Do you Include the Weight of a Coffee Bag when Selling?

paypalboutique

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When buying meat in supermarkets, if you buy 1 pound of meat. You take the meat out of the packaging and it weights less than 1 pound. If you put the packaging on the scale with the meat, it measures 1 pound. When selling coffee, do you do the same so 1 pound of beans would include the weight of the coffee bag?
 

eldub

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Nope.

When we buy meat, its weighed before packaging. When we sell a pound of beans, it's also a pound before packaging.
 

PinkRose

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Hi "paypalboutique"

Most places, even supermarkets, weigh the meat before putting in in the package and wrapping it. I have a feeling the place where you shop is cutting corners.

The weight of the package is never supposed to be included. I don't know what state you're in, but most states have laws regarding weights and measures.

When I buy roasted coffee beans, I watch as they're being weighed. Depending on the person doing it, the bag is set on the scale and the tare button is pushed, which sets the scale to zero. Then the beans are put in the bag until the scale reads 16 ounces. But when someone else does it, he or she may weigh the beans without using the tare, and they add .5 ounce extra beans to the 16 ounces to make up for the weight of the bag. I'm guessing that they do the same for the pre-packaged coffee that they sell.

Rose
 

janry

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I should have qualified my response above because of Whole Foods Market. Their roasted beans are self-serve so the buyer scoops the amount of beans they want into a bag and then the bag and contents are weighted by the cashier to determine the total charge.
 

tazzadiluna

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The bags of coffee I buy say "Net Wt." which means it is the weight of the contents only.

I second what Janry said ^^^

Anything that says Net Wt. is referring to content weight only (not including container weight) .
Gross weight (container and content weight together) - Tare weight (container weight) = Net weight (content weight)

If the contents weigh less than what the net weight says, it basically means you got ripped off or the contents dried out by the time it got to you.
 

Jettore

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I should have qualified my response above because of Whole Foods Market. Their roasted beans are self-serve so the buyer scoops the amount of beans they want into a bag and then the bag and contents are weighted by the cashier to determine the total charge.

The cashier should be entering a tare before weighing and charging. When they scan the item or enter from a scan sheet it's probably already calculated.
 

janry

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The cashier should be entering a tare before weighing and charging. When they scan the item or enter from a scan sheet it's probably already calculated.

Maybe so. I really have no idea how it works. I just see the cashier weigh the sack and enter the stock # that I hand wrote on the bag.
 
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JumpinJakJava

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The cashier should be entering a tare before weighing and charging. When they scan the item or enter from a scan sheet it's probably already calculated.

How could you get the tare weight with the beans already in the bag, at the register? Cannot be done.
So it would have to be pre-calculated for the proper weight at scanning.

I do not know what kind of bags Whole Foods supplies.

Out of curiosity I weighed my bags(empty)
1lb. kraft/poly lined---.6 oz.
12 oz. kraft/poly lined---.4 oz.
12 oz. & 1lb. foil/poly ----.6 oz. No labels(surprisingly weighed the same!)
2 lb. foil/poly----.8oz.

So, overall you would be losing at most an ounce, generally even with labels under an ounce.

Sometimes I weigh the beans on the scale(bag already tared), then add 12oz. or 1lb. etc. Sometimes I weigh the exact measurement of the coffee
and then pour into bags. As I stated above, if I sell 12 oz. or any advertised weight, you will receive just that.
 

Wen

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I have the same question in grocery stores, you select vegetables and put them into a plastic bag You pay for the weight of the bag and all.
The same for "tomatoes on the vine" If you leave the vines on when weighed, you are buying vines and a bag along with the tomatoes.
Best to strip off the vines and put the tomatoes into an empty bag, we still pay for the bags, even if only a fraction of an ounce.
But to sell coffee, we must put the full amount into the bag. It does not matter what the bag weighs. It matters what is inside the bag.
 

janry

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I've been doing some research and Jettore is correct. If the store is weighing correctly, the weight of the package should be deducted from the gross weight before the price is calculated. I found several sites to support this but here is one detailed article. Of course, there may be different regulations in different state.

Bamboozled: Shopper says he was unfairly charged for deli counter container | NJ.com

Many digital retail scales –- like the ones found in supermarkets -– can be pre-programmed with several tare weight numbers for several different types of packaging. In such cases, the employee using the scale should enter the proper code for the package, and it will automatically subtract the tare weight.

The article is centered around a customer that was overcharged by putting two containers of salad on the scale at once and I know I've had the same thing happen to me.
 
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