Ralph’s Grocery Stores Charged With Overcharging Customers

Ralphs Grocery Co. and its parent company were charged today with a series of misdemeanors for allegedly overcharging customers for prepackaged and weighed products at stores throughout Los Angeles.

According to the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office, a series of test purchases made between Jan. 20 and March 9 at 14 Ralphs stores in the city resulted in 27 violations of overcharging — most for illegally charging for the weight of the package or including ice glaze on frozen products in the net weight.

Many prepackaged items were also found to be under the labeled weight, city prosecutors allege.

News Channel 3 contacted the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office to see if a similar investigation was happening here. Spokesman Michael Jeandron told us, “As a matter of policy, I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of any potential investigation.”

Meghan Glynn, a spokeswoman for Ralphs and its parent company, Kroger Co., said the company was looking into the charges.

“We take allegations such as these seriously,” Glynn told City News Service. “We are conducting our own investigation and we will take corrective actions as necessary.”

Ralphs and Kroger were charged with 14 counts of false and misleading advertising, 18 violations of unlawful computation of value, nine violations of selling prepackaged commodities in less quantity than represented and 18 violations of false labeling.

Ralphs and Kroger could each face fines and penalty assessments up to $256,000, according to city prosecutors.

During an inspection at a Granada Hills store, an inspector purchased four packages of fried chicken that were labeled at 30 ounces, but the actual weight was short by 3.5 percent per package, according to the City Attorney’s Office. At a store on Wilshire Boulevard, a self-service salad was weighed at 5 percent too much, because the weight of the packaging was not deducted when calculating the purchase price, according to prosecutors.