Publix Sued Over Manipulating Package Weights on Sale Items to Hide Overcharges

Publix was recently sued by a Florida consumer alleging that the supermarket chain was systematically overcharging consumers on various products sold by weight such as meat department purchases.

For example, in January 2025, the consumer saw that pork tenderloins were on sale for $4.99 a pound instead of the regular $6.99.

The package she bought was marked with the full price of $6.99 pound, totaling $17.61 for 2.52 lbs. of pork. At the self-checkout, the consumer is shown the sale price of $4.99 a pound, but the weight of the pork has been pumped up by just over a pound, and she is charged $17.61 just as the package is marked — an overcharge of about $5.04.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Irrespective of the finagling of the net weight of the product on the checkout screen, one would hope that most shoppers would recognize that the advertised sale price of this item was not on the package, and therefore she better be sure she is charged the lower sale price when paying. But she isn’t. She is charged the full regular price. Both the screen and sales receipt show that only the regular price was charged, while misleading the consumer into thinking that she saved $7.06.

Now, why does the company seemingly go to the trouble of inflating the net weight of the package on the checkout screen? It is not shown on the receipt and most consumers are not likely to catch the discrepancy between it and what is on the package anyway.

The lawsuit shows example after example just like this one where meat department and other random weight items are only price-marked with the regular price and not the advertised sale price. And for each of those items when purchased, the consumer was charged the full price and did not get the benefit of the sale price.

But, there is something about this case that simply does not make sense. Are all the examples of overcharges alleged in the complaint just the tip of the iceberg at Publix, or is there something about those particular packages that makes them the exception? For example, are most meat items on sale normally labeled with the sale price and thus ring up correctly at the checkout but these are the exceptions?

The Publix PR folks would not comment on the case, nor even answer that simple question. And the law firm that filed the case did not respond to our inquiry either.

So MrConsumer enlisted the help of the former director of the Massachusetts Division of Standards (our weights and measures department) who winters in Florida and lives not far from a Publix supermarket. I asked him to check sale items in the meat department to see if they are properly marked with the advertised sale price or are they like the pictures above from the lawsuit and only have the regular price on them. He confirmed they were all properly marked with the sale price per pound.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Correctly priced sale items found recently by us

In addition, a friend in Florida went to her Publix, and found that the two meat items on sale last week were properly marked with the sale price on the label.

This suggests to me that if the Publix practice is to properly mark sale items with the sale price, then the examples in the lawsuit might have been handpicked deliberately as the few packages that somehow escaped being relabeled when they went on sale. That doesn’t excuse the overcharges on them but means the problem may not be as extensive as the lawsuit might lead some to believe.

What is also strikingly odd is the similarity that this case has to one settled last year against Walmart claiming the exact same thing. Is it possible that two completely independent companies have the same cockamamie checkout software that automatically fabricates the net weight of meat sold to mislead consumers into thinking they saved money?

Please share your thoughts in the comments.