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Re: strawberry selling (was Re: Metric Time (was Re: Why not 13 months? (Was La Systeme Metrique))
Douglas W. Jones,201H MLH,3193350740,3193382879 (jones@pyrite.cs.uiowa.edu)
11 Oct 1995 20:19:22 GMT
>From article <45gu35$fe1@news.ox.ac.uk>,
by idaniel@jesus.ox.ac.uk (Illtud Daniel):
>
> Well, they're mostly sold by the punnet in the UK, which is a small
> basket (usually plastic, nowardays). I've no idea if the punnet is
> defined (I rather think it is), but it's clearly meant as a unit of
> volume.
In the US, strawberries and mushrooms are nominally sold by the quart,
which is a little plastic basket thingy, either injection molded green
styrene or vacuum formed clear something or another.
The quart unit of solid measure may or may not have anything to do with
the quart unit of liquid measure. I suspect they are vaguely similar.
In addition, while farmer's markets may sell by the container, which is
effectively selling by volume, larger supermarkets with automatic scales
will generally sell shrinkwrapped containers that are priced by the
pound.
Quite frankly, I don't give a hoot whether the unit price is defined in
terms of pounds and ounces or kilos, as long as they use the same units
for every thingy of strawberries in the store. Of course, to keep us
on our toes, the merchants will, no doubt, be programming their computers
to unit price merchandise in randomly chosen units, so when two
manufacturers are competing, one is priced by the kilo while the other
is priced by the pound. Perhaps we can have unit prices of three
competing brands in liters, gallons(US) and gallons(Imperial), just
to keep the shopper from gaining any idea which is actually less
expensive.
Then, there was the package of sliced bread I once bought where the
nutrition information was all in terms of one serving, and at the very
bottom of the list was a small notation: "serving size: approximately
3/4 slice"
Doug Jones
jones@cs.uiowa.edu
>
> --
> Illtud Daniel idaniel@jesus.ox.ac.uk
> "I was born outta time" Napoleon Wilson FFPGP
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