I while back I bought some cheap picture frames at IKEA. Labeled on the front as 10cmx15cm (4"x6"). Standard picture size, right? Well, the centimeter size is exactly correct. Which means the opening is really 3.94" x 5.91". Which, go figure, is smaller than an actual 4"x6" photo. (Except for one photo that fits, and I haven’t figured out what the deal is there yet.)
Anyone in Europe want some picture frames?
Man, don’t get me started on Ikea.
I just moved into a new place and have had to buy a lot of furniture. I just spent more than I’d care to admit on their furniture, and thus have spent many an hour on assembly.
Those crappy little screwdriver thingies have made my hands raw!
Oh, and I bought some frames, too, and just whipped the scissors out and trimmed off a little excess so they’d fit. Since I was framing art cards, it was no big whoop.
I like Ikea furniture. No problem with those little hex-cranks. And being able to easily take stuff apart is handy for when I move. (I don’t know when I’ll be moving – depends on if I get the job I interviewed for on Wednesday. But I did take my shelves apart.)
It’s a plot.
The global economy is gonna do what 30 years of school campaigns could not.
Slowly but surely, as more and more everyday objects are NOT made in the USA, things sized in inches or weighed in ounces will stop fitting.
The public will eventually demand things that fit, and photolabs will start printing pictures in 10x15cm paper. Only they’ll still call it 4x6" for a few years, to get you used to it. And so on.
We’ll have a couple of decades of things falsely labeled in inches or ounces only for the sake of appeasing the consumer’s sensibilities, but really produced in metric dimensions.
Then they’ll just stop printing the inch/ounce equivalency.
In the end, conquest, and Metric America. 
Well, on the plus side, all my non-running friends will finally understand how far a 5K is!