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NY AG Will Take Legal Action Against CVS & Rite Aid For Selling Expired Milk, Baby Formula [Drink This Expired Milk]
Back in March, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's Office started an undercover investigation into all major drug store chains in New York State. The AG's Office uncovered what they describe as an "egregious" pattern of selling expired products at two chains, Rite Aid ad CVS.
The AG says:
...the Attorney General’s investigation has so far uncovered that 142 CVS and 112 Rite Aid stores in over 41 counties sold expired products. This reflects 60 percent of the CVS stores visited and 43 percent of the Rite Aid stores visited.
At these locations, undercover investigators were able to purchase more than 600 expired products, including milk, eggs, medicines and baby formula. Several of the expired products were over one-year-old.
Cuomo's office has announced that they intend to commence with litigation against both chains.
“My ongoing investigation has uncovered a shameful disregard for public health in these stores,” said Attorney General Cuomo. “Families across New York State buy products from these establishments assuming that they’re coming from a safe, reputable source. However, when the products pass their expiration dates, they become ineffective and potentially unsafe, threatening to put our loved ones at risk. These companies allowed personal profit to get ahead of their customers’ health. I am committed to protecting New York consumers and we will continue to investigate this troubling practice.”
In addition to publishing two letters sent to Rite Aid and CVS, the AG's office also published the results of their investigation. You can check it out here
(PDF).
ATTORNEY GENERAL CUOMO TAKES LEGAL ACTION AGAINST CVS AND RITE AID FOR SELLING EXPIRED PRODUCTS ACROSS UPSTATE NEW YORK
[NYAG]
(Photo:
Danquella Manera
)
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Drink this expired milk
Andrew Cuomo
Cvs
rite aid
Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:13:36 EDT
Meg Marco
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How Sellers Manipulate You With Decoy Pricing [Behavioral Economics]
Sometimes numbers lie. Assuming you have no innate preference towards either of the two colors, it might be hard to choose between a red Civic and a blue Civic. If instead you have a choice between a red Civic, a blue Civic, and a red Civic without air conditioning, the choice becomes much easier. Dan Ariely in his book
Predictably Irrational
says his research shows that most people would choose the red Civic with air conditioning over both the other cars. Details inside.
Regarding the graphic above, Ariely writes:
Option (A) is better on attribute 1—let's say quality. Option (B) is better on attribute 2—let's say beauty. Obviously these are two very different options and the choice between them is not simple. Now consider what happens if add another option, called (-A). This option is clearly worse than option (A), but it is also very similar to it, making the comparison between them easy, and suggesting that (A) is not only better than (-A) but also better than (B).
It's called decoy pricing, and stores use it all the time to get you to buy what they really what you to buy. Can you recall any instances of decoy pricing you've seen?
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Behavioral Economics
Decoy pricing
Shopping
Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:03:58 EDT
Ben Popken
