2002-08-21 I think that varies from region to region. But, I would say that the "start" was back in the 1970's. And that was with soda pop. Before the plastic bottles came out, pop was sold in returnable glass bottles. I remember back in the mid 1970's when Michigan went to half and one litre glass pop bottles. The Michigan bottling territory covered North west Ohio up to Sandusky, which is 100 km west of Cleveland.
At the time a friend of mine worked in a local grocery store. People from Cleveland who would go to the Sandusky area for weekends and vacations, would bring back the metric bottles to be returned here. The stores took them, but the Cleveland bottlers were always cussing because they were still using pints and quarts and this was a big mess for them. Eventually, two litre plastic bottles replaced most bottle sizes and the problem ended. In fact, I have a glass two litre coke bottle sold in the Pittston, Pa (18640) & Canton, Ohio (44702) area from the 1970's, just before they went to plastic. I got it from my friend as someone brought it in as a return. there is no date anywhere on the bottle, but the size is marked as 2 LITER 67.6 FLOZ (2 QTS 3.6 OZS). What a mouthful! There is even a UPC code stencilled on the bottle: 495470. In Ohio, it is legal for grocery stores to sell wine. The metric sizes were phased in 1979. It was easy then to tell which brands and types of wines sold the fastest. It was still common to see an FFU bottle on the shelf two years later. I'm sure it was vinegar by then. There wasn't much new in metric during the '80s, but it was the mid '90s that mouthwashes began to appear. Also, were some brands of shampoos, and hand lotions, too. I hope that answers you question. John ----- Original Message ----- From: "Carl Sorenson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, 2002-08-21 11:30 Subject: Metric sizes > John, do you know how long supermarkets in the U.S. have been selling some > products in metric sizes? I haven't been paying attention for very long > yet, nor have I been shopping for all that long. I just bought a 1 L bottle > of mouthwash and I noticed that much of the bottled water is in liter and > milliliter sizes. Has this happened in the past 2-3 years, or is it more > like 5-10? > > Carl > >
