MILWAUKEE — Roundy’s Supermarkets Inc., the Kroger subsidiary behind Pick ‘n Save, Metro Market and Mariano’s grocery stores, has reached a $1 million settlement with the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) over accusations that they mislabeled the weights of select products and sold them at a higher cost than they should’ve.
According to the Wisconsin DATCP, Roundy’s faced “1,202 alleged short weight package violations and 90 alleged package labeling violations.” Per the terms of this settlement, Roundy’s is not admitting to any of the violations, but is paying for civil forfeitures, surcharges and fees valued at $1,003,590.50.
DATCP inspectors visited Pick ‘n Save and Metro Market stores in Appleton, Green Bay, Kenosha, Madison, Milwaukee, Monroe, Oshkosh, Stevens Point, Waukesha and Wausau in December 2023 and January 2024. They visit 81 of the 105 Roundy’s-operated stores across the state in this process to inspect weights, measurements and packaging of food products including precooked meals, salad kits, sandwiches, cold platters, baked goods and more.
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Officials say they found 1,202 instances of a product having a listed net weight that was more than the actual net weight of the food items. As a result, they discovered that impacted products were overpriced by an average of $1.44 with the most overpriced item costing an estimated $7.04 than what it was worth.
“Consumers have a right to receive the true value of the products they pay for,” said DATCP Secretary Randy Romanski. “The DATCP Bureau of Weights and Measures conducts hundreds of thousands of inspections every year to protect Wisconsin consumers from misleading pricing and labeling, and I am proud that our team’s work in this matter will ensure fair prices and improve future compliance.”
DATCP leaders also claimed that 587 products had misleading labels, “including 55 alleged violations of improperly selling a product by count instead of by weight and 35 alleged violations of failure to properly display the net quantity in a prominent location on the packaging.”
Roundy’s received 63 warnings from the agency from 2018 to 2023 for these exact issues. They paid forfeitures in 2018, 2022 and 2023 for similar issues at a value of $20,659. Click here for complete details from the DATCP.
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