Walmart Is Accused of Illegally Overpricing Its Meat Again

Looks like Walmart is allegedly breaking the law by pricing its meat… again. 

TikTok influencer James Wrigg posted a video on January 17 showing himself holding Walmart’s chicken tenders, which were marked at 4.66 pounds and priced at $19.20. The packaging says the price per pound is $4.  

“Walmart, that don’t weigh no 4.66 pounds,” Wrigg said before walking over to a scale in the grocery aisle. According to the store’s weight scale, the chicken was 2.37 pounds. To inform and help other shoppers and to stop Walmart from “ripping people off,” Wrigg created a video series in which they weighed other meat items to show there’s an unfortunate pattern.

One brand’s explanation does not check out

“At Walmart again. I’m telling you, you can go up and down this meat aisle and just pick anything out. Look through it a little bit and pick anything out. Let’s go weigh this one on the scale,” he announced to the camera, before weighing a Kentucky Legend-branded ham. He shared that according to Walmart’s label, the “itty bitty ham” weighed a whopping 5.34 lbs. Once he placed it on the scale, it turned out to be 2.25 lbs instead. “They were trying to get somebody for $25.59 for this,” said Wrigg. As he then points out, a shopper who’s in a hurry would trust the label’s information and be scammed into paying more for an item than they should. 

After Wrigg’s TikTok went viral, the ham brand Kentucky Legend released a statement acknowledging a “price-labeling error” and confirming that the “affected products were promptly removed from store shelves.” However, instead of placing the blame on Walmart, the company attributed the mistake to a “five-minute window on a single production date.” Wrigg shared the statement in a follow-up TikTok, prompting commenters to note that, if you go back to Wrigg’s videos, you can see the labels have different dates printed on them, so the explanation Kentucky Legend gave may not be accurate. 

This isn’t the first time Walmart’s been accused of fraudulent pricing

As many commented on Wrigg’s videos, this allegedly fraudulent pricing is worth taking to court, but here’s the thing: Walmart was actually sued for overpricing its products in 2024. The class-action suit, Kukorinis v. Walmart Inc., alleged that those who purchased sold-by-weight items, such as meat, poultry, pork, seafood products, and fruits sold in bulk, such as oranges, grapefruit, and tangerines, paid more than the lowest in-store advertised price for these products. Walmart denied the allegations but reached a $45 million settlement with the plaintiffs. 

Walmart’s response to the accusation isn’t enough for Wrigg

In his most recent video from Tuesday, Wrigg mentioned that he’d spoken to USA TODAY for an investigative piece on the matter, and the reporter asked for a statement from Walmart confirming that it’s changing the allegedly illegal practice of inaccurately pricing its products. “My question is, since the last $45 million lawsuit, what policies or procedures have been put in place for change?” Wrigg wondered. “I’m guessing none. If none, then what policies or procedures will be going in place for change? We don’t apologize with words; we apologize with actions.” 

Instead of issuing its own statement, a Walmart spokesperson directed USA TODAY to Kentucky Legend’s statement and said customers can return mispriced items to the store. However, the spokesperson declined to comment on other incorrectly-priced products.

Have you noticed anything like this at your local Walmart—or any store for that matter? Let us know in the comments.