Saturday, June 24, 2006

The price of shopping

Went to a Coles supermarket today and saw a round of South Australian cheese selling at an extra ordinarily good price per kilo.

Imagine my amazement when the young person serving at the counter took the round of cheese and placed it on the scale where it weighed in at more than the kilo written on the front of the packaging and then charging more than the ticketed price per kilo.

If this is the way that this supermarket chain does business then I think the old cry of "caveat emptor" needs to be learned by all of the shopping public.

Incensed at the attempt to charge more than advertised I asked the young man to call his supervisor who on hearing the story and checking into matters delivered the cheese now rebadged with a new weight that was less than it states on the packet and appropriately re-weighed.

In other words we managed to get the cheese cheaper than the advertised price as it appears that on one scale used in the store it weighed MORE than the stated weight on the packet while on another scale it weighed less than the stated weight.

Has anyone actually checked whether different sets of scales in supermarkets actually do a more or less useful job in giving accurate weight?

If not you can either be lucky or unlucky but you may never get fair weight!

Come on consumers - it's time to make a stand and insist that stores can meet the standards of fair weights otherwise we are being ripped off!

2 comments:

Limo said...

I work in Coles.
Everyday, before opening, All checkout scales are weighed and checked with a standart 1kg weight.

If there is an error, it's reported and not used that day until repaired.

Garpet said...

I simply LOVE this comment from a Coles employee. Note if you will dear readers the content - "All checkout scales are . . checked . . ."

This comment is simply fabulous as it tells us nothing!

What was NOT stated in the response is whether the scales at locations OTHER than at the check out are checked or not.

The reality is that once you have your goods weighed and priced at - for example at the delicatessen counter - there IS no check at the check out - after all the goods have already been weighed and priced - there is, apparently no NEED to check the weight again.

Yeah right!

Come on Limo - try again to convince me that this was NOT meant to be a rip off but some righteous mistake!

Answer me this - If the packaging states that the content weighs a certain amount then why should it be necessary to weigh it again?