Recently, I bought some broccoli from FairPrice at Bukit Batok MRT station. The price tag showed a weight of 0.336kg (336g) and a price of $2.32.

I didn't think much about it until I got home. The packet of broccoli felt light so I decided to weigh it with a home weighing scale to check the weight.

To my surprise, it weighed only 200g.

I went back to the store to inquire. The packet of broccoli was reweighed by a supervisor on another weighing machine. The new price tag showed the new correct weight of 200g (the same as what I got on my own weighing scale) and a new price of $1.38. The difference in price was $0.94.

I went to a neighbour whom I saw buying some vegetables from the same FairPrice outlet. I told her about what I had discovered.

This neighbour bought the following items and also went back to the store to have her items reweighed:

1) carrots originally weighed 0.836kg and priced $1.59 (reweighed as 0.694kg and repriced at $1.32, difference: $0.27)

2) broccoli originally weighed 0.874kg and priced $6.03 (reweighed as 0.732kg and repriced at $5.05, difference: $0.98)

3) red chilli originally weighed 0.280kg and priced $1.45 (reweighed as 0.142kg and repriced at $0.74, difference: $0.71)

For two of the items, the difference in price was nearly $1 each. That's a lot of money for folk like us.

Not only were customers like my neighbour and me charged higher prices, we also received less in quantity for the items we bought.

Several questions come to mind:

1) How long has this mistake in weighing gone on?

2) What about unsuspecting customers? Are they going to be compensated?

3) What actions will be taken to prevent such weighing mistakes from happening in future?

Ng Chong Kee