5 ms·

It's just about what you are used to. For people who've grown up with metric units, it's natural to work with them.

pbhjpbhj 6y ago
Not really, you can learn. I spent quite a bit of effort in my twenties to convert myself over to metric for heights, weighing food, measuring liquids and such (I'm from UK). UK had been officially metric my whole life and EU were at the time mandating pricing in metric. Supermarkets were very reticent to use metric - or at least flouted the regulation, presumably as prices seem lower in pounds (UK 'lb') than kilograms. Now I find they often don't show weights but hide behind pack sizes for fruit pricing; presumably to prevent customers comparing. They do still have scales but it's a PITA weighing half your produce. Getting comfortable so I could 'feel' what a particular mass (and £/kg) of apples was, say, took effort for me. Same with heights, and shifting to using kg for person-masses too.
- ajuc 6y ago
  Do you use "deko" (dekagrams) for buying meat in UK?
  - OJFord 6y ago
    No, grams & kg.
    - ajuc 6y ago
      Makes much more sense, I never understood why everything is in g or kg and meat is in dg :) It's not like you buy 10 grams of pork :)
- OJFord 6y ago
  > Now I find they often don't show weights but hide behind pack sizes Not legal, btw, unless you mean e.g. 'Lemons £1 (12p/ea.)? The usual complaint is that the denominators haven't been standardised, so you might get A selling lemons /ea. and B selling them /100g. But then, when they are literally sold as a number (or a rough number) in a net, as opposed to being weighed and stickered, even if there were a /100g (or whatever) price, it'd be +/- 10% or something. (That actually is standardised, that funny 'e' symbol for net weight, but the tolerances vary with nominal figure, so I'm not sure off-hand what it is at 100g.)
- Jedd 6y ago
  I have relatives in the UK, and lived in London for several years -- the rage that the popular media was able to incite about metric (mostly through outright lies) in the older generation there is astonishing. Even more so they've managed to maintain that for some decades. I guess this is how they ended up leaving the EU. In Australia supermarkets are obliged to have a pricing per 100gm for every packaged item on the shelves. It's slightly smaller print, of course, but it's clearly legible and allows for a wonderfully simple price comparison. EDIT: Btw, this story came out a while ago, and includes a fascinating montage clip from 1978 - a vox pop of UK citizens, obviously the most whacky people are chosen - but it's a magnificent blend of dumb (you'll use more petrol because you don't get as many kilometres to the gallon) and sad (I don't want to be part of a community). https://www.theguardian.com/politics/shortcuts/2019/feb/05/we-ruled-the-world-didnt-we-what-a-viral-1978-vox-pop-tells-us-about-brexit https://www.theguardian.com/politics/shortcuts/2019/feb/05/w...
  - Symbiote 6y ago
    The UK has the same rule for "per 100g" etc (depending on the object, the unit changes -- herbs are shown per 10g, potatoes per 1kg). There are some exceptions, supposed to help market traders sell 6 apples etc. The supermarkets are using those, which I think was unexpected when these exceptions were allowed.
    - kazen44 6y ago
      as far as i know, the 100g weight rule is standard across the EU. I have seen it on virtually any packaging i could find, with the exception of packaged fruits etc. (which obviously come per piece).

Not really, you can learn. I spent quite a bit of effort in my twenties to convert myself over to metric for heights, weighing food, measuring liquids and such (I'm from UK). UK had been officially metric my whole life and EU were at the time mandating pricing in metric. Supermarkets were very reticent to use metric - or at least flouted the regulation, presumably as prices seem lower in pounds (UK 'lb') than kilograms. Now I find they often don't show weights but hide behind pack sizes for fruit pricing; presumably to prevent customers comparing. They do still have scales but it's a PITA weighing half your produce. Getting comfortable so I could 'feel' what a particular mass (and £/kg) of apples was, say, took effort for me. Same with heights, and shifting to using kg for person-masses too.

ajuc 6y ago
Do you use "deko" (dekagrams) for buying meat in UK?
- OJFord 6y ago
  No, grams & kg.
  - ajuc 6y ago
    Makes much more sense, I never understood why everything is in g or kg and meat is in dg :) It's not like you buy 10 grams of pork :)
OJFord 6y ago
> Now I find they often don't show weights but hide behind pack sizes Not legal, btw, unless you mean e.g. 'Lemons £1 (12p/ea.)? The usual complaint is that the denominators haven't been standardised, so you might get A selling lemons /ea. and B selling them /100g. But then, when they are literally sold as a number (or a rough number) in a net, as opposed to being weighed and stickered, even if there were a /100g (or whatever) price, it'd be +/- 10% or something. (That actually is standardised, that funny 'e' symbol for net weight, but the tolerances vary with nominal figure, so I'm not sure off-hand what it is at 100g.)
Jedd 6y ago
I have relatives in the UK, and lived in London for several years -- the rage that the popular media was able to incite about metric (mostly through outright lies) in the older generation there is astonishing. Even more so they've managed to maintain that for some decades. I guess this is how they ended up leaving the EU. In Australia supermarkets are obliged to have a pricing per 100gm for every packaged item on the shelves. It's slightly smaller print, of course, but it's clearly legible and allows for a wonderfully simple price comparison. EDIT: Btw, this story came out a while ago, and includes a fascinating montage clip from 1978 - a vox pop of UK citizens, obviously the most whacky people are chosen - but it's a magnificent blend of dumb (you'll use more petrol because you don't get as many kilometres to the gallon) and sad (I don't want to be part of a community). https://www.theguardian.com/politics/shortcuts/2019/feb/05/we-ruled-the-world-didnt-we-what-a-viral-1978-vox-pop-tells-us-about-brexit https://www.theguardian.com/politics/shortcuts/2019/feb/05/w...
- Symbiote 6y ago
  The UK has the same rule for "per 100g" etc (depending on the object, the unit changes -- herbs are shown per 10g, potatoes per 1kg). There are some exceptions, supposed to help market traders sell 6 apples etc. The supermarkets are using those, which I think was unexpected when these exceptions were allowed.
  - kazen44 6y ago
    as far as i know, the 100g weight rule is standard across the EU. I have seen it on virtually any packaging i could find, with the exception of packaged fruits etc. (which obviously come per piece).