Paul and his wife purchased a pre-cooked feast for eight people at Whole Foods, but they claim that they didn’t get their whole order of food. Their two-pound side dishes, sold by weight, actually weighed in at as little as 1 pound, 3 ounces. Is their kitchen scale broken, or is something wrong at Whole Foods?

My wife and I decided to save some time this year and buy some prepared dishes from Whole Foods — a cooked turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, brussels sprouts and some sort of au gratin potatoes. When we picked up the order, our first thought was, “Oh my god, this isn’t enough food for eight people! How could we have done such a poor job ordering?” On a whim, we we started weighing the items when we got home. Everything except the turkey was sold in units of 2 pounds. Every single item we had with the exception of the mashed potatoes was far less than 2 pounds (32 ounces). Brussels sprouts were about 19 ounces, au gratin potatoes about 20 ounces. The stuffing came closest at around 24 ounces. I went back to the store and they properly added additional quantities and then some, so the customer service was not in question.

However what is most concerning is that all of the containers were filled to capacity. This wasn’t a matter of the store not filling the container to its proper weight, there was physically no possible way to put 2 pounds of those items into the size of containers they were using. Which tells me that everybody else that purchased prepared food from them this week was grossly underserved!

Oops. It sounds like a call to Paul’s local department of Weights and Measures might be in order, so they can check out the scales and quantities at Whole Foods, especially if the items are priced and sold per pound. Paul didn’t say what state he lives in, but here’s the list for New York, where Consumerist is based.

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