Misleading unit prices on Tesco’s website

It is time there was an industry standard of ml or gram.

Tomato ketchup and mayonnaise are sold in both units of measurements so you can’t compare them.

In most cases grams (g) and millilitres (ml) will be nearly interchangeable if the product has a high water content. Vegetable oils and anything with a high oil content (e.g. mayonnaise and other dressings) will differ because oil has a lower density than water.

I think it would make sense to sell everything by weight, so the units are grams (g) and kilograms (kg = 1000 g).

I’d still prefer to buy a litre of milk. It seems to me that solids should be sold by weight, liquids by volume. The difficulty for some might come with those in between, like Alfa’s mayonnaise; put both g and ml on perhaps. Personally I’ve never had a problem with this.

The small bottles of milk contain a pint. I think that is an ancient legislative requirement.

Careful John, or you might reignite the entertaining imperial vs. metric debate 🙂 . I still like pints, miles, and some others in appropriate circumstances.It is interesting to see that Which?, along with many others, still quote car fuel efficiency in miles per gallon. I like that.

Well we still measure road distances in miles and yards [with metric in brackets on some signs like Low Bridge] and once you know that half a litre is a wee bit less than a pint it all makes sense. I think we keep these measurements to foil an invading enemy.

Now that they’ve abolished the Eleven Plus, with its focus on mensuration in the arithmetic paper, I see no justification for these inconsistencies and there should be an international salad dressing and tomato ketchup standard, [differential product density will always outwit the standardisers though irrespective of whether its ml or mg.]

I would like fuel economy in km per kg.

Diesel would not fair so good Wave…….You have a diesel have you not

Its actually a fair idea and much fairer than the mpg or L per 100km

Some products can be sold by volume, but everything can be sold by weight. I have no problem with both units being shown, though it could continue to cause confusion.

When I am baking I don’t measure liquids but put the mixing bowl on the digital scales and pour in the right amount of milk or water. It saves washing up a measuring jug.

Would you want to buy 2.72 kg of milk, buy petrol at £1.43 / kg or emulsion paint by the kg – equivalent to around 0.77 l?

I would be delighted to buy milk, petrol and paint in kg quantities. Taking the example of milk we could have 0.5, 1, 2 and 3 kg bottles, etc as useful quantities for sale. At present, I buy milk in 1.136 litre quantities. 🙁

Obviously unit prices would be shown as the price per kg.

Indeed Wave,,,,,,,,,,,,,,I’d like fuel to be sold per kg
Our propane would look very expensive as its near to 2L per kg
Boy I would really love that
The LPG BB are getting away with murder by selling LPG/Propane at per litre rates…………They buy it per tonne and sell it per litre…….Hows that for a contradiction……….

Imagine the confusion, particularly among older people, if we changed from volume to weight for liquids. Change something we are all used to and it is a recipe for long-term opportunists to make money out of ignorance – as happened with metrication and decimalisation. why on earth change something that works.

Personal preferences DeeKay, I’m with you on that.

Why run the world to suit older people rather than young people who have been taught the metric system?

DK – I don’t think 970mm and 9.7cm are the same. And Tesco would like to inform you that they don’t stock hypochlorite red label and offer Johnnie Walker as a substitute. 🙂

To my knowledge, running the world for anyone has not been suggested at all. For personal use we can use whatever system of measurement we like. if I choose to be 6 ft 1 in, that’s up to me. Officially I will be 1.85(4)m. I have no problem with that either.
We must remember that some, maybe many, older people find it difficult to adapt to systems that are new to them, whether it is electronic ways of communicating, systems of weights and measures, or whatever, and need to respect this. Let us be as helpful as possible.

Older people can find it difficult to adapt to change but look how well many of them have adapted to computers and the internet, once mainly used in universities. I have heard people over 80 enthuse about their tablets, e-readers and smartphones and the chap who gave me a job in 1980 sent me his usual distinctive Christmas card – not as custom printed card but by email. He is 90. Can you imagine a world in which we reject progress because some would find it difficult to adapt? Those of us who can cope can – and I think should – help others make the transition. Of course we should be able to do what we want in our own homes.

Trying to get back to our topic… I recently unearthed a couple of receipts for groceries that I ordered online, more than ten years ago, for my mother who was living alone in the family home. She struggled to carry heavy groceries in her late 70s and in the written account of her life she was effusive about me being able to order via computer and have the groceries delivered to her home 125 miles away. I regret that I did not buy her a computer to give her the independence do the job herself. On each of the Tesco receipts were queries about the pricing and I remember having to make enquires.

I rarely have reason to question prices or unit prices in the local Tesco branch, so why is online pricing a problem?