Did you know you were paying a surcharge to be able to buy less than the traditional one-pound bag of Starbucks coffee? Well, recently the coffee company made the announcement that they would drop the surcharge on smaller bags of coffee after the Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation discovered that the chain didn’t notify customers either in the store or on their receipts that the additional surcharge of $1.50 was being charged. Under Massachusetts law it's ok for retail store to charge what they wish but it must be posted or told to the consumers. The Massachusetts Consumer Affairs imposed Starbucks with a fine and with Starbucks implementing a policy change. The coffee chain originally started adding the surcharge because they never sold many of the smaller packages so a surcharge was placed to compensate the additional labor and packaging needed to fill a customer’s request.It was found that the surcharge was being applied across the nation not just in Massachusetts. Starbucks has since Nov. 7th announced that they are now able to offer customers alternatives sizes of whole bean coffee throughout their U.S. stores without the additional surcharge fee. Read full article
