Canada’s supermarket giants have drawn significant public ire in recent years, largely because food is a leading cause of the rising cost of living, with food inflation hitting its highest level in 41 years in 2022.
It seems like every day brings another sticker shock at Ontario Loblaws, Metro, Sobeys or even the smaller companies, but these companies are not only being accused of profiting from inflation, but some of their other practices are also being called into question. to.
Loblaws recently faced criticism for spending money on installing new security gates instead of lowering prices and asking shoppers for money to support charities, among other things. Just last week, a Reddit user reported a case of chicken being given a new, fresher expiration date by local Subway employees.
And Metro is coming under fire again this week on Reddit over another concern: that its self-checkout scales for weighing groceries and other goods are “rigged.”
“Metro self-checkout kiosk is rigged,” one customer wrote on the Toronto subreddit over the weekend, along with a photo of the self-checkout screen attempting to charge for 1,150kg of green peppers as the scales both on and off above the screen shows a weight of a significantly lower 0.470 kg.
The self-checkout machine in Metro is tampered with
byu/idiosyncratic_me intoronto
“When I brought this to the attention of one of the employees, they just brushed it off and said I may have accidentally put a little more emphasis on it when I added it,” the angry person continued.
“I know for a fact that the self-checkout machine is incredibly annoying when the weight of the item scanned does not match the weight that is set aside after scanning. He almost always complains and yells, “Unexpected item in the packing area” or “Help needed.” Only this time that wasn’t the case as there was clearly a weight difference. Always double-check what you’re paying.”
The post quickly received 1.2k upvotes and nearly 200 comments from people accusing the grocery giant of negligence and even fraud.
“Everyone goes to their local Subway and tries this out. Obtain photo evidence. Because if they do this in more places, they can’t just say it’s a small mistake,” one person suggested.
Others expressed doubt that the company would put itself in a legally perilous position by knowingly deceiving customers, saying that this case was most likely a case of user error or machine error – a point that some took issue with the bread price fixation program, in which Metro participated along with Loblaws, Sobeys, Canada Bread and others.
One commenter said the exact same thing happened to them while shopping on Gould Street Metro.
In response to the allegations, a Metro spokesperson told blogTO that there was no way to know what happened in this particular situation without knowing what was on the scale in the photo (admittedly not pictured) and what was in front of the person on the scale, the placement of the products on the scale and other factors.
“All scales across Canada are subject to the government’s Weights and Measures Act, which requires scales to be re-certified every five years,” they added.
“During this period, scales will be randomly inspected by government inspectors to protect customers and businesses from inaccurate information.”