Lucky Stores Accused of Overcharging

The Los Angeles city attorney’s office filed criminal charges on Friday against Lucky Stores Inc. for allegedly overcharging customers on discounted merchandise at San Fernando Valley supermarkets.

Posing as customers, county Department of Weights and Measures inspectors conducted a series of undercover buys at five Lucky markets in the Valley from May 28 to June 17, said Deputy City Atty. Don Cocek, who is prosecuting the case in Van Nuys Municipal Court.

The scanned prices of 119 Key Buy and Rewards Card items were then compared with the price listed on the shelf, Cocek said, and nearly 16% of the time the scanner overcharged.

While saying she couldn’t comment on the specific allegations, a spokeswoman for Lucky said the company does everything it can to ensure pricing accuracy, from conducting random scanner audits to hiring in-store pricing coordinators.

“If an error occurs it’s certainly never intentional,” said spokeswoman Judie Decker. “We make every conceivable effort to try to assure scanning accuracy in our stores.”

The five stores involved in the investigation are at 7134 Sepulveda Blvd., Van Nuys; 8231 Woodman Ave., Panorama City; 16201 San Fernando Road, Granada Hills; 6821 Lennox Ave., Van Nuys; and 13051 Victory Blvd., North Hollywood.

“We don’t normally get this many stores in one particular area,” Cocek said. “It’s a liability offense and we only have to prove there is a problem, not why it happened.”

The alleged overcharges ranged from 8 cents for a 2-ounce tin of Schilling ground pepper to around $2 for a 250-tablet container of Advil tablets, Cocek said. The pain medication at the Panorama City store had a Key Buy price of $11.19 and a Rewards Card price of $10.64, but was scanned at $12.97.

The supermarket chain is scheduled for arraignment on Nov. 10 to answer 19 misdemeanor counts of false advertising, each of which carries a maximum fine of $2,500; three misdemeanor counts of overcharging by more than $1, each of which is punishable by a fine up to $1,000; and 16 counts of overcharging by less than $1, an infraction which carries a maximum $100 fine per violation.