifically pre-packed items priced by weight…things like seafood, vegetables, nuts and snacks. This followed similar claims against the grocery chain in California, claims that Whole Foods settled for $800,000.
In a video just released by company CEOs John Mackey and Walter Robb, Whole Foods admits that some customers have been overcharged…but they says that those instances were a mistake. Mackey and Robb say they know that it was a mistake because sometimes the errors were in the store’s favor and sometimes the errors were in the customer’s favor.
In an effort to improve pricing accuracy, Whole Foods announced that they would take steps to improve.
- increase employee training
- third-party price auditing to measure progress
- 100% guarantee to customers – caught pricing errors that go against the customer will result in the item being given to the customer for free
(jj)
Previous: Whole Foods accused of overcharging customers 6/25/15
A recent investigation by the Department of Consumer Affairs in New York City showed that Whole Foods had a pattern of overcharging customers for many items inside their stores. Pre-packaged items like nuts and snacks, seafood and vegetables that were all listed at the same weight and priced the same often varied greatly in weight and so customers paid too much. It’s important to note that the stores surveyed were all in New York, though the chain recently settled similar claims in California for $800,000. So it’s unclear if the issues go beyond those two areas and, if so, just how widespread the overcharging is.
In the New York investigation, investigators found that, of the 80 products that they examined, all had mislabeled weights and 89 percent of those items fell outside of acceptable government guidelines. Overcharging ranged from 80 cents for a package of pecan panko to nearly $15 for a package of coconut shrimp.
“Our inspectors tell me this is the worst case of mislabeling they have seen in their careers.”
– DCA Commissioner Julie Menin
Whole Foods responded to the charges:
“We disagree with the DCA’s overreaching allegations and we are vigorously defending ourselves. We cooperated fully with the DCA from the beginning until we disagreed with their grossly excessive monetary demands. Despite our requests to the DCA, they have not provided evidence to back up their demands nor have they requested any additional information from us, but instead have taken this to the media to coerce us.”
On social media, Whole Foods is addressing customer concerns.
An attorney for Whole Foods says that they plan to fight the allegations.
(jj)
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