The beverage industry packaging is a mess, in my opinion. I am not referring to the full mutl system labile but the actual primary product size.
The one and two liter bottles are as much a standard as the legacy 12 oz can but newer sizes have been introduced on an off over the years and some are metric (the 0.5 liter bottle) and some are English (24" bottles, 8' can). Some juice and water manufactures use 0.5 liters some use ounces or pints. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Bill Potts Sent: Saturday, January 25, 2014 5:12 PM To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:53533] RE: "8 Things About American that Might Surprise Visitors" Martin: Rather than beverages, you should probably say "wine and spirits." All of us must get tired of the triple-labeling of other beverages (with both quarts + fluid ounces and just fluid ounces, in addition to the correct L or mL). As I make friends with more and more recent immigrants, I find they're very pleased to find that I discuss things in metric terms. Not having been exposed to US Customary or Imperial in childhood, they find learning it to be awkward and confusing (no news here, of course). And, of course, nobody (other than people like us) reassures them that there is no legal requirement for consumers to know US Customary. We have neighbors from Uzbekistan, whom I encourage to continue to think in and use metric units. I think we can maybe persuade them to be ambassadors for what is after all the country's legal measurement standard for the purpose of defining US Customary values-in addition to being the only legal standard in the pharmaceutical and wine and spirits fields. OK, I've told everyone here what everyone here already knows. However, my implicit call to action, above, may be productive (if only one small step at a time). Greetings to all those who used to see me here regularly. Bill Potts -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Saturday, January 25, 2014 11:19 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:53532] "8 Things About American that Might Surprise Visitors" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/25/odd-things-about-america_n_4603713. html "The United States is one of three countries that doesn't use the Metric System." So we get that half-truth repeated again. Cute, I suppose, but not accurate. As we have discussed here before, the U.S. is not non-metric. It is legally metric and is in the provess of transition to the metric system, with many industries already full converted (pharmaceutical, beverages, etc.). Those who constantly repeat the "non metric" half truth would have to include Canada, Britain, and several other countries that are also in the process of transition. Martin Morrison USMA "Metric Today" Columnist
