________________________________
From: Pierre Abbat <[email protected]>
To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, March 6, 2009 9:55:38 PM
Subject: [USMA:43392] Re: Contacted an FMI member
The response tells me they didn't understand what you were getting at and just
offered a general apology.
> Do you know if Trader Joe exports any of his products? Is it possible that
> the product is an import? In markets where 500 g is a standard size, it
> may be marked that way and marked as 1 pound 454 g in the US.
It's domestic. It's some tiny tomatoes packed in a clamshell package.
I know what grape tomatoes are. When I was younger were grew these in our
garden. We never had to buy them, as the plants came up every year on their
own from the tomatoes we tossed on the ground that were rotten the year
before. Then we called them cherry tomatoes (I still do).
You would be surprised as to how much food is imported into the US from South
America, especially in the off season. As I said, they may have the same
package size for all markets and market them elsewhere as 500 g and in the US
as 1 pound with the FPLA requirement to have 454 g added.
Does it say "Produce of the USA" on the package somewhere?
> Can you post here what you wrote to them? Have you ever thought of calling
> them on the phone and then asking someone in person for an answer? It is
> difficult to ignore someone over the phone without hanging up. I doubt
> they would do that for fear of ticking off a good customer.
Here it is:
I bought a box of grape tomatoes labeled 454 g and weighed them when I got
home. The gross is 558 g; a previous empty container is 30 g, so the net is
528 g. 28 g is 3 to 6 tomatoes. If the net is consistently above 500 grams,
could you label the packages as such so that we know more accurately how much
we're getting?
I'm not that good at calling strangers on the phone and trying to explain
something. I tend to get protocol mismatches. It's easier for me to write an
email.
That is understandable, but if you did you might find you would get a different
type of response as the person you are talking to would be caught off guard and
would not be quick to offer a flimsy excuse. Of course writing can still be
effective if you wrote to a specific person in the company and not just to
someone in general. In your case you got an underling who probably didn't have
a clue as to what the "g" is referring to.
Pierre
Jerry
On Friday 06 March 2009 18:52:08 Jeremiah MacGregor wrote:
> And I doubt you will. Whoever would have received the response would not
> understand what you are on about. They would not have a clue what 454 g or
> 500 g mean. Now if you told them that the package was marked as containing
> one pound (=16 ounces) and you found it to weigh more then 17 ounces and it
> should be labeled as such then you might have received a response.
I did, but it was after I posted here. It's a boilerplate "We apologize for
the experience you have had with the Trader Joe's Grape Tomatoes."
