Walmart frequently comes under fire for allegedly selling meat, produce, and prepared foods below the listed weight on the packaging.
Beyond the $5.6 million settlement Walmart reached in California in 2025 over allegations that it sold products below their stated weight, there are still frequent reports coming directly from customers.
Recently, TikTok creator James Wrigg (@james_wrigg), whose platform is entirely dedicated to consumer advocacy, decided to weigh some Great Value chicken breast at a Walmart location.
In a video that got over 332,200 views, he shares the results he’s uncovered. Eventually, he says his investigation got him kicked out of the store.
What Did They Find When He Weighed Walmart Chicken?
Wrigg starts his video by showing the aftermath first.
“So I was asked to leave,” he tells viewers while in the middle of an argument with a Walmart worker.
“You want me to leave?” Wrigg asks. “You want me to put these back?” he says, referring to the packages he had just weighed.
“I’ll put them back,” the worker responds.
However, before handing them over, Wrigg tries to explain why he pulled the chicken from the refrigerated section in the first place.
“Well… do you know they’re all—they’re underweight in the package,” he says.
“All right,” the worker responds. “Have a good day, sir.”
The video then cuts to Wrigg conducting his test.
First, he places a 100-gram calibration weight on his scale. It reads 100 grams.
Then, he starts weighing packages.
“This one right here is supposed to weigh 5.50, five and a half pounds,” Wrigg says. Once he puts the package on his scale, however, it reads 5.25 pounds.
He says the Styrofoam tray itself weighs around an ounce and a half, and argues that the liquid inside would reduce the actual weight of the chicken even more.
“If you take this chicken out of this package and weigh it by itself, it’s gonna be more than a half a pound short,” he claims.
Wrigg says he repeatedly gets sealed-package readings below the net weights printed on the labels.
“This one’s almost a quarter pound short,” he says before weighing another package labeled 4.98 pounds. His scale reads 4.77 pounds.
Next, a package labeled 5.56 pounds comes in at 5.35 pounds, while another marked 5.36 pounds weighs 5.16 pounds on the scale.
He Discovers This Is a Pattern
Wrigg also moves over to a Walmart scale. “Let’s weigh some on their scale so nobody says we’re lying,” he says.
He places a package labeled 5.34 pounds on the store scale and gets 5.21 pounds. Another package weighs 5.38 pounds despite its label stating 5.56 pounds.
Afterward, Wrigg counted the packages he said met or exceeded their listed weights, comparing them to those that came up short.
“That’s 10 that were on weight or a little bit over,” he says. “And all those over there were underweight.”
He then counts 11 packages in the other group.
“How many are there across the country?” he asks. “This is appalling.”
Wrigg posted a Part 2, where he weighed additional packages with similar results. He also said he tried speaking to a manager about the issue, but the service desk was closed despite him visiting during its stated operating hours.
Is This Illegal?
Potentially, yes. Federal rules require poultry labels to accurately state the quantity inside the package.
Regulators do recognize variations caused by things like moisture changes, but there is a maximum allowable variation of 1.5 ounces or 0.094 pounds.
Several of Wrigg’s claimed discrepancies, around 0.20 to 0.25 pounds, exceed that figure.
Additionally, if the label lists net weight, that means the packaging is excluded, meaning the discrepancy is likely even deeper than shown on the video.
Commenters Want Answers
“A lot of people say that’s just pennies but when you add it all up it’s dollars,” one commenter wrote.
A second commenter wondered whether this is grounds for legal action.
“Is this against the law. Seems like a class action law suit,” they said.
A third user accused the retailer of having a long pattern of mistreatment. “They have been ripping off employees and customers for decades, ever since Sams kids took over,” they wrote. “Their greed destroyed his legacy.”
“So any lawyers gonna start taking up these cases for us?” asked a fourth.
@james_wrigg PART1| Walmart Chicken Being Sold Underweight. 50% of the Walmart chicken breast is under weight! #scalefraud #scam #walmartfraud #shortweighting ♬ original sound – Jimmy Wrigg / C.O.C.A
Subplot News has reached out to Walmart via its contact form and Wrigg via TikTok messages for comment and additional details.
