California slapped a $95,571 fine on the grocery chain Mi Pueblo after the Department of Weights and Measures accused the chain of selling meat, poultry and fish by the piece, rather than by weight. [The Mercury News]
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Brilliant!
According to the article, they also investigated because they were overcharging. They included the weight of the packaging in the price of the product and also didn’t honour their advertised prices on some items.
The piece thing was just one of several wrongs.
What should have been in the above blog (FTFA):
“The complaint alleges that Mi Pueblo stores sold products that were short of the weight represented on the package, primarily because the weight of the packaging was not properly deducted. Inspectors found that some items of meat, poultry and fish were sold by the piece rather than by weight; some products were not correctly identified on the labels; and, some items were rung up at the cash register for an amount that was more than the lowest posted or advertised price.”
This must be a California thing. Hyvee sells meat items by the piece and seldom has a country of origin on fish unless it is pre-packed by an outside company.
I buy rotisserie chickens by the piece all the time, this is in MD, but does the cooking change the laws its regulated by?
On a happier note, at a ‘lifestyle’ SafeWay yesterday an item didn’t ring up at the sale price (actually 5 items, since it was supposed to be 5 for $3 and I had gotten 5). I went to customer service to get it corrected and at first the manager wanders off looking for the item. When she can’t find it on any of the checkout lanes (they were ‘nutrition’ bars) she asks me where they were from, I direct her to the far corner of the very large store where the organic products are and again she wanders off. (I note to myself that seems pretty inefficient given there seem to be about 3-4 clerks over by the in-store Starbucks just taking a break – any of whom looks like they could sprint back to the organic section in a flash), but I wait patiently as I was not really in any kind of a hurry (other than a mild concern about the meat and milk I had just purchased slowly warming to room temperature).
She comes back several minutes later, pauses for about 3 or so minutes at a register and then tells me she can’t find them on the shelf so she was just going to refund my money. Not only did she refund the overcharge (in cash – I had put the groceries on VISA), but she refunded the entire purchase price. I try to protest that I only needed the overcharge refunded but she walked off again, so I smiled at my good fortune and left.