Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Please sir, can we have our lbs and ozs back then?
The Daily Mail reports here on a proposal from our EU masters to implement: "a free-for-all on pack sizes that will allow manufacturers to sell food and other products in whatever size they choose."
In principle I don't see any problem with this, of course the customer will have to take care and actually think when comparing products for value, but anything, which encourages people to think and take responsibility, can hardly be a bad thing. Caveat emptor (let the buyer beware) should be the overriding rule in contracts.
There are views both for and against in the article, I'm in favour of it, sometimes it is awkward to buy in a set amount, and I always hate throwing away that which I haven't used, I'd much rather not buy it in the first place. The other day when buying four bread rolls (76p) I was told that to buy six (99p on offer) was cheaper, I pointed out it was only cheaper if you were going to use them, otherwise you were better off with the four. Anyway years ago you could buy in whatever quantity the shop were prepared to sell, liquids (such as milk or porter) would be measured to suit, you could buy cigarettes singly, whatever and I don't see any reason why we need regulation in this area. I don't think unscrupulous stores who look to make a fast buck will stay in business long, people might be fooled once or twice, but they'll soon cotton on.
Of course the true irony is now that we have almost abandoned our superior imperial measurement system, sacrificed on the altar of "EU standardisation", now they decide to abandon that god. Personally I'm not holding my breath, I'll wager that even if these proposals make it through the EU if anyone tries to sell in pounds and ounces they'll have the apparatchik enforcers from the council on their back faster than you can say "metric martyr". I think the pound (lb) is one pack size that won't be allowed.
In principle I don't see any problem with this, of course the customer will have to take care and actually think when comparing products for value, but anything, which encourages people to think and take responsibility, can hardly be a bad thing. Caveat emptor (let the buyer beware) should be the overriding rule in contracts.
There are views both for and against in the article, I'm in favour of it, sometimes it is awkward to buy in a set amount, and I always hate throwing away that which I haven't used, I'd much rather not buy it in the first place. The other day when buying four bread rolls (76p) I was told that to buy six (99p on offer) was cheaper, I pointed out it was only cheaper if you were going to use them, otherwise you were better off with the four. Anyway years ago you could buy in whatever quantity the shop were prepared to sell, liquids (such as milk or porter) would be measured to suit, you could buy cigarettes singly, whatever and I don't see any reason why we need regulation in this area. I don't think unscrupulous stores who look to make a fast buck will stay in business long, people might be fooled once or twice, but they'll soon cotton on.
Of course the true irony is now that we have almost abandoned our superior imperial measurement system, sacrificed on the altar of "EU standardisation", now they decide to abandon that god. Personally I'm not holding my breath, I'll wager that even if these proposals make it through the EU if anyone tries to sell in pounds and ounces they'll have the apparatchik enforcers from the council on their back faster than you can say "metric martyr". I think the pound (lb) is one pack size that won't be allowed.
Tags: European Union, Imperial measures, freedom
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.
