Ralphs faces penalties in overcharging case
Sentencing for supermarket giant Ralphs Grocery Co. was set for next Wednesday on 62 criminal counts of overcharging customers, false advertising and false labeling at more than a dozen stores in Los Angeles County.
The company, which pleaded no contest to the charges in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Monday, faces up to $43,000 in penalties.
When charged in May, Ralphs and its parent company, Cincinnati-based Kroger Co., faced fines and penalties of up to $256,000 each.
As a result of a plea agreement, the charges against Kroger were dropped, said Frank T. Mateljan, a spokesman for the Los Angeles city attorney’s office.
“When the consumers of Los Angeles use their hard-earned money to buy food and other products, they deserve to get the full value of what they paid for,” City Atty. Carmen Trutanich said in a statement. “Grocery and other stores that rip off customers will be prosecuted by the city attorney’s office and held accountable for their unlawful actions.”
The violations were found last year during undercover inspections of 14 stores by the Los Angeles County Department of Weights and Measures.
Inspectors made test purchases and found that the stores overcharged on prepackaged and weighed products such as fried chicken, bulk coffee, salads and fish.
The chain was fined for similar violations in 2008 and 2009.
At a Ralphs in Granada Hills inspectors found that fried chicken labeled as having a weight of 30 ounces actually weighed 3.5% less. At another location on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, inspectors found that the store did not deduct packaging weight when ringing up customers who purchased self-service salad, shorting them at least 5%.
The charges against Kroger were unfounded, as the violations were not intentional, said Kendra Doyle, a Ralphs spokeswoman. “These are isolated events caused by human error and not a systemic problem,” she said. “We have redoubled all of our efforts to ensure accuracy.”
In 2008, Ralphs paid $6,500 in fines after inspectors found that the chain was overcharging customers, including short-weighing packages. In 2009, 30 Ralphs stores were cited for similar violations and paid $10,400 in fines.
