Chips may be one of the cheaper items on your grocery bill, but imagine getting a bag only half-full. That’s what happened to one customer, who took to social media to share their frustration.
A video posted to TikTok shows someone placing a bag of ‘no name’ chips advertised as 200 grams on a food scale. The item weighs in at just 103 grams. Poster ‘joceforce’ says in the caption: “Thanks @LoblawsCanada @nonamebrands @NoFrills for making life harder when it’s already rough as you do. I hope you’re enjoying your billions.”
Sylvain Charlebois with Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab says, “If the label doesn’t accurately reflect what’s in the bag, what’s in the package, it’s fraud.”
Charlebois says while product shrinkage of 10-15 per cent is normal, the product weighing in at half of its advertised amount is unacceptable.
This comes during a time when customers are already dealing with inflation and ‘shrinkflation’ at the grocery store, which is when items have stayed the same price while being reduced in amount.
“I mean if they put (200 grams), honestly they have to put 200,” shopper Crystal Linus told Global News outside of a Scarborough No Frills. “Inflation is going really high and inflation is extremely expensive.”
Jack, another customer, echoes this sentiment, saying, “Doesn’t matter what the brand is. It looks big, but you only get half the bag. It’s a gimmick.”
Referring to the TikTok video, Loblaw told Global News in a statement, “The product as pictured absolutely does not live up to our standards. We’ve reached out to the customer for more information so that we can look into it and figure out what happened. Our no name satisfaction guarantee allows customers to return or exchange (if they don’t have the receipt) any products that don’t meet their expectations.”