14 Grocery Store Scandals You May Have Forgotten About
Grocery shopping is a necessary errand for most of us adults, whether we like it or not. As a matter of fact, we spend almost 53 hours of our life inside grocery stores every year (via Credit Donkey). That's a lot of time contemplating whether we want regular, non-fat, or sugar-free yogurt. And out of all the food store options, like drugstores, warehouse clubs, or gourmet grocers, the traditional supermarket is the most common place people get their groceries, with 83% of consumers choosing them as their go-to shopping experience.
With all that time spent in grocery stores, did you know that almost every one out there has a scandal — sometimes two or three or more — some so outrageous that they try to sweep them under the rug, hoping you will never hear of them again? Well, don't worry; we rounded up some of the most interesting and surprising grocery store scandals that should never be forgotten, much to the dismay of these food company giants.
Whole Foods asparagus water debacle
Do you remember the time when Whole Foods tried to sell several sprigs of asparagus floating in a bottle of water? Back in 2015, Marielle Wakim was shopping at Whole Foods and found asparagus water for sale with a price tag of $5.99 in the refrigerated section. Shocked, they posted a photo on their Instagram with the caption: "Somewhere in L.A., Whole Foods executives are laughing at all of us." Soon afterward, the post went viral.
Many people thought it was just a joke and shortly after it blew up the Internet, Whole Foods quickly retorted that it was an accident. "We actually don't sell asparagus water in our stores," Whole Foods Market Senior Media Relations Specialist Liz Burkhart shared with CBS News. Apparently, the asparagus water was carried briefly in a single location in California and the photo that became Instagram-famous was a mistake. "It was meant to be water with the essence of vegetables and/or mushrooms (similar to bone broth), which is typically made over a long period of time soaking in water. It was made incorrectly and has since been removed," Burkhart said. Either way, we will never forget it.
Michael Jordan sued Safeway
In 2009, Safeway ended up losing a lot of money over an ad campaign that went south. The advertisement was a $2 coupon for Dominick's steak that ran in a commemorative Sports Illustrated issue. The coupon read: "Congratulations, Michael Jordan. You are a cut above." It was referring to Jordan's recent entry into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Unfortunately for Safeway, the basketball superstar ended up suing for $8.9 million because they used his name in that ad without his permission.
To make matters worse, it seems like only two people actually used the coupon, since it was in a magazine that quickly turned into a keepsake item. Many people were reluctant to rip out the page. For Jordan, the lawsuit wasn't about the money but about protecting his name, identity, and reputation. He hoped the case would serve as an example to other corporations that they could not use famous people's names without asking. Jordan shared with ESPN that his plan was to donate the proceeds to charity.
U.K. supermarkets were underpaying farm workers
In the not-so-distant past, several supermarkets in the U.K. were under scrutiny for selling berries to the public that came from farms that overworked and underpaid their workers. Driscoll's berries' skeleton in the closet came out in 2022 — turns out the berries, which are owned by Berry Gardens, were sourced from farms in Portugal that had been paying their farmworkers well under the minimum wage.
The Guardian found at least 14 pay slips of workers who were unpaid and seven other pay slips that reported illegally long hours. One showed that a farmworker clocked more than 300 extra hours in one month — in Portugal, the law only allows employees to work a maximum of 60 hours a week, which equates to about 80 extra hours per month. In addition, some workers anonymously revealed to The Guardian that their pay slips did not accurately reflect the number of hours that they truly worked — meaning their hours were being underreported.
The top three U.K. supermarkets that carry Driscoll's berries – Tesco, Marks & Spencer, and Waitrose — are members of the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI). Ironically, the ETI base code states that workers should be paid fair living wages and not work excessive hours. After this scandal was revealed to the public, the three supermarkets said they were looking into the matter and promised to take action in support of worker welfare.
Safeway was involved in the Elizabeth Holmes scandal
The grocery store chain Safeway was wrapped up in a deal with Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes' infamous company that claimed to have the technology to provide a patient's medical diagnostics with just a small amount of blood. In 2010, after Safeway extensively looked into the company, they confidently signed a deal with Theranos and Holmes for almost 1,000 Safeway stores to house the company's blood-testing machines. Safeway even began remodeling many stores in anticipation of the new promising product.
According to court testimony, former Safeway CEO Steve Burd became discouraged a couple of years after signing the deal with Holmes. Their agreement was dissolved in 2015 after the truth about the start-up company's failures and false claims were leaked by the press. Elizabeth Holmes was brought to court in 2022 and eventually sentenced to more than 11 years in jail for fraud, as per the United States Attorney's Office.
Trader Joe's accused of being racist
If you've ever visited Trader Joe's, you might have noticed that they don't have a lot of different brands. In fact, the store is well-known for offering unique products that carry the Trader Joe's label. But not every single item on their shelves displays the name. Some internationally inspired products contain names that are a spinoff of Trader Joe's; for example, items imported from Mexico are branded as Trader José and products from Asian countries carry the brand name Trader Ming's.
You may not spot these items on the store shelves these days, since the company got called out for participating in "a narrative of exoticism that perpetuates harmful stereotypes," according to an online petition that was started in 2020. After the petition went live, Kenya Friend-Daniel, Trader Joe's national director of public relations, came out with this statement: "While this approach to product naming may have been rooted in a lighthearted attempt at inclusiveness, we recognize that it may now have the opposite effect." Friend-Daniel went on to say that the company would be updating all of its labels and will only be using the Trader Joe's name now, as per The New York Times.
Whole Foods used to sell rabbit meat
Whole Foods Market tried to make eating rabbit meat trendy, but it didn't quite work out that way. Back in 2014, Whole Foods began selling rabbit meat in a small number of California stores in hopes that it would take off. However, soon after it hit the store shelves, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) organization started a campaign against the products over concerns about animal abuse. Leaked documents exposed Whole Foods Market's rabbit meat coming from farms with inhumane conditions, with many rabbits being left in cages all night in freezing conditions with no water.
Many animal rights activists pointed out that Whole Foods claims all of the meat they sell to be held to the high standards of "no crates, cages, or tethers permitted." PETA rallied together protests outside of at least 40 Whole Food Market storefronts, asking customers to stop shopping at the grocery store until they discontinued rabbit meat. Sure enough, by the beginning of 2016, Whole Foods decided to stop selling rabbits as food.
Kroger notoriously pays its employees low wages
It's no secret that employees of the grocery mega-mart Kroger are struggling to get by. What makes matters worse is that a confidential document leaked by More Perfect Union in 2022 proves that Kroger has long known that a majority of their workers rely on government assistance programs because they don't get paid a living wage. According to the document, 1 in every 4 workers who quit does so because the earnings are too low.
Kroger is the largest grocery chain in the United States and owns many stores you have likely heard of — and shop at — including Ralph's, Food 4 Less, and Fred Meyer (via More Perfect Union). You may have even witnessed some employees go on strike outside Kroger stores in 2022 over unfair wages and labor practices. Labor unions have been in negotiations with Kroger to increase compensation. For the 2023 year, Kroger claims to spend an additional $770 million on employee income and benefits, and that the average starting wage is now $18 an hour (via Business Insider).
However, Kroger doesn't have a great track record, with many employees admitting they're not seeing any proof in their paychecks. One worker anonymously told 10 WBNS News, "I promise you that starting pay that they posted is an out-and-out lie. I have been with Kroger for over 23 years. I'm just at $18 an hour."
Whole Foods lied about sugar content in 365 yogurt brand
Whole Foods Market has high standards when it comes to the food that they sell. As a matter of fact, they've banned over 260 controversial ingredients from ever entering their store, including hydrogenated fats, high-fructose corn syrup, and color additives. They have also banned sweeteners like aspartame, saccharin, and sucralose. You might assume that with all of that due diligence, they would also have high standards for their nutrition facts. However, it seems like the nutrition labels on some Whole Foods 365 brand products have slipped through the cracks.
In 2014, Consumer Reports ran tests on Whole Foods 365 plain fat-free Greek yogurt. The nutrition facts label stated that one serving contained only 2 grams of sugar. However, testing revealed that it actually had approximately 11.4 grams of sugar — a whopping five times more than what the label claimed. Consumer Reports shared their findings with Whole Foods, who stated they would look into the matter, but continued carrying the yogurt in question. Soon afterward, two class action lawsuits were filed against Whole Foods pertaining to the matter, declaring that the company knowingly sold the mislabeled yogurt with the slogan "Health Starts Here."
Trader Joe's receives criticism for overuse of plastic packaging
Single-use plastic is everywhere — quite literally. It's spreading into our oceans and even the air we breathe, and now it's showing up inside our bodies (via The Guardian). The long-term impacts of microplastics are still being studied, but scientists fear they are damaging to our bodies and the planet. Sure, it can make a difference if you opt for paper over plastic, or better yet, always bring your own reusable bags to the grocery store. But for an even bigger impact, holding larger corporations accountable makes a huge difference.
Step into any grocery store and you will see products in plastic packaging lining the shelves: plastic bags of chips, yogurt in plastic cups, and cartons of milk. But Trader Joe's seems to take it to the next level, with many produce items wrapped in plastic with styrofoam trays or put into plastic ziplock bags. They also sell a lot of pre-cut produce and pre-made meals in plastic clam shells, which are not recyclable in a lot of U.S. cities.
Many customers admit they used to shop at Trader Joe's but now go to other grocers due to the amount of plastic Trader Joe's uses. Beyond boycotting the company, one concerned customer also started an online petition asking Trader Joe's to reduce their use of plastic packaging, which has collected a plethora of signatures since being launched.
Costco sued over worms in their fish
A California family got more than they paid for after shopping at a Costco in 2021, and they sued the grocery chain for it. Dr. Vahid Berdjis and his wife, Nafiseh Berdjis, bought some Kirkland Fresh Wild Pacific Halibut Fillet at the Costco in San Dimas of Los Angeles County and went home to cook it that night. But when they sat down for their family dinner, they were in for an unpleasant surprise. According to the lawsuit, "as their daughter started to pick through the harmful product with her fork, numerous live worms crawled out," as per ABC 7 Eyewitness News.
Horrified, the family sued Costco for a minimum of $200,000 for emotional distress, and the parents stated that their children refuse to eat seafood ever again. The lawsuit claims that Costco knew about the defective fish, but sold it anyway. It also accuses the chain of not providing proper food safety training to its employees.
Kroger accused of using monkey labor
Instead of paying humans to work for you, why not have monkeys do the work for free? In December 2020, PETA released a Christmas-themed "Naughty list" containing the top 11 companies that have been accused of mistreating animals. Kroger made the list for selling Chaokoh products, which were found to come from coconuts that were harvested in Thailand from chained monkeys who were often abused, according to PETA. The coconuts were used to make many different coconut-based items sold in Kroger stores, including coconut milk, meat, flour, oil, and others.
After this disturbing information was made public, almost 40,000 stores began boycotting Chaokoh products, including Albertsons, Kroger, Publix, Target, Walmart, and Wegmans, but Kroger didn't jump on the bandwagon immediately. In the summer of 2021, Kroger finally announced it would stop selling Chaokoh branded products, according to USA Today. PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman stated: "Every can of coconut milk purchased from Chaokoh represents the misery of a chained-up monkey. Any grocery store still buying from this brand after PETA's exposés of coconut cruelty risks losing compassionate shoppers, so Kroger made the right call."
California grocery stores sued for selling food containing high levels of lead
You might be surprised to find out that some types of food naturally contain lead — the chemical actually accumulates in our soil and water, eventually seeping into certain foods as it grows. The state of California has some of the strictest food regulation laws, with Proposition 65 demanding businesses to provide warning labels on products that contain chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects, or other reproductive issues. The Proposition 65 list contains many chemicals, both naturally occurring and synthetic, and includes both lead and lead compounds.
In 2013, 12 grocery stores were found to be in violation of California's mandate, including Trader Joe's, Target, and Whole Foods. They were selling candied ginger and plum candies that contained high levels of lead that were not naturally occurring — which poses a threat to pregnant women and their unborn children — and they did not have any warning labels on them. Trader Joe's received a lot of criticism because they did not immediately pull the Uncrystallized Candied Ginger that contained lead off their shelves, even after they were hit with a lawsuit over the issue.
Costco was sued over animal welfare laws
Costco is well-known for its classic $4.99 Kirkland Signature rotisserie chickens. Affordable and ready-to-eat, they may be one of Costco's more popular items — they sold almost 106 million of them in 2021. But is the real reason these roasted chickens are so cheap because the animals are packed into poultry farms where they are neglected and mistreated?
Back in 2021, a Mercy for Animals investigator went undercover and recorded some pretty unsettling footage of the chicken farms where Costco gets its meat (via New York Times). "They're living on their own feces, with no fresh air and no natural light," stated Leah Garcés, the president of Mercy for Animals. "I don't think it's what a Costco customer expects." Following the release of the video, Costco was hit with a lawsuit that claims the company is blatantly breaking animal welfare laws. The lawsuit suggests that Costco is cutting corners and mistreating animals to keep their prices low.
Whole Foods was accused of overcharging customers by exaggerating food weight
Some circles of friends jokingly refer to Whole Foods as "whole paycheck," insinuating that you can walk into a Whole Foods and accidentally spend your entire paycheck in that one grocery store outing. But in 2015, an overcharging scandal at the Whole Foods checkout counter brought a brand new meaning to the "whole paycheck" catchphrase. An investigation by New York City's Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) found some startling evidence that suggested Whole Foods was exaggerating the weight of pre-packaged foods, meaning that customers were paying for more than what they were actually getting.
The DCA collected items from eight of the nine stores in NYC and found at least 80 pre-packaged items to have mislabeled weights, resulting in overcharges ranging anywhere from 80 cents to $14.84. And this was not the first time Whole Foods got wrapped up in an overcharging fiasco. Previously, the grocery chain was fined $800,000 for similar discrepancies in California locations.
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