The Odd Things That Happen Because I'm an Innkeeper

There are things that I have learnt as an innkeeper. I never really thought about how much food and the weight of what I buy... until of course I depended on it. And since I started baking and using tare to ensure the weight of flours and other ingredients, I never really thought about the containers and what I am paying for. But today I was at the supermarket and I looked down at three different sized plastic containers used to weigh bulk items and I thought, I wonder how they are doing tare on three different containers with only one PLU. Turns out... they aren't really and well, I'm upset about it and I called Head Office to complain. I asked the assistant manager, he told me that only one scale in the store is actually set to do tare for the bulk goods and it is not the scales used at the cashiers. WHAT?!?!?
For those of you who don't know, tare is the naked weight. The real weight of the goods, not the container they sit in. The weight of the meat, not the styrofoam and pad they put under your meat. The unencumbered weight. I don't want to pay $10.99 a pound for the plastic container!

The bulk food store I go to has thin plastic bags and twisty ties so my only extra from there is the weight of the twisty and the piece of paper I write the PLU on. I would have a cow to be charged for a hard plastic container containing my flour etc. I have often wondered if the packages on the shelves in the grocery are weighed before or after tare is taken into account.

gillumhouse said:

The bulk food store I go to has thin plastic bags and twisty ties so my only extra from there is the weight of the twisty and the piece of paper I write the PLU on. I would have a cow to be charged for a hard plastic container containing my flour etc. I have often wondered if the packages on the shelves in the grocery are weighed before or after tare is taken into account..

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Well, I did have a cow. Now they are investigating it!

Eric Arthur Blair said:

gillumhouse said:

The bulk food store I go to has thin plastic bags and twisty ties so my only extra from there is the weight of the twisty and the piece of paper I write the PLU on. I would have a cow to be charged for a hard plastic container containing my flour etc. I have often wondered if the packages on the shelves in the grocery are weighed before or after tare is taken into account..

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Well, I did have a cow. Now they are investigating it!
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Good for you!! I do not mind paying IF I am getting what I am paying for and KNOW what I am paying for. It is the stuff they sneak in on you - like the old days when the butcher was accused of putting his thumb on the scale - that gripe me.

Same thing happens with packages in the mail...they weigh it here and charge me x. It gets across the country and for whatever reason it gets weighed again and it's now 'postage due'. What?! Did it get wet somewhere? Why does it weigh more in CA than here? We're both at sea level. It should weigh the same.

One time I purchased a few bulk vanilla beans - about $120/pound. At checkout, I asked the checker to weigh the beans without the bag and twist tie. Removing those items alone saved me $4!

Tom said:

One time I purchased a few bulk vanilla beans - about $120/pound. At checkout, I asked the checker to weigh the beans without the bag and twist tie. Removing those items alone saved me $4!.

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And that's exactly the point, it's illegal to not have tare before you weight the product and just the product. It's like measuing gas unadjusted for temperature. All gas pumps here have to be adjusted for 15c, because gasoline expands over that temperature and you end up paying a higher price.

Madeleine said:

Same thing happens with packages in the mail...they weigh it here and charge me x. It gets across the country and for whatever reason it gets weighed again and it's now 'postage due'. What?! Did it get wet somewhere? Why does it weigh more in CA than here? We're both at sea level. It should weigh the same..

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Madeleine said:

Same thing happens with packages in the mail...they weigh it here and charge me x. It gets across the country and for whatever reason it gets weighed again and it's now 'postage due'. What?! Did it get wet somewhere? Why does it weigh more in CA than here? We're both at sea level. It should weigh the same.

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I had that happen to me 2 times - promotional items I had NOT requested but sent to me. Each time I carried them back to the PO and said return them to the sender, not going to pay the extra postage as it was weighed when it was mailed and you all should have your scales regulated the SAME. The first time the emp. looked at me and said 'you don't want to pay the .30 (?) so you can keep the item? She could not believe I was not accepting the package. So the PO ate the return.... The second time I got the PO mgr, he said he agreed but they are required to reweigh the packages before delivery. He waived the charge and sent me out with the calendar from some co.
I then sent a feedback comment to the USPS stating the same, have never had that happen again. Not sure if it is a policy or if some local PO have found it be a way to make a few extra bucks.