Edward, and John, Many merchants (including the FMI) want comparative valuation of commodities by consumers to be difficult. They want consumers to "Trust our advertising." How otherwise could Page 9 of NIST SP 1181 have ever been posted in its present form, permitting pints, quarts, gallons, etc. in Unit Pricing? It is frustrating to observe that, apparently, many members of the NIST working group on Unit Pricing continue to believe that the units of Unit Price must change with the size of the package.
Cents per gram, and cents per liter (and their decimal multiples), as in Nutrition Facts covers *all* food commodities. FDA, not FMI, practice should be the guide. Eugene Mechtly. On Dec 26, 2014, at 1:39 PM, Edward Schlesinger <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Hi John and Eugene: Where I live California, most grocery stores use ¢/oz or ¢/ fl. oz. on shelf price labels. I do not see the reason expanding to include gallons and pints. Although I can see where 7.9¢/100 g and 7.9¢/100 mL would complement this practice. On Fri, Dec 26, 2014 at 6:43 AM, John M. Steele <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Or worse for liquids. Suppose milk is $2.99/gal. That is ALSO 74.8¢/qt 37.4¢/pt 2.3¢/fl oz Seriously, if four stores each chose one of the allowed methods, how many consumers could be expected to figure out the best deal? In metric, 79¢/L or 7.9¢/100 mL. With modified prices, this issue applies to ANY liquid. (I hope I did those right. I had to use a calculator and certainly could NOT do it in my head, in-store.) Between stores, Customary unit pricing is "useless pricing." Allowing this is a sop to the stores to conceal their price competitiveness. Is that why FMI is on board? If Customary unit pricing is allowed, there must be one and only one denominator unit allowed for each product class of "like product," although it would be better to just disallow Customary. ________________________________ From: "mechtly, eugene a" <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Cc: "Hockert, Carol" <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Sent: Wednesday, December 24, 2014 11:28 AM Subject: [USMA:54526] Why Page 9 of NIST SP 1181; not Acceptable! For the same commodity; Store A chooses cents per ounce. Store B, next door, chooses cents per pound. Consumer must do arithmetic of 1/16 to compare values. For the same commodity; Store C chooses dollars per pint. Store D, next door, chooses dollars per gallon. Consumer must do arithmetic of 1/8 to compare values. -- Sincerely, Edward B.
