Two People Are Suing Wise Foods for Selling Half-Empty Bags of Chips

Wise Foods, a large East Coast distributor of potato chips, is being sued for selling half-empty bags of chips to unsuspecting consumers.

One of the worst feelings in the world is buying a bag of chips, opening the package and finding an under-whelming amount of chips inside.

Most people are content to take the loss silently and move on with their lives, but two pioneers have decided they've had enough of the practice of over-sized bags with under-sized contents.

Wise Foods, a Pennsylvania-based company that currently distributes products up and down the East Coast, is being sued by two people for what the plaintiffs claim is "false advertising." According to the New York Post, Sameline Alce and Desiré Nugent filed the lawsuit earlier in the week, and they're taking this age-old struggle of chip buyers to the court system.

The crux of the matter legally will rest on the judgment of whether the courts see fit to consider package size part of the "advertising." Wise's labels accurately reflect the weight of the product inside their bag, according to the suit, but they only fill up to the 2.5 inch line in a 10-inch bag. Despite the alignment of the weight with the labels, Alce and Nugent believe selling a 75-percent-empty bag isn't fair to the customer. As part of the complaint, the plaintiffs state their belief that "even if Defendant’s net weight disclosures are accurate, such does not eliminate this basic deception.”

This is a photo of Wise.

Though frequent chip eaters might feel as though this is a widespread problem, Alce and Nugent specifically honed in on Wise based on the premise that competitors such as Frito-Lay do a much better job at accurately and fairly presenting the product they're selling to consumers. The residents of Washington D.C. and New York respectively are seeking damages for consumers in their cities, as well as alterations to the bags Wise chips are sold in.

Though this is a fight the common man can get behind, whether the logic of their lawsuit holds up in a court of law is another matter entirely. Even if the case doesn't make it to trial, you can bet chip eaters everywhere will be rooting for the great bag filling issue of our time to be rectified as soon as possible. 

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