Signs in KM

[Burnley Ace]

Do we it have enough stereotypes to combat without getting linked to these utterly pathetic cretins writing their green inked letters of complaint that signs are in KM?

Do they want us to stop competing in Athletics or Swimming because the distance isn't in yards and feet? One was even complaining about the colour!!

[Goody1975]

A football pitch is designed in yards, using metres is just plain daft.

[SammyBoy]

Not sure what this thread refers to, presumably a group moaning about yards vs meters? Can you somebody enlighten me?

[Sean Dyche's Watch]

Not sure what this thread refers to, presumably a group moaning about yards vs meters? Can you somebody enlighten me?

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/767341 ... s-km-miles" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[ClaretEngineer]

They managed to get the War (both of them) into the complaint.

It probably looks neater to write the distances in km than it does for the equivalent in miles.

Not that much of a big deal

[Burnley Ace]

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/767341 ... s-km-miles

Those people quoted should be ashamed of their ignorance. "we fought two world wars" really? Prople should point this man out so we can laugh

[bob-the-scutter]

I think they should be in both metric and imperial. And why not in Welsh also!

[Quickenthetempo]

It is a tad bizarre to put signs up in KMs at this stage.

The council did there best to influence a stay vote putting signs up saying funding was through EU grants around the town. They must realise it was Britains money just recycled?

Not sure the war is worth referencing though, I suspect the reporter got it out of him for the story though.

[SammyBoy]

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/767341 ... s-km-miles

Christ that is petty, some people really have nothing better to do than moan do they?

Years ago when I was a student I worked on the Deli counter at Morrisons and a customer asked me for 8 ounces of ham, however I grew up with the metric system at school (I'm 26) and genuinely haven't got a clue what an ounce is - plus all the weighing scales and prices were in grams, kilograms etc. I politely asked roughly how many grams are in 8 ounces and received quite a nasty reply along the lines of 'why should I be expected to know?'. I really felt like pointing out that the UK adopted the metric system in 1974 - 16 years prior to my birth!

[Rileybobs]

Who uses the imperial system anymore?

[SammyBoy]

Who uses the imperial system anymore?

I only use miles and pints (but only in the pub) for sake of ease, however it's fairly easy to convert it to metric if necessary.

[dushanbe]

Theres been a bit of debate about this on a local facebook group dedicated to the area. The complainant is chuffed to bits he's had his face in the paper and doesn't seem to care about coming over as a complete knob.

Since when did the metric system have anything to do with Brexit? Its a system of measurement that makes more sense to the kids of today. The article claims the cost of the signs was £4300 and I queried that, as surely he would prefer the cost to be in shillings?

[SammyBoy]

Theres been a bit of debate about this on a local facebook group dedicated to the area. The complainant is chuffed to bits he's had his face in the paper and doesn't seem to care about coming over as a complete knob.

Since when did the metric system have anything to do with Brexit? Its a system of measurement that makes more sense to the kids of today. The article claims the cost of the signs was £4300 and I queried that, as surely he would prefer the cost to be in shillings?

There are some real heads gones on that group if it's the same one I look at. Best thing they could have is a time machine back to 1945.

[dsr]

Petty or not, the government in its 'infinite wisdom' decided to make it a criminal offence to make road signs in kilometres, so it would be logical not to put park signs in kilometres either.

but this isn't as petty as what councils get up to the other way. Beamish Victorian museum, for example, has a replica sweet shop selling sweets made and sold the way the Victorians did. Except that they were threatened with prosecution because they sold them in pounds and ounces, which is of course illegal. (Only in this country. Other countries had much more sense than to make it a criminal offence to give the customers what they want.)

I'm not sure you've quite understood the point of selling, sammyboy. The reason you should be expected to know is because you're the seller and your customer is the customer. Just because you went to school where they didn't teach practical stuff like weights and measures isn't really much of an excuse. Maybe Morrisons need to offer better training?

[ClaretAndJew]

“We’ve fought and won two world wars and finally won our referendum to come out of the European Union. But now we are producing pathway signs in kilometres.”

Genius

[quoonbeatz]

at least we know what RingoMcCartney looks like now.

[Bacchus]

I'm not sure you've quite understood the point of selling, sammyboy. The reason you should be expected to know is because you're the seller and your customer is the customer. Just because you went to school where they didn't teach practical stuff like weights and measures isn't really much of an excuse. Maybe Morrisons need to offer better training?

What a load of balls. No retail staff should be expected to be able to convert to imperial units of measurement any more than they should be expected to be able to convert to old units of currency.

[Sean Dyche's Watch]

Who uses the imperial system anymore?

Plenty of people still do.

When was the last time you asked for a pint of lager in a pub?

Or did you say 'could I please have 568.261ml of lager'?

[quoonbeatz]

Petty or not, the government in its 'infinite wisdom' decided to make it a criminal offence to make road signs in kilometres, so it would be logical not to put park signs in kilometres either.

i can't say i've paid much attention but i'm pretty sure park signs are usually in metres.

[SammyBoy]

Petty or not, the government in its 'infinite wisdom' decided to make it a criminal offence to make road signs in kilometres, so it would be logical not to put park signs in kilometres either.

but this isn't as petty as what councils get up to the other way. Beamish Victorian museum, for example, has a replica sweet shop selling sweets made and sold the way the Victorians did. Except that they were threatened with prosecution because they sold them in pounds and ounces, which is of course illegal. (Only in this country. Other countries had much more sense than to make it a criminal offence to give the customers what they want.)

I'm not sure you've quite understood the point of selling, sammyboy. The reason you should be expected to know is because you're the seller and your customer is the customer. Just because you went to school where they didn't teach practical stuff like weights and measures isn't really much of an excuse. Maybe Morrisons need to offer better training?

Or maybe people born before the adoption of the metric system should stop being so sad/bitter/stubborn (delete as appropriate), move with the times and learn the measurements used in modern day business, especially 40+ years later?

[dsr]

No retail staff should be expected to be able to convert to imperial units of measurement any more than they should be expected to be able to convert to old units of currency.

Depends whether they have an interest in making money, really. Few shopkeepers are successful if their attitude, when faced with someone who wants a pound of apples, to tell them to clear off, they don't want their type.

Retail staff, by and large, should be taught to sell the customers what the customers want to buy. Not to retrain the customers, and not to send the customers away empty-handed.

[Sidney1st]

I'm not sure you've quite understood the point of selling, sammyboy. The reason you should be expected to know is because you're the seller and your customer is the customer. Just because you went to school where they didn't teach practical stuff like weights and measures isn't really much of an excuse. Maybe Morrisons need to offer better training?

The system is correct to the current rules and regulations.
Maybe people need to keep that in mind instead of giving dickish answers in a supermarket to a simple question.

The company could go to the expense of creating a basic conversion chart, but 99% of the time it isn't going to be needed so there isn't much point is there?

[SammyBoy]

Depends whether they have an interest in making money, really. Few shopkeepers are successful if their attitude, when faced with someone who wants a pound of apples, to tell them to clear off, they don't want their type.

Retail staff, by and large, should be taught to sell the customers what the customers want to buy. Not to retrain the customers, and not to send the customers away empty-handed.

This is getting away from the point I was trying to make, I can convert both ways for the main measurements miles-kilometers, pints-liters, grams-pounds and often indulged the customers by working it out for them - however unfortunately on the occasion in question I was stumped by ounces. The thing which irritated me was that despite my polite explanation that I wasn't familiar with ounces I received a nasty 'go f*** yourself' response that insinuated I was somehow to blame, sadly somewhat typical of the sort of person I was dealing with.

[Sidney1st]

Depends whether they have an interest in making money, really. Few shopkeepers are successful if their attitude, when faced with someone who wants a pound of apples, to tell them to clear off, they don't want their type.

Retail staff, by and large, should be taught to sell the customers what the customers want to buy. Not to retrain the customers, and not to send the customers away empty-handed.

Your average supermarket worker isn't interested in things like that, because it's generally a simple job that doesn't require much thought, so they aren't going to waste the effort.

95%-98% of things are already pre packed and the things that aren't, are picked & packed by the customer in the fruit & veg section where they choose the quantity they want.
It's extremely rare to get someone who wants things in the old system.

[martin_p]

Retail staff, by and large, should be taught to sell the customers what the customers want to buy. Not to retrain the customers, and not to send the customers away empty-handed.

Excellent! I'm going to start using binary in shops then. I'm sure the shop assistant will understand that and not be confused when I hand over two pound coins when the till says 10

[The Enclosure]

We could use "klicks" like the USA army boys....whatever they are.

[LeadBelly]

I'm 67 & brought up to use £/s/d, miles/yards; st/lb/oz etc but vast majority of the time have no problem at all with metric. (about the only time I'm perplexed is watching cricket from outside UK when it flashes bowling speed in kph rather than mph- I can grasp 86 mph or 91 mph etc much more quickly.
I couldn't get upset about those signs at all.
If you're a race-goer, there's a third system of distance measurements you have to be familiar furlongs (/chains). I have to say I'd be against changing that to meters (which was proposed a year or two ago) - though wouldn't be throwing myself in front of the horses in protest.

[The Enclosure]

Ok i googled ......
Klick is a common military term meaning kilometer when referring to distance. Its use became popular among US soldiers in Vietnam during the 1960s, although veterans of the war recall its usage as early as the 1950s. The term is of unknown origin. It is likely to be an example of condensed pronunciation or contraction of the term kilometer, although other theories exist.
We're about 2 klicks south of your position.

[Bacchus]

Depends whether they have an interest in making money, really. Few shopkeepers are successful if their attitude, when faced with someone who wants a pound of apples, to tell them to clear off, they don't want their type.

That isn't what happened though, is it? At least not in the way that SammyBoy described it. Maybe I'll wander around Asda at the weekend speaking to shop assistants in a dialect last used in the stone ages and get stroppy with anyone who displays the slightest bit of confusion. That'd be fine by your logic, right?

[timshorts]

If you were telling the customer to p1ss off, then, of course, that would have a different calculation than the ham. There were a different number of ounces to the pound (16, I think) to fluid ounces in the pint (20).

We scrapped the old system because it was b0ll0cks, not because of anything to do with the EU.

And if the old tw4t won 2 world wars (I'm not sure who against given that half of the EU countries were on our side), I guess that makes him at least 119 years old - which is fine for him, cos he'll be dead by the time we are well and truly f'd because of the Brexit vote. '

[SammyBoy]

That isn't what happened though, is it? At least not in the way that SammyBoy described it. Maybe I'll wander around Asda at the weekend speaking to shop assistants in a dialect last used in the stone ages and get stroppy with anyone who displays the slightest bit of confusion. That'd be fine by your logic, right?

Haha that's definitely not what happened, if I recall correctly I ended up biting my tongue (as always in retail) before getting one of the old timers on the next counter to help me out

[NRC]

I'm confused.... the UK adopted the metric system eons ago..... why is everything NOT signed in metric?

[claptrappers_union]

Just for continuity they should be in miles...

However, the quotes in the article read like they should be in The Daily Mash

Grandfather John Pickup, 68 said: “It’s disgraceful. We are supposed to be coming out of Europe so why the hell have they put signs up in kilometres?”

“We’ve fought and won two world wars and finally won our referendum to come out of the European Union. But now we are producing pathway signs in kilometres.”

The retired car dealer, who lives with wife Kath, 74, added: “Some people say kids are taught in metres but kids don’t go down there. It’s just us golden oldies.”

[LeadBelly]

" the UK adopted the metric system eons ago....". Not on road signs though. Eg. speed limits still mph not kph (or else I've been breaking the speed limit a lot more than I thought I had).
I still don't see that these signs are anything to get upset about though, you don't need a calculator to get an approx conversion & that's all you need in this instance.

[dsr]

Your average supermarket worker isn't interested in things like that, because it's generally a simple job that doesn't require much thought, so they aren't going to waste the effort.

95%-98% of things are already pre packed and the things that aren't, are picked & packed by the customer in the fruit & veg section where they choose the quantity they want.
It's extremely rare to get someone who wants things in the old system.

Your average supermarket owner would like his staff to be interested in that sort of thing, though. There is a stereotype that supermarket staff are just in it for the money and don't want toput in either thought or effort, but they'd still be better workers if they did, as far as both owmer/manager and customer are concerned.

Lots of things have changed in the lifetime of our parents and grandparents (and opurselves ). Why should they necessarily have to adapt? Half a pound of meat isn't an impossible request - as sammyboy pointed out, he managed it without difficulty. Why the disparagement of the oldies?

[NRC]

but adoption is adoption though. My guess that signs are in imperial measurement purely down to cost considerations of replacing them - each successive government would avoid "unnecessary" spend (or would that be local authorities?).

Get on with it would be my say, but I don't have one so it doesn't really matter

Meanwhile across the water, we're happily ensconced fully in a form of imperial, though not fully so (our pints and gallons are different - so when a local jack-the-lad claims "I downed six pints last night," he only really downed five)

[Paul Waine]

Excellent! I'm going to start using binary in shops then. I'm sure the shop assistant will understand that and not be confused when I hand over two pound coins when the till says 10

I'm guessing you will be happy to receive your change in groats (or £3 notes)?

[Lancasterclaret]

Its alright, thanks to daft old gibbers like John, we are all travelling back in time 40 years anyway.

He'll be fine in the New UK, assuming the daft old coot can hang on that long.

[Commy]

I still ask for things in lbs.

I think we insisted in keeping miles, as we did our currency when the Euro came in.

[SammyBoy]

Your average supermarket owner would like his staff to be interested in that sort of thing, though. There is a stereotype that supermarket staff are just in it for the money and don't want toput in either thought or effort, but they'd still be better workers if they did, as far as both owmer/manager and customer are concerned.

Lots of things have changed in the lifetime of our parents and grandparents (and opurselves ). Why should they necessarily have to adapt? Half a pound of meat isn't an impossible request - as sammyboy pointed out, he managed it without difficulty. Why the disparagement of the oldies?

I don't think anybody is disparaging all older people, in fact LeadBelly is a good example of somebody who is in their 60s and has clearly made the small amount of effort required to adapt to metric over the course of his lifetime. The problem lies with the older people who clearly have no interest in adapting (presumably to make some sort of point), have a horrible attitude about it and then play the victim when presented with the facts of the situation.

[Paul Waine]

I use kms when I'm exercising - because all the numbers are larger, so sounds better - and I can walk 1 km faster than I can walk 1 mile.

I use miles (distance) when I'm driving - and still think of fuel consumption in mpg. I'm pretty sure fuel economy is often quoted more prominently in mpg than in kilometres per litre. When was the last time any of us bought petrol/diesel in gallons?

We operate a mixed system of "weights and measures" - more metric today than when I was a youngster. We also have rods and perches and chains - latter is length between cricket wickets, I think, 22 yards (I've no idea how many metres).

[Sidney1st]

Your average supermarket owner would like his staff to be interested in that sort of thing, though. There is a stereotype that supermarket staff are just in it for the money and don't want toput in either thought or effort, but they'd still be better workers if they did, as far as both owmer/manager and customer are concerned.

Lots of things have changed in the lifetime of our parents and grandparents (and opurselves ). Why should they necessarily have to adapt? Half a pound of meat isn't an impossible request - as sammyboy pointed out, he managed it without difficulty. Why the disparagement of the oldies?

Yes they probably would be better workers, but like I said, a basic conversion chart would do the job if there was demand, but there isn't 99% of the time, I know this because I've worked on a deli counter in a supermarket about 20 years ago (I feel old now )

[randomclaret2]

More abuse of older people.

[ClaretEngineer]

Yes they probably would be better workers, but like I said, a basic conversion chart would do the job if there was demand, but there isn't 99% of the time, I know this because I've worked on a deli counter in a supermarket about 20 years ago (I feel old now )

My first job, some 10 years ago, was in a butchers in Rawtenstall. Though Rawtenstallians are often cited as being from the dark ages, my scales had dual measure on them. Seems I was using space age tech judging by some of the responses

Imperial measures carry a certain weight (forgive the pun, i could have used onomatopoeic but couldnt resist the pun!) when used to describe something off hand.

Like ''I'd giver 'er a pound o' my meat'' sounds better than the metric equivalent of 0.455kg

[JohnMcGreal]

Maybe I'll wander around Asda at the weekend speaking to shop assistants in a dialect last used in the stone ages and get stroppy with anyone who displays the slightest bit of confusion.

That sounds like an average day in Bacup.

[geopancake]

I use imperial and order a quarter of rainbow crystals from my local town centre shop regularly. Due to some useless hideously coloured signs I can no longer find my town centre.

And my dog is lost somewhere near Rowley.

Heads need to roll for this. Give some people an inch and they take a mile.

[LifeafterRobbie]

I do. Feet, inches, miles, pints, stone, pounds (weight)...

But if I said somewhere was 3 furlongs and 7 chains away, how many would know how far that was......................... and that's imperial

[Spijed]

Imagine competing in the men's 109 yard final at the Olympics?

[LifeafterRobbie]

Imagine competing in the men's 109 yard final at the Olympics?

It used to be 110 yards, 440 yds (quarter mile) and the mile................

[Spijed]

I was just converting 100 metres to yards (109.361)