Julia Morgan was unemployed and looking for a good deal when she and a neighbor headed to Avanza Supermarket for a sale on chicken breasts advertised for less than $1 a pound.
The price wasn’t what Morgan expected after Avanza charged her a 10 percent fee on her total purchase.
Sunday — two years later — Morgan and five other Avanza shoppers celebrated their win over Nash Finch Co., the supermarket company they claimed misled and stole from customers.
Attorneys for Nash Finch admitted late Friday in Adams County District Court that they were liable in the lawsuit filed by six customers from its Avanza stores in Colorado.
The case was ready to go to trial today.
When Morgan shopped for the chicken at Avanza in 2008 she saw a sign at the register, “A great way to save — Plus 10% at the register!”
Morgan asked for an explanation and was told she would save 10 percent, but noticed on the receipt that she was charged 10 percent of her total purchase instead.
“It was just $10 but that was two meals for my kids,” Morgan said. “They took food out of my kids’ mouths.”
The pricing policy started in June 2008 and was canceled in April 2009.
Nash Finch, headquartered in Minnesota, operates grocery stores and food-distribution centers around the country including four Avanza Supermarkets in Colorado and a SunMart Foods in Sterling.
The 10 percent-plus pricing policy was only used at the Avanza stores that market to Latinos.
“Avanza did not discriminate, anybody who walked in there was going to get charged,” said lawyer Craig Silverman, who filed the suit. “At the same time they didn’t bring this pricing policy to Minnesota where they were headquartered.”
The company will pay $700 to each of the six customers, as well as “reasonable” attorneys’ fees and costs.
“It would be enough if you didn’t have to go through so many hours of interrogations,” Silverman said. “But it will have to do.”
“When you pick a fight with a fortune 500 company, you’re taking on Goliath,” said another plaintiffs’ lawyer, David Olivas. “These boys play hard.”
Morgan will donate the $700 to the Southwest Improvement Council, the Boys and Girls Club, the Jefferson County Action Center and for Daddy Bruce Thanksgiving dinners.
“It wasn’t the money involved, it was about stopping this,” said Salomon Martinez, another plaintiff.
Yesenia Robles: yrobles@denverpost.com
