Huge Idaho-Based Grocery Chain Caught Secretly Overcharging Customers

When we were younger, we never thought we’d reach a point where we’d be so invested in grocery store news. Are we old or are we just heavily invested because we live in Idaho? 

Idaho, more specifically Boise, is a unique place to live because it’s home to the headquarters of two of the country’s most profitable grocery chains - WinCo and Albertsons. The latter’s been making national headlines for two years since announcing plans to merge with Fred Meyer’s parent company, Kroger. 

READ MORE: A Popular Idaho Grocery Store Admits to Price Gouging

The merger has been held up by several lawsuits including one filed in Oregon by the Federal Trade Commission and two filed by the attorney generals in Washington and Colorado. Both brands insist that the $24.6 billion merger will lead to lower prices for shoppers, but opponents say that the brands joining forces would reduce competition in regions where they overlap. Those opponents say less competition could actually result in higher prices for customers. 

As the lawsuits move forward, both chains need to show that they’re putting their customers first. Unfortunately, Boise-based Albertsons found itself in a bad position this week. While the brands were in court in Washington and Colorado, Albertsons was also going through a legal battle in California. 

Albertsons Secretly Overcharged Customers

According to the LA Times there’s been an ongoing investigation into accusations that Albertsons and two of its other brands, Vons and Safeway, overcharged customers for products priced by their weight. Both customers and the county agencies tasked with making sure that scales and scanners in grocery stores are accurate noticed products were ringing up at a price point higher than advertised. 

The complaint also said that some of the locally packed products like meat, bakery items and produce contained less of the product than the weight printed on the label. For example, say it’s taco night. Your package of taco seasoning says you need a pound of ground beef. You decide to grab one that says it has 1.25 pounds so that you get an extra taco out of it. Turns out, you’re not getting extra. If you took it out of the package and weighed it at home, you may have only gotten one pound. 

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Albertsons didn’t admit fault, but decided to settle with the seven California counties that came after them. It's possible that their scales just wore out after years of use or were not properly taken care of. They’ll have to pay out $3.9 million and start using a “price accuracy program” where they compensate customers who get overcharged. 

The Los Angeles Daily News makes it clear that this case only involved stores in California. There haven't been complaints in Idaho or any other states where Albertsons operates, but it’s a bad look for the Boise-based chain that really wants this merger to go through. 

Kroger Admits to Price Gouging

That said, it’s not just Albertsons that’s taking heat for some of its pricing practices.  As we previously reported, Korger admitted to price gouging their customers when food inflation was at an all time high. During testimony in one of the merger lawsuits, the company’s senior director for pricing said they had hiked the prices on milk and eggs more than required to pass through their inflation to consumers.