Pat,
This is a strange message. Are some Australian shops and companies reverting
to ifp?
Han
----- Original Message -----
From: "Pat Naughtin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, March 16, 2001 12:05 AM
Subject: [USMA:11640] Re: metric in Walmart
Dear Greg and All,
Two stories:
I was in a furniture store some time ago with a view to buying a table. I
asked an assistant if a particular table came in various sizes. 'Yes' he
replied, 'this model comes in 5 by 3 or you can have it as 6 by 3.' My
> response was, 'Could you tell me that in modern metric measures, please.
I'm not old enough to understand your old measures.'
In a camping store I was seeking a hose to connect my gas stove to its
bottle. I asked an assistant to show me some hoses about a metre long. He
replied, 'We've got some 3 foot ones here.' My response was simple, 'Could
you please find another assistant to serve me, please. I did not come here
for a history lesson - I wanted to buy a hose about a metre long.' I then
ignored him - and, in the absence of a suitable assistant - I bought the
hose from another supplier.
I suspect that my anger in these instances was partly based on the apparent
young ages of the assistants, as it was clear that they had recently left
school and they were inordinately proud of their new-found knowledge of the
foot as a measuring unit. I am sure that they didn't learn it at school; it
was part of their on-the-job store training.
