From The Washington Post, Sunday, October 3, 2004. Emphasis added. Carleton

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2278-2004Oct2.html

Shoppers Raise Their Red Flags

By Margaret Webb Pressler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 3, 2004; Page F01

Whenever I organize my e-mails for an occasional column on reader feedback, I am amazed at the deluge on any subject involving customer service.

Here's how your comments on shopping have stacked up in the past few months.

(snip)

• Who's minding the store? Another big irritant to shoppers is problems in store operations that seem to crop up over and over and never get fixed.

Falling clearly into that category are the discrepancies shoppers find in unit pricing at supermarkets, when two brands of the same product display unit prices in different measures, such as price per ounce vs. price per pound. It makes it hard to figure out what product offers the best deal.

"I can't believe that after all the years of unit pricing, store chains have not implemented uniform standards," wrote an annoyed shopper.

"I cannot believe this is not intentional," wrote another.

Shoppers have an eagle eye for inconsistency, especially when it comes to price. But what really struck me in so many comments was the degree to which readers refused to give stores the benefit of the doubt. They are bitter and assume they're being "taken."

Any story on unit pricing is also going to invite the inevitable flood of tirades about how stupid our measuring system is compared with the simplicity of metric measurements. A reader from London explained that unit pricing problems are nonexistent in Britain. "Everything here is metric, so it's way easier to compare value. Time for a change?"

Tell me about it!

It's quite irritating - even "The Simpsons" thinks we use metric!

I think its general misinformation from the metric lobby in the USA.

When they *VISIT* here (ahem) they see a completely different story.

Nicely picked up though, Carly, as you search endlessly through the internet to try and prove things to do with measuring stuff instead of going out and obtaining friends or even getting a girlfriend.

I'll send them an email to explain the reality.

Thanks for the link

Oops! Need a username/password to get in to that link.

Carly you appeared to have registered to that website to try and prove things to do with measuring stuff instead of going out and obtaining friends or even getting a girlfriend etc.

Could I "borrow" your log-in?