RANT – Metropolitan Market Salami Rip-off

[dhg]

Reminds me of an issue I had with an organic farm home delivery. They priced by the pound but it is impossible to pre-order 5 lbs of potatoes and get that exact weight. Their solution was to short every object in the bag. Nothing was over the paid weight. Everything was about 20% under. I stopped buying from them after I complained and got a weak gee sorry response.

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[angelescrest]

And, it has been sliced with a plastic casing on, so you must unpeel bits o plastic. Yes, on the sliced salumi in the plastic containers.

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[MetMarket]

A statement of gratitude – Thank you for supporting us in West Seattle for nearly 20 years. Being locally-owned, and committed to being rooted in our community, we care what you think and we care about your shopping experience. You have many choices of places to shop and our team thanks you for choosing us. Please continue to hold our products, our team and your shopping experience to a high standard. We love being your local market. – Metropolitan Market

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[Harmonic]

Reminds me of a funny story bringing my preemie daughter home. Because she was early, we had a home nurse visit. If she was less than 5 lbs – back to the hospital she went. She hit 5 lbs exactly, and we thought for sure the nurses scale was wrong, so we weighed a pound of meat we had just purchased from the store on the scale. Turns out, the nurses scale was correct, and we were shorted the meat.

All in all – everything turned out well. When in doubt, feel free to measure your meat on an infant scale!

*Edit to add – the meat was not from the Met.

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[dhg]

angelscrest: I think they use pig gut, not plastic, for the casing.

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[Kevin]

@MetMarket – a “new” user as of 04/03/12. Obviously YOU took the initiative – or were directed by your superiors to do “damage control.”

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All I see is a bunch of “corporate speak” that does NOT even begin to address the real issue being discussed. As a matter of fact – no mention is made period!

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I think I will continue to direct my shopping dollars towards Safeway and Thriftway. BOTH are stores that respond VERY quickly to customer comments and complaints. They take issues seriously, and any issues are resolved very promptly!

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Perhaps MM “store director” Glen would care to comment personally???

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MM does not appear to really care. Personally, I could care less, as I rarely shop there. The new Admiral Safeway kind of took the wind out the MM sails / sales.

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Only 10 more days until Trader Joe’s opens. Wonder what sort of customer service they will have?

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[Cait]

What would you have them do, one wonders?

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[JanS]

If you went back to early in this thread, MM did comment, and said they had changed the way they do things, and retrained the deli counter staff. Now, we won’t know if they really did that unless someone comments anew about the service.

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[dunnkld]

I have filed complaints at Metro Market and Safeway with no results. Well, actually, two results. I finally gave up shopping at MM and Safeway.

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[shopper-ws]

Time for an update: The City Inspector contacted me regarding my complaint and he said:

Dear (me),

A quick update regarding Metropolitan Market: Last Monday (March 26th) I went to the Admiral store and spoke with Assistant Director Warren Bouse regarding your complaint. They had pulled the Salumi brand Salami and were preparing to mark and sell this product by the ‘each’. I told him they are required to include a declared net weight on the label. While talking he pointed out a similar product that also did not have a declared weight. He pulled that product as well. He asked that I address the issue to Store Director Glen Hasstedt and to Paige Lamb, who works in their corporate office.

I have exchanged emails and phone calls primarily with Ms. Lamb. They were in the process of marking the Salumi Salami chubs as a ‘random pack’ item, meaning they will have a declared net weight, a price per pound, and a total price declared on the label. They will be doing the same with the other brand of salami Mr. Bouse and I discovered, and a third product they discovered on their own while reviewing all of the products sold in their stores. I have been unable to return to the store to verify the changes, but will do so soon (before I close this case).

While it is Metropolitan Market’s responsibility to know the law and comply with it, I am encouraged by the fact that they have conducted a review of the products they sell to be sure they are not in violation with other items. It is common that small manufacturers do not properly mark their items for retail sale. Whenever that occurs it is the retailer’s responsibility to provide the proper net contents labeling.

I will let you know when I have completed my investigation.

Sincerely,

(the inspector)

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I’m so glad we have people like this looking out for us consumers. I didn’t see any mention of the removing of items from a tub for samples and then re-selling it at the same weight, but I didn’t expect to either as it should be a closed issue at this point. The inspector does have the ability to verify weight of any item and could easily check to see if it is correct. As long as he is on it (like he is) I feel a heck of a lot better.

@angelescrest: Salumi is owned by Mario Batali’s dad. Mario is a Food Network chef. I watched Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations show where he visited the Salumi store here in town and they filmed how it was made. They use natural casing which is gut. They make tennis strings out of gut, so the stuff gets pretty plastic like when it dries out (which is pretty descriptive of the dry dense Salumi end product)

@dunnkld: The weights and measures complaint I filed was replied to and is still underway. I suggest you give it another shot. It worked for me (I hope yours works!)

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[JanS]

squeaky wheel comes to mind. Thanks for pursuing this. Too many people would just complain and then go elsewhere. You made a difference ! Thanks !

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