Whole Foods fiasco has shoppers watching their wallets

Montgomery County’s price failure rate is a little bit below seven percent, statewide it’s about 10 percent, according to Keith.

Making sure shoppers get what they pay for at area grocery stores is the job of weights and measures inspectors at the auditor’s office.

This week, inspectors, Charles Richmond and Joseph Harris, demonstrated a weight test on meat items at Dot’s Supermarket in Kettering.

First, Harris weighed the empty packaging, including the Styrofoam tray, the plastic wrapping, and the drip packet, to determine the package weight, or tare weight.

“We put that on the scale and we zero off the weight of the package, then we weigh the complete product, including meat,” said Richmond.

When a package is inaccurate or “out of tolerance” it is removed from sale. A store must be 98 percent compliant on all checked items to pass the test.

There are ways shoppers can ensure they are paying the right price.

“If they see that the prices are all the same and the weight is all the same on various packages of meat or other products, that’s a pretty good indication that something isn’t quite right,” said Keith, who added customers should ask to have the package weighed again at the store.

Or, when in doubt the customer can weigh the items themselves.

Dot’s has a gravity scale for customers to use to estimate and check prices on foods like bananas and tomatoes.

“The customer wants to know what they are going to spend before they check out,” said Dot’s owner Robert Bernhard, Junior.

Before a shopper leaves a store they should double check their receipt for discrepancies at the checkout.

“The customer is always right, so if there is ever a question, we are are more than happy to verify,” Bernhard said.

The scale and weight checks protect the consumer wallet, but also the business, by making sure they aren’t losing money by undercharging, said Keith.

The inspection at Dot’s found nothing out of tolerance, and in some cases the customer was getting slightly more product than what they were being charged for.

“I’m pleased with the results. It’s much better to err on the side of the customer,” said Bernhard.