Friday, September 26, 2014

Wal-Mart Runs Into Another Round of Controversy

Arizona based quick restaurant chain Walmart (WMT) is again under the strict scrutiny of the media as it is being accused of false advertising claims and overcharging customers in New York for the products of Coca Cola (KO). The New York attorney general has asked the retail giant to pay a penalty of $66,000. Let's take a look at what's going on.

What's going on?

On Father's Day the retail chain giant charged $3.50 for 12-packs of soft drinks instead of $3, as advertised during the promotions. When one of the buyers questioned the employees about the hike in price, one of the employees responded by saying that the hike was due to "sugar tax." In New York there is no such thing as "sugar tax." When another buyer brought the error to the notice of a staff member, he completely denied it by saying that the advertisement was published in a national newspaper and was not applicable in New York.

This action was programmed by the executives at Walmart because, if it was an error when it was brought to the notice of the staff, they should have immediately looked into the matter and stopped it, but they kept on doing it. Meanwhile whatever extra income they were making was going into the pocket of the retail outlet. When Walmart was questioned about it, they denied it and lied over the matter. Walmart sold nearly 66,000 12-packs of Coca-Cola products which means nearly 800,000 colas.

Now what? The attorney general of New York has declared that Walmart will have to pay $66,000 as penalty and settlement cost

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