Whole Foods owns up to pricing mistakes

Whole Foods has made a wise PR move. Soon after getting criticism for overcharging for certain foods in its New York City stores, the company's co-CEOs posted a YouTube video in which they apologize to customers and admit they made some mistakes.

The apology comes after a New York investigation found that the retailer regular overcharged for items including coconut shrimp and chicken tenders. In the YouTube video, Walter Robb (pictured, at right) and John Mackey explain that the mistakes are mostly related to fresh product, from squeezed fresh juices to sandwiches made in-store. The problem, they admit, is that there have been a small percentage of "misweighing errors."



They point out that the errors are unintentional, as evidenced by the way they are sometimes in the customers' favor and sometimes not.

Moves are being made internally to fix the problem. They outline that increased training will happen at stores across the country, a three-part auditing system is being implemented, and customers are being encouraged to ask cashiers if they think there is a pricing problem with a fresh product. If there is a mistake, Whole Foods will give them the item for free.

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