2000-11-25
This reminds me of something I saw in the store this morning. I went to a
local cheap discount store in our area called Marcs. Marcs sells over stock
items, discontinued items and everything else at low prices. As I was
scanning the aisles I noticed they had Vaseline Petroleum Jelly with a big
white sticker on the bottom that read: 17.5 ounces Made in the USA. When I
see this on any package they have, I know immediately this is a metric
product intended for Canada.
And sure enough, as I picked up the jar, I saw the French and English label
and the size declaration as 500 g, no FFU. This is an American produced
product imported into Canada. I thought for a moment and realized that
Cheeseborough/Ponds, who makes this product is dual producing. This wasn't
just an FFU product with an non-rational declaration in grams, such as 454
g, no FFU. It was a rational 500 g.
This means that CP does keep dual inventories. In the US they sell rational
FFU (soft SI). There is no 500 g size sold in the USA, yet they make that
size for export. So, why aren't they having a cost problem keeping two
different inventories? Why don't they sell the same 500 g product in the US
as they do in Canada?
I think it would be worth our while if our Canadian friends would check for
rational SI products, made in the USA and imported into Canada on their
shelves. I want to compare those to the sizes we have here. I would really
like to know how many products are dual produced right here in the USA,
where the rational SI is exported and the rational FFU remains here.
If this is happening, then it disproves the theory that companies find it a
cost burden to keep dual inventories like this.
John
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On
Behalf Of Paul Trusten
Sent: Saturday, 2000-11-25 09:18
To: U.S. Metric Association
Cc: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:9352] RE: The 2001 Almanac for Farmers and City Folk,
pp.115-116
I plan to keep my copy of the almanac. The only reason I bought it was
that I saw the metric article while browsing. However, I shall indeed
write the publisher to tell him/her/it that this was both my first, and
last, purchase of their product, and why this is so, perhaps appealing
to some economic fears that will redirect his patriotism (EU exclusion
of nonmetric units; the cost of keeping two inventories,et al.)
