Euric wrote (in discussion with Terry): >>>>>>I heard that tescos still sells using imperial scales. >>>> >>>>You are misinformed. I am sure that Tescos obeys the law. There are three >>>>issues >>>>1. Scales. >>>>2. Price indications >>>>3. Adverts >>>> >>>>Adverts can be imperial only (even in shops). Tescos takes advantage of >>>>this. In Tescos, you will see imperial only 'adverts' and dual unit 'price >>>>indications'. All perfectly legal. Look in your own supermarket and try to >>>>distinguish the 'adverts' from the 'price indications'. >> >>I was told that Tescos still has pound scales.
>Imperial only scales are illegal. Tescos is pro-imperial but will be acting >within the law. I will go to one of their shops and confirm this to you. This message is in reply to a discussion on the USMA list, but is also copied to the UKMA list for information. I visited Tescos just now. As far as I could see, they are acting within the law. 1. Scales Their point of sale scales are metric only. They provide additional scales near the fruit and vegetables for customer use. These are dual unit. 2. Price indications. a) Variable quantity goods such as fruit, vegetables, cheese and other delhi produce have dual unit price indications. The metric price is usually above the imperial price but in all other respects they appear to be equal prominence. b) Fixed quantity (i.e. prepacked) goods have prices each and also unit prices e.g. '79 p per kg'. I only saw metric only unit prices for prepacks but I didn't check them all. 3. Adverts Advertised prices were imperial only or dual unit. Where advertised prices were dual unit, the imperial price was much more prominent. Advertised prices were often used in such a way that they looked like price indications. Selected examples ---------------------- I was looking for dishwasher salt. There were various packs with prices each and unit price per kg. There was no imperial unit price indication. I looked for the lowest price per kg and chose that. It was a bag labelled '3 kg' and had no imperial value on it. I was looking for olives at the delhi counter. They all had dual unit prices (per 100 g, per quarter). Me: "A quarter of those olives please" Server: (metric-only scales display 108 g) "Just under. Is that OK?" Me:. "How do I know it is a quarter?" Server: "Because a quarter is 113 g" Me: "How do you know that" Server: "Because it is written here". Points to handwritten note stuck on her side of scale but invisible to me. I asked her what she would do if I asked for 5 ounces and she said that she would simply look at the note. I asked her why it was handwritten and she said that the other scales had printed notes but this one must have fallen off. She also said that they got training in such details. She knew from her training that a quarter was 4 ounces but it may have also been on the note. She printed the price and stuck it on the container of olives. It was metric only and said: 'PRICE/kg �8.50' 'kg 0.108' 'PRICE TO PAY �0.92' Apples had large notices on the containers advertising the price per lb without a metric price. The price indications just near the containers were dual unit. I chose some bananas. These had dual unit prices. I can't remember if they had price 'adverts'. They were then weighed and priced at the checkout in metric units only. I asked the cashier how I would know how many pounds it would be. He was initially confused by my question and said that the price was done automatically by the scales and the till computer. I questioned him further saying that I needed to know how many pounds weight it was. He said something like "a kilogram is one pound, innit?". Hope that helps.
