On 2002-11-08 Carl said: With international market pressure, companies want freedom to label in metric only. They don't want someone telling them how to run their multi-billion dollar manufacturing operation.
When metric-only labels are introduced, companies will slowly begin making rational sizes in due time. The marketplace will change, but very slowly. I like the idea of a major push to metricate immediately, but that will not happen in the U.S. any time soon because people don't want that. There is not enough support, and if people get the impression that we are telling them what to do, they won't like it. Carl *********************************** My understanding of what happened in the UK some 14 years or so ago, is that large supermarket chain stores such as Sainsbury's and Marks & Spencers saw that it was going to be a nightmare to handle products with two different measuring systems, and a need to standardise was the main requirement. Metrication of packaging was never done by government intervention but purely as a necessary step because so many products came from Europe. In the U.S., this is not the case, hence no real pressure to change packaging standards, and so it will take longer to see any changes here (especially if imported goods have to show ifp units). So as I understand it, no-one was *told* what to do in the UK re packaging - it just happened through necessity. Can Chris enlighten me on my 'understandings' please? Mike Joy
