With food inflation ravaging the bank accounts of consumers everywhere, shoppers are flocking to the internet either in search of meal deals or posting their own “hacks” for getting groceries on the cheap.
If astronomically high prices that have been steadily increasing since 2021 aren’t bad enough, one Walmart shopper believes that the brand is short-changing customers with at least one of its Great Value offerings: a bag of croutons that weighed less than half of its advertised packaging, according to the customer’s measurements.
Meghan Smorenburg’s (@meghannicole) video accrued over 40,000 views as of Sunday. Several viewers said this practice is nothing new and that they’ve encountered it themselves numerous times.
@meghaannicole As if groceries weren’t expensive enough in Canada…Thanks @Walmart Canada ♬ original sound – Meghan Smorenburg
“Robbing you with grocery prices and then…literally robbing you,” the TikToker writes in a text overlay of the video which shows them holding an unopened bag of Great Value croutons over a scale. The packaging of the croutons indicates that the container is supposed to contain 142 grams, but the number on the scale tells a different story: its LCD screen reads 58 grams, or less than half of the promised amount.
Smorenburg adds in a caption for the video how they were done doubly dirty, tagging Walmart Canada’s official TikTok: “As if groceries weren’t expensive enough in Canada…Thanks.”
Viewers had a few questions, like one person who wanted to know if the social Walmart shopper’s scale was properly calibrated, writing, “Do you know if your scale is accurate?”
Another joked, “They weren’t specific with where the full 142g are. You got 57g and the other 85g, they kept.”
However, it seemed that several people have been encountering these weight discrepancies themselves while out shopping. Earlier this year, a Loblaws customer shared how they caught the store selling an underweight chip bag, and another customer showed how a frozen pack of wings included the sauce packets in their weight. One other TikToker also slammed Frito Lay after they discovered a few pieces of popcorn inside their Smartfood Popcorn bags.
One person in Smorenburg’s comments section condemned the practice as illegal and said that they’ve even considered bringing their own scales to stores and weighing items right then and there.
Canada, like the United States, has delineated laws about the net weight of goods and their respective packaging labels. According to Canada’s “inspection” section on its official website dedicated to packaging laws, “the net quantity [of an item] must be rounded to 3 figures, unless the net quantity is below 100. If the net quantity is below 100, it may be rounded to 2 figures.”
So, if Smorenburg’s scale is indeed properly calibrated, according to the legalities stipulated by the Canadian government, the Great Value package of croutons is in clear violation of this code.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Walmart via email and Smorenburg via TikTok comment.