Whole Foods acknowledges overcharging

NEW YORK – Whole Foods Market is apologizing to its shoppers for incorrect pricing, a week after a New York investigation found that the natural food grocer routinely overcharged for prepackaged fruits, vegetables and deli meats.

“Straight up, we made some mistakes,” said co-CEO Walter Robb, as he stood beside co-CEO John Mackey in a YouTube video posted Wednesday. “We want to own that.”

Robb and Mackey said the pricing mistakes were unintentional and the company will increase its training at stores around the country. Going forward, Whole Foods will give items away for free if customers discover they were overcharged. “We apologize to our customers for any discrepancies that may have occurred,” the company said in blog post.

Last week, New York’s Department of Consumer Affairs said it was expanding its investigation after finding that eight Whole Foods stores in the city regularly ripped customers off, including overcharging $14.84 for a package of coconut shrimp and $4.85 for eight chicken tenders. The department tested 80 types of prepackaged items and found all of them had mislabeled weights.

In the video, Mackey said there was a “small percentage” of weighing errors made in stores.

“We know they are unintentional because the mistakes are both in the customer’s favor and sometimes not in the customer’s favor,” Robb said.