Whole Foods is Ripping Off New Yorkers. What's the Big Deal?

Whole Foods is accused of ripping off New Yorkers. That is an oxymoron. Whole Foods charges sky high prices to everyone. It does not discriminate. Whole Foods paid $800,000 in fines a year ago for overcharging customers in Los Angeles, San Diego and Santa Monica. The company does not discriminate. It was ripping off the Golden State the same as the Big Apple. The problem arises with the prepackaged meats, dairy and bread products. These are individually wrapped, adding to the value added, high quality mystigue of Whole Foods. It shuns the mass produced, processed foods whenever possible. New Yorkers expect to be ripped off. They expect to be overcharged for poor, surly service. It’s part of a New Yorker’s DNA. Whole Foods fits right in with high prices and long lines. Go figure. New Yorkers keep Walmart out so they can pay more at Bloomingdale’s. They want to carry around the pretentious little brown bag, which screams: “I like to pay oh so much on the Upper East Side.” There’s more Starbucks than Chock Full o’Nuts in the Big Apple. Everything is high in New York. The average apartment sales price is up to $1.87 million, with a median price of $960,000. Price gouging, cheating is a way of life. Even the city and state gouge smokers on cigarette taxes. New Yorkers expect to pay more for less. They know they will be cheated. Movies, taxes, museums, parking are all excessive. Car rentals at the three airports are obscene. That’s New York. Whole Foods should blame the overcharges on the prepackaged foods on the dysfunctional educational system. Each prepackage is individually filled and weighed. Americans aren’t good with numbers. Arguably, the packager saw a weight of 5.75 ounces and rounded up to 7 ounces, and charged accordingly – an honest mistake by underpaid, undereducated workers, often at low cost suppliers. Whole Foods overcharged? Legally it is consumer fraud, but it's New York. The response of New Yorkers is a shrug of the shoulders. The two top execs of Whole Foods publicly apologized and said if it happens again then New Yorkers will get that item for free. Good enough, Except for the salivating class action attorneys, who often rip their “clients” off with excessive fees and costs.