A war of words has broken out between the State Attorney General's office and a regional grocery chain.
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has announced an agreement with Price Chopper that will require the grocery store chain to change the way it advertises and promotes its coupons in New York State and pay a $100,000 penalty. Schneiderman's office conducted an investigation which revealed that Price Chopper advertised its stores accepted double coupons but failed to disclose important restrictions that applied to that policy.
The A-G says ads misled consumers to believe that $1.00 coupons would be doubled, when the cut-off was actually 99 cents, resulting in "millions of dollars in lost savings" to consumers.
In addition to changing its advertising practices, Price Chopper agreed to pay $100,000 in civil penalties and costs to the State.
Price Chopper spokesperson Mona Golub fired back, issuing a statement calling Scheniderman's portrayal of the supermarket's conduct "false, misleading and inaccurate in significant respects" and that the chain never acted intentionally to harm consumers or that its practices caused any losses, let alone millions of lost savings to its customers.
