Well, the seller is looking to make a sale. "Dual" is the CYA approach for him. Who could be offended by having both available, and he covers the US and Canada with one box (with some Spanish, Mexico as well.)
The commercial buyer is looking for a good deal, and product acceptable to his final customers. Dual should be fine as he can use whichever he prefers, and he would probably learn the conversion if the savings warrant the trouble, and only the "wrong" measurement were available. Neither cares as much about measurement "theology" as we do. Large "wholesale" boxes usually don't have the "clutter" problem that consumer packages do. IF retail went metric-only, wholesale would likely follow, but wholesale sellers would "fold" with almost any pressure from buyers. ________________________________ From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Cc: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Mon, April 26, 2010 9:26:14 AM Subject: [USMA:47278] Re: More signs that an amended FPLA would produce helpful results Given that, I'm guessing it would be easier to persuade businesses to accept metric only packaging in these kinds of situations if retail packaging were also popping up all over the place in metric only. -- Ezra ----- Original Message ----- From: "John M. Steele" <[email protected]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, April 26, 2010 3:30:49 AM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific Subject: [USMA:47277] Re: More signs that an amended FPLA would produce helpful results FPLA and UPLR apply only to "consumables" sold to consumers. Neither applies in any business-to-business sale. Metric-only would be legal in this situation; however, Customary-only would also be legal. ________________________________ From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Sun, April 25, 2010 11:10:17 PM Subject: [USMA:47274] More signs that an amended FPLA would produce helpful results There continue to be little signs here in the USA that an amended FPLA would allow many companies to drop US Customary indications in favor of solely metric. For instance, just today I came across a box at Safeway in the produce section in which bananas were shipped to the USA from Ecuador by the DelMonte Fresh Produce Corporation (based out of Monaco and not to be confused with the American company of almost the same name). I was surprised to see that the required storage temperature and the net weight of the box were given in metric first and in US Customary/Imperial in parentheses as well as the minimum length of each banana in the box stated in metric only! Now, this is an international company based in Europe with offices around the world, so I understand their preference to use metric first since I'm sure the same boxes are shipped all over the Northern Hemisphere. But an amended FPLA would allow the use of metric only and I have a hunch they would take the opportunity to do just that. Actually, now that I think on it, does the FPLA apply to the boxes on produce since the information on the box is not intended for the final retail consumer? I hadn't thought of that until just now ... Ezra
