Safeway Accused of Tricking Shoppers Into Paying “Substantially More”
In terms of buying at Safeway, clients aren’t essentially relying on the bottom grocery prices. In actual fact, this widespread grocery chain’s costs are typically about 32 % greater than Walmart’s, in keeping with The Washington Publish. Although the dearer price ticket is price it for some, as Safeway can also be recognized for promoting extra natural merchandise and brisker meals than different shops. However now, some clients are not cool with how the grocery store is dealing with its prices. Learn on to search out out why Safeway has been accused of tricking customers into paying “considerably extra.”
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Regardless of securing its place as probably the most widespread grocers (even with its greater costs), Safeway is now dealing with new criticism for the way it fees clients. On April 7, plaintiff Kim Siflinger filed a category motion lawsuit towards Safeway Inc. and its mother or father firm, Albertsons Firms LLC., within the Superior Courtroom of the State of Washington County of King. Based on the swimsuit, Siflinger claims that Safeway has been participating in “misleading advertising” for its purchase one, get one free (BOGO) promotions.
Finest Life has reached out to Albertsons Firms for touch upon the brand new lawsuit, and we’ll replace this story with their response.
The crux of Siflinger’s case is that Safeway’s BOGO promotions will not be really serving to customers safe reductions. Based on the swimsuit, the retailer routinely markets totally different merchandise like meat, ice cream, frozen meals, and occasional as a part of these offers—rotating BOGO gross sales continuously. However Siflinger alleges that Safeway really raises the common retail worth of its grocery merchandise when it affords them below this promotion.
“The ‘free’ product is prominently promoted on particular level‐of‐sale adverts and on the packaging of the merchandise themselves,” the lawsuit states. “However Albertson’s and Safeway make customers pay for the seemingly ‘free’ product.”
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As a retiree, Siflinger just lately moved to Washington to be nearer to her household, in keeping with the category motion. Since she lives on a set earnings, she says she has commonly looked for BOGO offers from Safeway shops and bought objects that have been a part of these promotions “in an effort to stretch her {dollars}.” However because of what she alleges are “misleading practices,” the plaintiff claims she and different Safeway customers have really overpaid for groceries because of the retailer’s BOGO gross sales.
“When Safeway shops provide grocery objects below BOGO promotions, they increase the common retail worth of the BOGO grocery merchandise, so that customers pay considerably extra for the primary product to cowl the price of the second ‘free’ product,” the swimsuit explains. “Consequently, customers making purchases below these promotions don’t get a free product. As a substitute, they pay extra for the product and purchase extra of the product than they in any other case would with a view to acquire the illusory ‘free’ product.”
Siflinger’s swimsuit offered a number of examples exhibiting the variations in costs for objects once they have been bought on their very own versus in a BOGO promotion. On April 4 of this yr, this case claims that the retailer was providing a field of SeaPak frozen shrimp for simply $7.49. However the very subsequent day, Safeway listed the identical product as $10.99 after it was added to a BOGO sale.
That is hardly the one offense referenced, nevertheless. The lawsuit additionally indicated that Safeway had bought boneless, skinless hen breasts to its Membership Card members at simply 2.99 per pound earlier than elevating the worth to $5.99 per pound as a part of a promotion that very same month. “Thus, Membership Card customers overpaid by $3.00 per pound for any BOGO hen buy,” the category motion claims.
Between March and April 2023, Siflinger’s swimsuit states that Safeway “raised the common retail worth” of a number of grocery objects when providing them as a part of a BOGO sale. In addition to the frozen shrimp and hen breasts, this included hen thighs, petite sirloin steak, pork loin rib chops, frozen fish, and occasional. “Opposite to the language of Defendants’ free product affords, the BOGO merchandise will not be really free,” the lawsuit reads. “As a substitute, Defendants enhance the worth of the primary unit of the product to cowl the price of the second—purportedly ‘free’—unit of the product.”