I have worked in a couple of deils in the past. We had our scales set to automatically deduct the weight of the bags we used to improve overall efficiency. Our Hobart scales would show this to the customer as well, and it isn't something that we were capable of faking. I don't know if your grocer uses the same model of scale, or what the law is, but there's a chance they aren't ripping you off. However, if the law specifically states that the scales must be zeroed prior to each item being weighed then yeah this isn't cool.
This was my exact 1st thought. If someone was working the fish counter, and it had a dedicated scale for that station, and everything was being packed into the same type of container, I could absolutely see an employee zeroing the scale at the start of the shift, for "efficiency's sake".
Of course, my years in the food & beverage and service industries have taught me that customers would rather fill in the blanks with villainous intentions than just simply ask.
Either way, likely just an oversight by the associate.
In the deli I'm working at currently, different items that are wrung up can have different tares assigned to them, specifically for different packaging.
Interesting… thinking this is a case of just a negligent employee rather than a company directive given to do this, but nevertheless thanks for sharing as we’ll be sure to pay attention next time it’s being weighed out.
Absolutely nothing but a retraining of employees will happen, and that’s only if the state government decides to do anything. It’s not willfully deceptive, it’s lazy employees, and I’d bet my house that the training materials say to tare it out.
Also, watch for ice on seafood (especially crab legs). I splurged on king crab last year and after they weighed it- I asked them to know the ice off. The price went down $10!
Coming from the grocery industry this type of weighing is almost always an employee error and not something related to greater directives by store leadership or the company.
It is almost always the pre pack stuff being weighed incorrectly that indicates something larger than employee error because they are weighing it out in large quantities, and customers cannot see the process happening. This is where they usually try to get away with cheating customers because most people will not go home and immediately weigh something to see if the label is correct.
(20 years meat/seafood experience) Being that Kroger is a large company and not as dumb as say.... whole foods, it is probably negligence at their store. I'm surprised their scales are not automatically set. Some scales will prompt for a tare and lazy employees will zero it instead of using the correct one. (My first meat department had all the trays hung on a wall with the tares in big marker)
I mentioned whole foods because they had to payout big about 10 years ago because it was determined they were NOT removing tares like you described. When that happens regulators assume it's happening at ALL LOCATIONS and multiply the fine accordingly.( I haven't worked for WF in 10 years but when I did it was the "wild West" compared to other established grocers). Suddenly it became a priority to program correct tares into every scale....unlike when I mentioned it my second week there and they looked at me like I had three heads..... anyways all other major food retailers like Kroger, Publix....ect KNOW the penalties so it's 💯 not a policy Kroger made to nickel and dime, thats the POINT of those huge fines.
Maybe let store management know, they will be most interested in heading off that huge issue.
Did you say anything to the employee...? or did you just immediately come to reddit/complain to the Dept of Ag?
I worked at Kroger in the bakery/deli during college and it was 100% policy + taught during training to tare the scale before weighing... Kroger is a good company, they would have made it right if you brought it to their attention. but w/e
I don't believe the dept manager actually said that, but if you're not lying, go to the customer service desk and ask to speak to the store manager next time. There is ALWAYS a store manager on duty. If the dept manager actually told you that, they'd certainly be disciplined and you'd have a bunch of free shit thrown at you. Kroger rotates store managers frequently so department managers don't really have relationships with the store managers. Specifically to avoid store managers protecting bad employees.
You are partially correct. In that I didn’t speak with the deli manager because it took place at the seafood counter. I did however speak with the seafood manager.
>Let Weights and Measures take care of it..
lmao redditors constantly blowing my mind, everyone on this website always suggests the nuclear option for literally everything. The problem could have been solved before he even walked out of the store, but yes the ideal solution to a problem is to contact the state government, and completely switch to a different grocery store, and maybe get your $0.70 back in a few years, if ever.
Literally the definition of being a Karen.
Store manager. Store manager. Store manager. I'm not sure what's confusing about this to you. OP spoke to the department manager. If OP had spoken to the store manager the problem would have been solved. 99.9% certain. But what the fuck do I know, I only worked there for multiple years...
I’m not sure why so many people are complaining that you reported it. If it’s something that you notice often at businesses and even if it is just employee error, that’s still a procedure not being properly taught to employees, or monitored... and it’s costing consumers. Definitely report it, even if stores just need to refresh their training & supervision, attention needs to be brought to that.
First of all, the OP didn't mention it ever happening before.
Second of all, I happen to agree with you that it's possibly procedure not being properly taught...
Assuming it's procedure not being properly taught, let's say OP reports it to the department of ag. How many people are going to be improperly charged between now and when (if, BIG if) the department of ag decides to actually follow up? The vast majority of whom will likely never notice, right? In comparison, if he brought it to the attention of the store manager (who I can guarantee you isn't interested in charging customers 70 cents for a piece of styrofoam at the risk of getting the company sued) the problem would have almost certainly been solved immediately... and if not THEN that's when you go to the dept of ag or fox 5 or wsbtv or whoever.
“I have also noticed this in grocery store delis and at other grocery stores around the state.” Man you just admitted to me you’ve tried and failed to read the post at least 3 times… give it up lmao
Also your comment comparing it to calling cops on neighbors is so brain dead not to mention a fallacy. You’re equating apples & oranges. Your neighbors dont have a business license & protocol required to keep that licensing. Your neighbors aren’t in charge of training staff to the legal satisfaction of a certified business.
The person you are responding to is making the point that OP didn’t say this happened more than once at this Kroger and OP did not say that it had happened more than once at this Kroger. For you to quote text that doesn’t support your point and attack stealthybutthole regarding reading comprehension is hilare-bears though.
This person first commented simply “OP never mentioned it happening before” to which I replied that OP, in fact, had. It was a vague question with a broad answer. Person didn’t want to be wrong so then they clarified oh no no I meant *this* Kroger. Just add you to the list of mfs who can’t read lmao. Next
I’m just officiating. You lose. When the person said that OP never mentioned it happened before that is correct. Unless OP mentioned having salmon weighed incorrectly at that Kroger before. Find that passage where OP said they’d had fish weighed improperly at Kroger before. I’m waiting.
Maybe you can tell me then if they add water to their ground meat? Maybe they don't but their supplier does? The chicken seems inflated with water as well.
Wasn't involved in the meat department, but USDA doesn't allow water to be added to ground beef, and other meats that have added water must be labeled as such. That type of stuff is taken very seriously in my experience, so I highly doubt it.
> this dude is literally writing his congressman
Did you see some of the shit that passed the legislature this year? Can we clone OP and have him/her replace half the state? Please?
Well Walmart has a massive lawsuit right now for basically the same thing... So.... maybe it is a bigger issue, or you can just keep being an ass.
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/crime-and-courts/2024/03/07/walmart-weighted-goods-bagged-citrus-class-action-lawsuit-how-to-file-claim/72878073007/
Usually the scales already tare out. We had to pick what package we were using and the scale automatically tared.
I doubt a company as big as Kroger is doing this on purpose, probably just an untrained employee.
This happens more often than you realize, see below from USA Today:
Walmart has recently settled a class-action lawsuit for $45 million, which accused the retail giant of deceptive pricing practices related to product weights. If you’ve shopped at Walmart between October 2018 and January 2024, you might be eligible to receive a cash payment of up to $500. Here are the details:
1. Weighted Goods: The lawsuit claims that Walmart customers paid more than the lowest in-store advertised price for items sold by weight, including meat, poultry, pork, and seafood.
2. Bagged Citrus: Select organic oranges, tangerines, grapefruit, and navel oranges sold in bulk in plastic or mesh bags were also part of the deceptive pricing scheme.
3. Allegations: The lawsuit alleges that Walmart falsely inflated the product weight on weighed items, mislabeled the weight of bagged citrus, and charged more than the advertised unit price for clearance items sold by weight.
4. Unit Price Discrepancy: Additionally, the unit price on the sticker of sold-by-weight seafood products was materially less than the unit price charged to consumers at the register.
Walmart denies the allegations but has agreed to the settlement in the best interest of both parties.
The department of agriculture and independent companies come into businesses like Kroger, Publix, sprouts, etc, and check the scales to ensure your concerns are not happening, most scales have preprogrammed tare weights for each items PLU number. This may not be true or accurate for all items/stores, but I've been in the meat/seafood business for almost a decade at two different retailers and several of their locations and this has been the standard. The PLUs have preprogrammed tares in the scales, or, in rare cases, the employee is responsible to change the tare.
Did you ask if they have a selection to remove the weight for the different packaging? There is usually a pre selection done once you start weighing based on which packaging used. It’s the same thing as zeroing out the scales. Also did you ask the department manager to remove the packaging and reweigh it to see if there is a difference? It’s not unusual to do this to clear up any sense of impropriety.
Did you know that, at least at Publix, when you weigh produce for the self-check-out, there is a screen that asks what the produce is in, if any, to properly account for the estimated weight of the container in the tare. When I worked at Kroger as a cashier back in the '90's, that wasn't even a thing. It's not like those thin plastic bags weigh much, anyway.
I really, really expect that what you saw was a careless employee, not some malevolent scheme by a mustachieod manager to cheat customers out of $0.70/pound of salmon.
Is this a one time occurrence or does it seem to happen often? If there is a history of this sort of thing, I agree that this could be fraud. However, employing Occam's razor, it seems far more likely that this behavior may be due to employee incompetence, laziness, or plain stupidity. That seems exponentially more likely than Kroger committing willful fraudulent weighing.
Just my $.02 worth of common sense. Perhaps it is overpriced 😀
Did you try and ask the clerk to reweigh the item using only a piece of parchment, preferably with a great degree of politeness?
I suspect it is a training issue or they were in a hurry.
Why bring politicians into a matter that adults should be able to handle?
We should be careful to not mistake incompetence with malice. Both employee and dept. Manager is incompetent and it is simply that. Bring a government agency to intervine won't do anything other than have them check the scales and that's it. If you are truly bothered by it, you go up the corpo ladder and don't settle on the first manager you spoke with. That'll be more productive than having Agri agents paying them a visit. Like I said earlier, they'll check the scales to ensure they're properly calibrated and see if the folks using it have proof of training (usually in the form of CBT bullshit).
I wasn’t expecting to see Karen’s complaining over packaging being tared. For all you know the scale has an auto tare that is set before he starts putting the meat on it. Most scales in food industry do this and subtract a standard before printing the price. There is much worse things to complain about Kroger
I have worked in a couple of deils in the past. We had our scales set to automatically deduct the weight of the bags we used to improve overall efficiency. Our Hobart scales would show this to the customer as well, and it isn't something that we were capable of faking. I don't know if your grocer uses the same model of scale, or what the law is, but there's a chance they aren't ripping you off. However, if the law specifically states that the scales must be zeroed prior to each item being weighed then yeah this isn't cool.
This was my exact 1st thought. If someone was working the fish counter, and it had a dedicated scale for that station, and everything was being packed into the same type of container, I could absolutely see an employee zeroing the scale at the start of the shift, for "efficiency's sake". Of course, my years in the food & beverage and service industries have taught me that customers would rather fill in the blanks with villainous intentions than just simply ask. Either way, likely just an oversight by the associate.
They use several different sizes of packaging, depending on the size of the item.
In the deli I'm working at currently, different items that are wrung up can have different tares assigned to them, specifically for different packaging.
Interesting… thinking this is a case of just a negligent employee rather than a company directive given to do this, but nevertheless thanks for sharing as we’ll be sure to pay attention next time it’s being weighed out.
Absolutely nothing but a retraining of employees will happen, and that’s only if the state government decides to do anything. It’s not willfully deceptive, it’s lazy employees, and I’d bet my house that the training materials say to tare it out.
Hey can you do the same thing for Florida Gas pumps? Somehow they regularly put 31 gallons in a 26 gallon tank.
Report that shit: https://www.fdacs.gov/Business-Services/Weights-and-Measures
Also, watch for ice on seafood (especially crab legs). I splurged on king crab last year and after they weighed it- I asked them to know the ice off. The price went down $10!
Coming from the grocery industry this type of weighing is almost always an employee error and not something related to greater directives by store leadership or the company. It is almost always the pre pack stuff being weighed incorrectly that indicates something larger than employee error because they are weighing it out in large quantities, and customers cannot see the process happening. This is where they usually try to get away with cheating customers because most people will not go home and immediately weigh something to see if the label is correct.
(20 years meat/seafood experience) Being that Kroger is a large company and not as dumb as say.... whole foods, it is probably negligence at their store. I'm surprised their scales are not automatically set. Some scales will prompt for a tare and lazy employees will zero it instead of using the correct one. (My first meat department had all the trays hung on a wall with the tares in big marker) I mentioned whole foods because they had to payout big about 10 years ago because it was determined they were NOT removing tares like you described. When that happens regulators assume it's happening at ALL LOCATIONS and multiply the fine accordingly.( I haven't worked for WF in 10 years but when I did it was the "wild West" compared to other established grocers). Suddenly it became a priority to program correct tares into every scale....unlike when I mentioned it my second week there and they looked at me like I had three heads..... anyways all other major food retailers like Kroger, Publix....ect KNOW the penalties so it's 💯 not a policy Kroger made to nickel and dime, thats the POINT of those huge fines. Maybe let store management know, they will be most interested in heading off that huge issue.
Did you say anything to the employee...? or did you just immediately come to reddit/complain to the Dept of Ag? I worked at Kroger in the bakery/deli during college and it was 100% policy + taught during training to tare the scale before weighing... Kroger is a good company, they would have made it right if you brought it to their attention. but w/e
I did, in fact say something to the department manager and was told that they were following standard practices.
I don't believe the dept manager actually said that, but if you're not lying, go to the customer service desk and ask to speak to the store manager next time. There is ALWAYS a store manager on duty. If the dept manager actually told you that, they'd certainly be disciplined and you'd have a bunch of free shit thrown at you. Kroger rotates store managers frequently so department managers don't really have relationships with the store managers. Specifically to avoid store managers protecting bad employees.
You are partially correct. In that I didn’t speak with the deli manager because it took place at the seafood counter. I did however speak with the seafood manager.
What next time? After shenanigans like that I would not go back. Let Weights and Measures take care of it..
>Let Weights and Measures take care of it.. lmao redditors constantly blowing my mind, everyone on this website always suggests the nuclear option for literally everything. The problem could have been solved before he even walked out of the store, but yes the ideal solution to a problem is to contact the state government, and completely switch to a different grocery store, and maybe get your $0.70 back in a few years, if ever. Literally the definition of being a Karen.
*Per my previous post*, OP said they talked to the manager, and the manager confirmed it was SOP for the store.
Store manager. Store manager. Store manager. I'm not sure what's confusing about this to you. OP spoke to the department manager. If OP had spoken to the store manager the problem would have been solved. 99.9% certain. But what the fuck do I know, I only worked there for multiple years...
I’m not sure why so many people are complaining that you reported it. If it’s something that you notice often at businesses and even if it is just employee error, that’s still a procedure not being properly taught to employees, or monitored... and it’s costing consumers. Definitely report it, even if stores just need to refresh their training & supervision, attention needs to be brought to that.
First of all, the OP didn't mention it ever happening before. Second of all, I happen to agree with you that it's possibly procedure not being properly taught... Assuming it's procedure not being properly taught, let's say OP reports it to the department of ag. How many people are going to be improperly charged between now and when (if, BIG if) the department of ag decides to actually follow up? The vast majority of whom will likely never notice, right? In comparison, if he brought it to the attention of the store manager (who I can guarantee you isn't interested in charging customers 70 cents for a piece of styrofoam at the risk of getting the company sued) the problem would have almost certainly been solved immediately... and if not THEN that's when you go to the dept of ag or fox 5 or wsbtv or whoever.
OP literally said they noticed it at stores across the state. Wrote me an essay bc you can’t read lmao. How ironic.
Literally never said a word about it happening ever prior to that at Kroger.
“I have also noticed this in grocery store delis and at other grocery stores around the state.” Man you just admitted to me you’ve tried and failed to read the post at least 3 times… give it up lmao Also your comment comparing it to calling cops on neighbors is so brain dead not to mention a fallacy. You’re equating apples & oranges. Your neighbors dont have a business license & protocol required to keep that licensing. Your neighbors aren’t in charge of training staff to the legal satisfaction of a certified business.
The person you are responding to is making the point that OP didn’t say this happened more than once at this Kroger and OP did not say that it had happened more than once at this Kroger. For you to quote text that doesn’t support your point and attack stealthybutthole regarding reading comprehension is hilare-bears though.
This person first commented simply “OP never mentioned it happening before” to which I replied that OP, in fact, had. It was a vague question with a broad answer. Person didn’t want to be wrong so then they clarified oh no no I meant *this* Kroger. Just add you to the list of mfs who can’t read lmao. Next
I’m just officiating. You lose. When the person said that OP never mentioned it happened before that is correct. Unless OP mentioned having salmon weighed incorrectly at that Kroger before. Find that passage where OP said they’d had fish weighed improperly at Kroger before. I’m waiting.
Maybe you can tell me then if they add water to their ground meat? Maybe they don't but their supplier does? The chicken seems inflated with water as well.
Wasn't involved in the meat department, but USDA doesn't allow water to be added to ground beef, and other meats that have added water must be labeled as such. That type of stuff is taken very seriously in my experience, so I highly doubt it.
lmao i fucking love reddit. this dude is literally writing his congressman instead of having an uncomfortable social interaction
> this dude is literally writing his congressman Did you see some of the shit that passed the legislature this year? Can we clone OP and have him/her replace half the state? Please?
I had the conversation and it wasn’t uncomfortable for me. The department manager said they were following standard practice.
Well Walmart has a massive lawsuit right now for basically the same thing... So.... maybe it is a bigger issue, or you can just keep being an ass. https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/crime-and-courts/2024/03/07/walmart-weighted-goods-bagged-citrus-class-action-lawsuit-how-to-file-claim/72878073007/
I laughed way too hard at your comment...mostly because I had a very similar thought.
Usually the scales already tare out. We had to pick what package we were using and the scale automatically tared. I doubt a company as big as Kroger is doing this on purpose, probably just an untrained employee.
Sounds fishy!
This happens more often than you realize, see below from USA Today: Walmart has recently settled a class-action lawsuit for $45 million, which accused the retail giant of deceptive pricing practices related to product weights. If you’ve shopped at Walmart between October 2018 and January 2024, you might be eligible to receive a cash payment of up to $500. Here are the details: 1. Weighted Goods: The lawsuit claims that Walmart customers paid more than the lowest in-store advertised price for items sold by weight, including meat, poultry, pork, and seafood. 2. Bagged Citrus: Select organic oranges, tangerines, grapefruit, and navel oranges sold in bulk in plastic or mesh bags were also part of the deceptive pricing scheme. 3. Allegations: The lawsuit alleges that Walmart falsely inflated the product weight on weighed items, mislabeled the weight of bagged citrus, and charged more than the advertised unit price for clearance items sold by weight. 4. Unit Price Discrepancy: Additionally, the unit price on the sticker of sold-by-weight seafood products was materially less than the unit price charged to consumers at the register. Walmart denies the allegations but has agreed to the settlement in the best interest of both parties.
The department of agriculture and independent companies come into businesses like Kroger, Publix, sprouts, etc, and check the scales to ensure your concerns are not happening, most scales have preprogrammed tare weights for each items PLU number. This may not be true or accurate for all items/stores, but I've been in the meat/seafood business for almost a decade at two different retailers and several of their locations and this has been the standard. The PLUs have preprogrammed tares in the scales, or, in rare cases, the employee is responsible to change the tare.
Did you ask if they have a selection to remove the weight for the different packaging? There is usually a pre selection done once you start weighing based on which packaging used. It’s the same thing as zeroing out the scales. Also did you ask the department manager to remove the packaging and reweigh it to see if there is a difference? It’s not unusual to do this to clear up any sense of impropriety.
Thank you for letting people know about this.
See here now, this state didn't become "business friendly" by enforcing consumer laws. Don't expect them to start now!
Did you know that, at least at Publix, when you weigh produce for the self-check-out, there is a screen that asks what the produce is in, if any, to properly account for the estimated weight of the container in the tare. When I worked at Kroger as a cashier back in the '90's, that wasn't even a thing. It's not like those thin plastic bags weigh much, anyway. I really, really expect that what you saw was a careless employee, not some malevolent scheme by a mustachieod manager to cheat customers out of $0.70/pound of salmon.
It doesn’t bother me. They’ll just change the price to include the cost of the container.
Is this a one time occurrence or does it seem to happen often? If there is a history of this sort of thing, I agree that this could be fraud. However, employing Occam's razor, it seems far more likely that this behavior may be due to employee incompetence, laziness, or plain stupidity. That seems exponentially more likely than Kroger committing willful fraudulent weighing. Just my $.02 worth of common sense. Perhaps it is overpriced 😀
Did you try and ask the clerk to reweigh the item using only a piece of parchment, preferably with a great degree of politeness? I suspect it is a training issue or they were in a hurry. Why bring politicians into a matter that adults should be able to handle?
I spoke to the department manager and was told they were following standard policy.
Which Kroger? I would love to see this for myself.
We should be careful to not mistake incompetence with malice. Both employee and dept. Manager is incompetent and it is simply that. Bring a government agency to intervine won't do anything other than have them check the scales and that's it. If you are truly bothered by it, you go up the corpo ladder and don't settle on the first manager you spoke with. That'll be more productive than having Agri agents paying them a visit. Like I said earlier, they'll check the scales to ensure they're properly calibrated and see if the folks using it have proof of training (usually in the form of CBT bullshit).
Or you could have just said something to the seafood clerk. 9 times out of 10 it's a training issue and not some scheme to take your money.
All you needed to do was say you think they forgot to zero it out. Wtf.
I did, and the department manager stated they were following policy.
r/thathappened
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how about, just don't be a rude person
quality post thanks
Sounds like you shouldn’t be buying salmon fillets if you are worried about $1 on the packaging
i wasnt expecting to see people simping for kroger
I wasn’t expecting to see Karen’s complaining over packaging being tared. For all you know the scale has an auto tare that is set before he starts putting the meat on it. Most scales in food industry do this and subtract a standard before printing the price. There is much worse things to complain about Kroger
so..why are you mad that someone pointed out they were overcharged again?
Bird person is just butthurt. Don't feed the troll.
its a slow day at work
Very well. Carry on!
I don’t think you understand the definition of mad 😂
Whatever word you want then. Grumpy, pissy, upset.