Is Walmart Overcharging You? Viral Video Suggests Major Weight Scandal In Its Meat Department

With the cost of groceries having risen 30% since the pandemic, shoppers want to make sure every dollar is used efficiently. When items are mislabeled with a higher price tag than they should have, it can be detrimental to a grocery budget — especially if the cost is double what it should be. This is exactly what seems to be happening in Walmart's meat section. In a series of viral TikTok videos, a user named james_wrigg showed how honey ham from a brand called Kentucky Legend was labeled as weighing and costing much more than it should.

To prove his point, Wrigg took the packaged hams to the produce section to use the scale. He first tests the scale's accuracy by weighing a 2-pound athletic weight, and notes that the scale is off by .02 pounds. He weighs several hams, which are priced by the pound, and it's shocking how incorrect the labeling is — especially considering that Walmart, which is definitely not one of the most expensive grocers in America, is marketed toward budget-conscious consumers. One of the hams Wrigg weighed is labeled as being 4.93 pounds, but it was actually 1.83 pounds, making its cost (at $4.98 per pound) $15.44 more than what it should be. Most of the hams were mislabeled as weighing over twice their true weight, and were overpriced by an average of $15.

In the comment section of Wrigg's video, others stated that they had the same issue with chicken breasts at Walmart. Days earlier, Wrigg made another TikTok video weighing mislabeled chicken breasts. In it, a package of chicken is labeled as weighing 4.66 pounds — it only weighed 2.37 pounds.

Mislabeling and marking up the price of commercial products is illegal, and Walmart has already had issues with this in the past. In 2024, it settled a class action lawsuit for 45 million dollars after misleading customers with overpriced labels on produce and meat. This isn't the only meat scandal the retailer has faced. In 2022, the company was found to be sourcing meat with harmful antibiotics.

While the chicken breasts featured in James Wrigg's TikTok video are labeled as Walmart's store brand, mislabeling the honey ham may not be the retailer's fault. One TikTok user in the comment section explained, "As someone who works at Walmart, let me tell you these things are pre-labeled by the companies that Walmart buys them from, so it's the companies that are screwing people over, not necessarily Walmart. I hate the fact that I'm defending Walmart but that's the truth."

This is accurate. Kentucky Legend has since taken responsibility for the mislabeled ham, stating on its website that, "This error was isolated to a 5-minute window on a single production date." The statement asks customers to reach out if they have been affected. The ham pricing is accounted for, but what about the chicken? Walmart does not seem to have response — so for now, you might want to consider shopping for meat at Costco.