Starbucks Scraps Hidden Fee After State Fine

Massachusetts officials noticed something fishy about the price of coffee beans at Starbucks: Customers buying less than a pound’s worth were paying more than the listed per-pound price. Following an investigation, state Starbucks branches have been fined $1,575, and the chain has dropped the hidden fee nationwide, the Boston Globe reports. “It’s a message to the whole marketplace,” said a state official.

“We have to be able to trust that the price we’re paying is the price we should be paying for a particular commodity." The chain added a fee of about $1.50 to bags of beans under a pound, but did not post the increase. A Starbucks rep said the fee was based on “the additional labor and packaging needed to accommodate those customers’ unique request." (More Starbucks stories.)