Prosecutors Accuse Ralphs of Overcharging on Sale Items

Misdemeanor charges were filed Wednesday against Ralphs Grocery Co. and seven of its San Fernando Valley store managers accused of overcharging customers for advertised “price breaker” sale merchandise.

City Atty. James Hahn also filed a complaint against Ralphs and an eighth manager for alleged short-weight violations.

Inspections by county Weights and Measures investigators showed the stores were overcharging customers on 18.3% of the advertised sale items--about one in every five. The overcharging averaged 12.6% of the posted price, and the inaccuracies favored the store 96.3% of the time, the complaint alleges.

Some of the worst instances of overcharging involved alcoholic beverages, Hahn said. At one store, a bottle of Chardonnay with a shelf price of $9.99 registered at $12.99 on the checkout counter.

The 26-count criminal complaint filed in Van Nuys Municipal Court alleges five counts of overcharging by more than $1 above the advertised price and 21 counts of overcharging by less than $1 above the advertised price.

The first five counts are punishable by six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. The remaining counts carry a $100 fine.

Hahn said the county investigators also made undercover inspections at other major supermarket outlets and “felt there were more inaccuracies at Ralphs.”

Meanwhile, Ralphs and some of its store managers went on trial Wednesday in an unrelated but similar case stemming from allegedly charging customers more than the advertised sale items at Ralphs supermarkets in Koreatown, the Wilshire District and Hollywood, prosecutors said.

“All I can tell you is that the charges are absolutely ridiculous,” said Jan Charles Gray, general counsel and senior vice president for Ralphs in commenting on the new charges. “They are ludicrous and they are wrong.”

Deputy City Atty. Don Cocek said the practice appeared to be widespread and systematic.

“The bottom line is they’re getting ripped off,” Cocek said about shoppers. “It’s happening all over the county.”

Cocek said he had no evidence to believe that the violations were intentional. But he said the 18% error rate seemed uniform at all the stores checked.

Over the last few years, according to Cocek and other authorities, Ralphs has been accused of similar pricing violations in courts in Pomona, Whittier, Compton, Alhambra, Pasadena, Los Cerritos, downtown, East Los Angeles, Long Beach and the South Bay.

Gray, the Ralphs lawyer, said those charges also were the result of county investigators who go looking for problems.