What are the legal ramifications of fruit shops bundling produce into buckets, obscuring rotten items at the base, and pressuring customers to retain the undesirable produce without swapping it?
Background: A local fruit shop presents “cheaper than average” fruit on display in black plastic buckets outside their premises, accompanied by a “Full Buckets only” sign. The price of these fruits is typically a few dollars lower than those sold inside the store, but not at an extreme discount. For instance, bananas may cost $3.50/kg outdoors versus $5/kg indoors. Savvy shoppers who do not mind ripe fruit are likely to choose the less expensive option.
Unfortunately, the buckets are packed with overripe and decaying fruit at the base, while the upper layer appears fresh but not rotten. Depending on the produce, each bucket may contain 1-1.5 kg of product.
Previously, signs prohibited customers from exchanging fruit from one bucket to another, but now they merely state “Full Buckets only.”
Last weekend, I witnessed a shop employee, who claimed to be the manager and proprietor, intimidate an elderly customer while they inspected the buckets for spoiled fruit.
Therefore, I am curious whether there are any consumer laws that prohibit this type of fraudulent activity. Is there legislation or a code of ethics that asserts fresh produce can be examined and that rotten items must be excluded from unpackaged products?
It is apparent that the shop desires to sell the unusable fruit and profit from it, and is attempting to deceive customers by concealing the rotten fruit at the bottom of an opaque container. As consumers, do we retain the right to refuse to pay for visibly unusable produce?
