Farmer Brown is under weight...

Item: Checkers & Checkers Hypers
Rating: 1

Chicken Breast Fillets charged at R89.99 per kg.... and it is still not enough By pure boredom I checked the dry weight '4 chicken fillets' from 'Farmer Brown' when cooking and washing them and found that dry weight was 4.6% lower than declared on the label. Getting curious, over the next weeks a checked the next 7 packs and came to the conclusion that each and every packed was over-declared between 3.5% to 7.1%, containinin in averag 5.24% less dry chicken breast than declared and charged. No variance in the other direction... In summary, Farmer Brown is making an additional 5% profit on an already high-end product. I took this up with the local Checkers (Durban Virignina Chircle) who told me that they raised it with 'Farmer Brown' and the supplier would conduct an investigation. Two month later, after several reminders, the Manager of the Checker's called me to let me know that 'Farmer Brown' have come back to him to advise that everything is ok.... So let me summarise: - I check 8 packages and all of them contain about 5% less chicken filet than declared. - Checkers asks the supplier to investigate - The supplier says he is right - Checkers tells me all is ok To me, this smells like ********* profit-making. I understand that it must be hard to determine the dry-weight of a product like chicken-breast 100% as the water contents of the goods might vary. But if there is a variance-allowance, for sure, a spot-check of 8 packs should reveal some over- and some under-weight. For sure I would check myself or a neutral third party, but not the supplier I suspect of foul-play. That is like asking a suspect in a crime to advise if they are guilty or not... I am the consumer and Checker's is my supplier. As such, I hold Checker's liable for ensuring proper weight declarations of the goods they sell. Everything else must be between Checker's and their suppliers and they can't hide behind them. Checker's is supposed to be a brand that instills quality and good business practice to give me as the consumer the peace of mind, of not getting **********. We can't allow organisations like Shoprite-Checkerk to conveniently sit in the middle, taking the profits and and just shrugging off responsibility for products, the conduct of their suppliers. I for myself have bought all our family groceries at the Checker's Virginia Circle for the last years. But with this kind of displayed business practice and coporate responsibility, I seriously consider to rather drive a kilometer further to move my business to SPAR....

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