Another example, we buy our petrol/diesel in litres and then my car displays usage in miles per gallon so I spend hours worrying about how many miles per litre I am doing. Why can’t we just be metric?

This is madness.

Alex Irwin.

Worst case is to mix the two measurement systems in the same economy and culture, which is the current situation in UK. When the building trade was forced to struggle with metric measurement it was absolutely fine. But when the suits started to be inconvenienced, it was another story. When that greengrocer was being prosecuted and given a criminal record for not selling his bananas in kilograms (metric measure), I was being compelled to adjust calibration on the speedo of Japanese grey import cars from km/h to mph (Imperial measure). I realise Britain’s a stupid country, but …
Anyone planning to emigrate will be faced with switching to metric as part of a steep learning curve. Unless you select the US, Liberia or Myanmar (Burma) as your host country, because they are the only countries still officially using Imperial, although of course the US uses a modified version (USCS). Technical reports by US authors seem to think it’s trendy and/or European to use metric measurement for some data. I’ve given up reading this type of report. Conversion is tedious and further they often make simple mistakes, which degrades credibility.

Supplementary indications certainly do cause confusion for shoppers.

Dave, that is the whole idea. The more confused you can make a shopper, the more likely he is going to make the wrong choice and buy something he doesn’t really want or need at an inflated price.

Business loves confusion. That is why you don’t see them doing much to end the mess. Don’t you think it would have made the transition smoother if the shops educated the customer on buying in metric? It wasn’t in their interest. They sell more when people don’t know what is going on around them. Keep the customer confused….keep him buying.

With metric, we have one measurement for a given concept, and a standard and common set of multiples (kilo, milli, centi, etc). The metre for length, area and volume, the litre for fluid volume, the kilogram for weight, the watt for power, and so on. This mere handful of units is easy to learn and use - and they all work the same way, with powers of 10 between multiples.

Nobody taking a detached view, when comparing the two systems, would think nowadays of learning the imperial system, with literally dozens of measurements to have to learn and as many randomly different conversion factors between them. Why should I have to learn and remember how many ozzes make a pound when I go shopping? It makes things unnecessarily complicated. How close is 13 oz to a pound? I don’t know. That’s why we have kilograms on price labels, and that’s why 95% of the world uses them as well.

A kilo of produce weighs the same as a one litre bottle of water or juice, it’s an easy thing to remember and use.

If I mark a package as 1 kg (2.2046 lb), the 2.2046 is a supplemental indicator. A price per 1 kg with 2.2046 lb in parenthesis indicating an equivalent to 1 kg is stretching the intent of the law but would be acceptable.

But a price per pound or per 2 pounds or whatever should be illegal and not accepted. Pricing a product per pound or 2 lb, even if it is weighed on a metric scale, is not the same as conducting the sale in kilograms.

Someone needs to nip this in the bud.

>

… and £1.99 per 2 lb appears to be even better value than £2.19 per kg (which is the exact conversion, rounded to the nearest penny).

There’s also the relatively new unit - the “2lb”. Much favoured by some greengrocers and butchers.

This unit is not being used for customers who still want prices by the pound. It is being used blatantly for the purpose of deception. Unscrupulous traders know that customers equate 1 kg as being roughly equivalent to 2 lb. Thus a price of £1.99 per 2lb will appear to be better value than, for example, a price of £2.10 per kg.

Under existing regulations, these pseudo-units (and any others that traders might devise) are allowed as “supplementary indications”. This practice can only be stopped by legislation ending the option to display prices in dual units.

“You are quite right, there are some differences between the UK imperial system and US customary systems of measure
…
Miles, yards, feet, inches, acres – identical both sides of the Atlantic
…”

Martin, you didn’t mention that in the US there are two different feet. One which is identical to the “foot” as used in the UK; and the “U.S. Survey foot” which is defined as 1200/3937 metres, and is I think 0.0002% larger than the international foot.

Luckily the Ordinance Survey in the UK have been surveying in metres for decades.

Maybe those who are fined for not using approved scales can have the BWMA and Martyrs pay their fines.