Whole Foods Inc. has agreed to pay $500K to New York City for a settlement. The supermarket chain was suspected of overcharging their pre-packed food at its New York stores.
According to NBC News, the grocery chain doesn't want the investigation to continue and settled with the New York authorities on Monday. The settlement's requirements were the company to follow the standards aimed at preventing overcharging said New York City Department of Consumer Affairs. It will help the New Yorkers to have a better and secured against overcharging, said the department's commissioner.
TWC News reported that last June, the city's Department of Consumer Affairs found mislabeled weight on many pre-packaged food items. When they tested 80 diverse pre-packaged food items from the store they found many of them were overcharged. There was a pack of chicken tenders for $4.85 and coconut shrimp for $14.84. The items were overcharged by 80 cents.
The investigation ultimately garnered headlines and eventually hurt the supermarket's reputation. The bad publicity made the co-CEOs John Mackey and Walter Robb to apologize in an online video, said ABC News. One of the CEOs, Mackey expressed his surprise with a hint of confusion about the issue. He said he does not understand why was Whole Foods was singled out when their track records are almost the same with other supermarkets out there. Nevertheless, the grocery chain agreed with the requirements that include taking steps to prevent overcharging.
Whole Foods' spokesman, Michael Silverman said over the summer that they will train workers promise the costumers to give them the products if found out that it was overpriced. The original settlement fee that New York wants was $1.5 million which Whole Foods disagreed to pay. In the end they agreed with $500K to end everything and bury it. The fee will go to the city's budget according to the Department of Consumer Affairs.
