Not Enough Folgers in Your Cup

The best part of waking up is Folgers in your cup… except if what several plaintiffs are alleging is true, you’re going to run out before you know it. Although Folgers might not be considered “high-end” when it comes to coffee, it is popular, and it is affordable. A lot of people drink the coffee and have a can or two in the house at all times.

When you are making coffee at home, it’s going to save you money compared with buying coffee out all the time. Most people don’t keep track of how many cups you can brew from the can you buy, though. Of course, that’s most people. It doesn’t apply to Mark Smith from Missouri.

In November of 2021, he filed a lawsuit against Folgers. He said in the suit that Folgers was grossly misrepresenting the true number of cups of coffee that can be made from the cans of its ground coffee.

It appears that Smith did some research. According to the lawsuit he filed, 42 varieties of Folgers coffee would make less than 70% of the number of cups that were indicated on the label.

He says that it is a bait-and-switch scheme that most customers will be unaware of. They end up spending more money for less than what was advertised and what they thought they were buying. Because most people don’t count the number of cups of coffee that they are making with each can, it goes overlooked.

Not the First Lawsuit for Folgers

Folgers has faced these accusations before, and each time they point out that the package says that the product can make “up to” a certain number of cups. It doesn’t give an exact amount, just a potential estimate.

Additionally, they say that they can’t control how much ground coffee someone uses for a single cup of coffee. Someone might add more scoops to make stronger coffee, which is going to result in fewer overall cups. Others might do the opposite and make weaker coffee, which will result in more cups. The number of cups each of the cans can provide will vary based on how the coffee is measured.

It might also be a good idea to consider the size of the cups that were used for the measurements. Typically, the packaging will say that the can will make up to X number of 6oz. or 8oz. cups. If someone has a larger cup, they are going to need to add more coffee to fill it up. This could also cause some discrepancies.

In earlier cases, a judge agreed with Folgers. They agreed that the use of the terminology “up to” was not a guarantee that the customer will reach a certain number of cups. In that case, the lawsuit was dismissed.

Not Just Folgers

You shouldn’t be too surprised to learn that it’s not just Folgers that is dealing with these types of lawsuits. A class-action lawsuit was filed against Aldi recently from plaintiffs in New York and California. They said that the containers of the company’s store-brand coffee had less coffee than what was claimed on the labels. Essentially, it was the same lawsuit that was filed against Folgers. Maxwell House, another popular coffee company, was sued for the same reason.

These Lawsuits Will Continue

Even though these types of lawsuits tend to get dismissed a lot for coffee and other types of products, they aren’t going to go away any time soon. People will still misunderstand the labeling or believe they are being taken advantage of. In some cases, this might be true, though.