Grocery Stores

Package inspections are done periodically at grocery and retail stores for net weight, count, fill and labeling. If a product is found to be short of the labeled weight/fill it is ordered off sale to be corrected or sent back to the producer. Usually a civil infraction is issued and the business responsible is fined. Short weights can do great harm to a local economy.

There have been some resent changes in Washington law that the consumer should be aware of. It will cost you extra money if you are not vigilant when shopping groceries.

Terms to remember:
Net Weight- The weight of the product minus the container and other items such as coupons. All sale are to be by net weight.
Tare- This is the weight of the container that is to be subtracted.

Grocery

The water in this package can add as much as $.75 to this package. Don't buy wet!

These two packages of marinade added $2.00 to this package of shrimp. In this case the marinade can't be counted as weight but is was.

In this package the vegies are
weighed at the meat price. About $1.50 more than if you had bought them separately.

As you can see by just these three examples the consumer must be alert to various marketing practices. As Washington loosens the regulations concerning the market place it can only get worse.