Market Basket Coffee Canisters Produce Fewer Servings Than Advertised, Lawsuit Claims

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A proposed class action claims Demoulas Super Markets has misled consumers as to the number of servings its canisters of Market Basket ground coffee can produce.

Although containers of Market Basket House Blend Medium Roast Ground Coffee and House Blend Medium Roast Decaffeinated Coffee indicate that their contents are able to make 79 and 76 cups of coffee, respectively, they produce roughly half that much when the back-label brewing instructions are followed, the 19-page lawsuit claims.

Per the suit, defendant Demoulas Super Markets’ advertising has misled consumers into purchasing more of the products, and at higher prices, than they would have had they known the Market Basket coffee canisters would produce less than 50 percent of the advertised number of servings.

“Defendant’s marketing is designed to – and does – deceive, mislead, and defraud Plaintiff and consumers,” the complaint alleges.

The lawsuit states that Demoulas Super Markets, Inc. operates more than 80 Market Basket supermarkets in New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Maine. 

According to the suit, the label on canisters of Market Basket House Blend Ground Coffee represent that each container “Makes 79 Cups,” while canisters of Market Basket House Blend Decaf Ground Coffee represent that there’s enough coffee to make “76 Cups.” Brewing instructions on the back of each coffee variety instruct consumers to use “one rounded tablespoon” per six ounces of water, the case relays.

The lawsuit argues that although consumers rely on the representations on Market Basket canisters with regard to how many servings of coffee each container will produce, “[e]xpert testing” has revealed that the House Blend Ground Coffee produces only 39 cups of coffee, and the decaf version produces only 37 when the defendant’s brewing instructions are followed.

“This means that consumers of the Products, including Plaintiff, were cheated out of 51% of the servings they paid for, in both cases, based on the advertising, marketing, and labeling of the Products,” the complaint states.

The case alleges the defendant’s advertising violates Massachusetts law and the products’ express warranties given the canisters do not contain “anywhere close to the promised number of servings.”

The complaint says the claims described in this case are “not new,” and notes that the private label manufacturers for Walmart, Target and other retailers have recently settled claims that are “essentially identical” to those at issue in this lawsuit.

Likewise, Kroger, Maxwell House and Folgers have all come under fire in recent litigation for allegedly deceiving consumers as to the number of coffee cups that could be produced from canisters of ground coffee.

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