# Price of produce in Canadian supermarkets \[English vs metric units\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 22, 2011, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-produce-in-canadian-supermarkets-english-vs-metric-units/593704 "2011-08-22T21:15:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-produce-in-canadian-supermarkets-english-vs-metric-units/593704/21 "2011-08-23T00:23:46Z")
> [@mnemosyne](#): > > My parents - and therefore so do I - use Fahrenheit for the pool temperature but Celsius for air temperature. Don’t know why, we just do. The pool heater display is in Fahrenheit, but that’s only been installed for a few years. > > We tend to cook using Fahrenheit as well; our oven defaults to 350F when we turn it on. The reason is that the weather news usually reports air temperature in Celsius. Hence you use Celsius for air temperature. 80 degree F is a nice, round number that tells you the pool is comfortable. You’re used to that way of determining the pool’s temperature and it’s good enough so there’s little incentive to switch. Recipes are usually in F in Canada, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-produce-in-canadian-supermarkets-english-vs-metric-units/593704/22 "2011-08-23T00:48:49Z")
The recipes I use are almost exclusively imperial. I have a Nigella Lawson cookbook that’s all in metric, and I’ll have to translate it to cups and teaspoons first. When we get stuff from the hardware stores, it’s about a 50/50 split between metric and imperial. The metric/imperial mélange is part of our special charm. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-produce-in-canadian-supermarkets-english-vs-metric-units/593704/23 "2011-08-23T00:56:22Z")
IIRC from the last time I was in a Canadian supermarket while the produce is priced per pound & per kilo (with imperial being more prominant) only metric units appear on the reciept itself. Also deli items are priced per 100g for the same reason gas is priced per litre; it looks cheaper at first glance. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-produce-in-canadian-supermarkets-english-vs-metric-units/593704/24 "2011-08-23T01:27:56Z")
Wow! That’s a lot of posts! I was only away a few hours! > [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > so **Keeve** , now that we’ve given some answers, could you explain why you found it so surprising? The simple answer is: Because I’m an ignorant 'Merkin. Because the gasoline was in litres, and the weather report was in Celcius, and the road signs are in kilometers. And none of them offered translations (except for the occasional speed limit sign, which translated to mph for obvious safety reasons – even on an empty highway, we don’t want the tourists thinking that “100” means “100 mph”). A more nuanced answer would be that this was the first time I’ve been out of the USA in almost 30 years. I really thought the whole world had gone totally metric. I figured Canadians would be only slightly more familiar with pounds and Fahrenheit than I am with bushels and shillings. But I was wrong. And that’s why I’m proud to have asked this on The Straight Dope, where we’ve been Fighting Ignorance Since 1973. (It’s taking longer than we thought!) ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-produce-in-canadian-supermarkets-english-vs-metric-units/593704/25 "2011-08-23T02:26:50Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > Recipes are usually in F in Canada, I think. Probably because the ovens are still in F. Building materials are still imperial in Canada, with two-by-fours and four-inch bolts and whatnot. I put wall studs 16 inches apart, not 40cm. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-produce-in-canadian-supermarkets-english-vs-metric-units/593704/26 "2011-08-23T02:27:42Z")
Most of the CSA requirements are in English units, such as the required height of safety fencing, and at which height you must use fall prevention equipment. I’ve bought U.S. gallons of milk in Ontario (at 7-Eleven). (Really, it was milk not in a bag!) Remember: ounces in a pint are English, not American. Deli meat is priced in units of 100 grams, I seem to recall. I tried to order half a kilogram one time, and it was impossible for the clerk to get the idea. When I indicated “about a pound” I got what I was trying to buy. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-produce-in-canadian-supermarkets-english-vs-metric-units/593704/27 "2011-08-23T02:42:08Z")
And just for shits and giggles, there are some topographic maps out there in which the east-west/north-south grid is in metric, while the contours indicating height are imperial. ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-produce-in-canadian-supermarkets-english-vs-metric-units/593704/28 "2011-08-23T02:58:46Z")
> [@Keeve](#): > > A more nuanced answer would be that this was the first time I’ve been out of the USA in almost 30 years. I really thought the whole world had gone totally metric. I figured Canadians would be only slightly more familiar with pounds and Fahrenheit than I am with bushels and shillings. But I was wrong. Gas is sold in Liters only by goverment diktat, in the not too distant past some gasoline retailers wanted to advertise in both systems, but I guess that was a bit too much for our govt types. For the longest time, fuel consumption was what ever per hundred liters and air to pump your tires, was measured in what ever per kilo pascal, since then we have moved back to PSI and MPG in general. Some folks probably still use the European system on a regular basis. Metric never took off because its not saleable, its great if you want to screw up a Martian orbital insertion, but its not really that much of a human system of measurement. Declan ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-produce-in-canadian-supermarkets-english-vs-metric-units/593704/29 "2011-08-23T03:01:45Z")
> [@Declan](#): > > Metric never took off because its not saleable, its great if you want to screw up a Martian orbital insertion, but its not really that much of a human system of measurement. That makes me VERY angry! ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-produce-in-canadian-supermarkets-english-vs-metric-units/593704/30 "2011-08-23T03:03:19Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > That makes me VERY angry! Remember Kaboom is an American measurement of an undeterminent explosive reaction. Declan ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-produce-in-canadian-supermarkets-english-vs-metric-units/593704/31 "2011-08-23T03:24:39Z")
Even Canadian Football is played in yards and inches. Metres really don’t work for that sport! ---
**Author:** ![Raygun99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Raygun99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raygun99)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-produce-in-canadian-supermarkets-english-vs-metric-units/593704/32 "2011-08-23T03:29:15Z")
I actually find l/100km a lot simpler than mpg, especially since my car gets slightly better than 10l/100km. Really easy calculation on the fuel receipt. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-produce-in-canadian-supermarkets-english-vs-metric-units/593704/33 "2011-08-23T03:32:41Z")
> [@Raygun99](#): > > I actually find l/100km a lot simpler than mpg, especially since my car gets slightly better than 10l/100km. Really easy calculation on the fuel receipt. It may be easier, but it’s all bass-ackwards and meaningless to a certain generation. (cough-cough) ---
**Author:** ![Implicit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Implicit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Implicit)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-produce-in-canadian-supermarkets-english-vs-metric-units/593704/34 "2011-08-23T04:08:32Z")
> [@mnemosyne](#): > > Even Canadian Football is played in yards and inches. Metres really don’t work for that sport! Golf courses are still using yards. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-produce-in-canadian-supermarkets-english-vs-metric-units/593704/35 "2011-08-23T04:18:07Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Probably because the ovens are still in F. Our oven is marked in both, which is great: I use ºF and **Mr. Mallard** , who is British, uses ºC. In Safeway, no matter the package / main price units, there’s usually a “per 100g” price which is useful for comparing between brands, and I’ve posted before about how even deli counter staff consistently cannot figure out that “half a kilogram” = 500g. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-produce-in-canadian-supermarkets-english-vs-metric-units/593704/36 "2011-08-23T04:42:33Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > The recipes I use are almost exclusively imperial. I have a Nigella Lawson cookbook that’s all in metric, and I’ll have to translate it to cups and teaspoons first. I have a handy little kitchen scale that measures in both oz. and g., and my measuring cups are bi-system, so I can cook North American, British and French recipes. (When it’s an American recipe, I just use my imperial cup measures - I figure the difference won’t affect the outcome of the average recipe.) ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-produce-in-canadian-supermarkets-english-vs-metric-units/593704/37 "2011-08-23T05:07:14Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Golf courses are in yards. Football fields are in yards. Ballparks are in feet. Horse racing tracks are in furlongs and miles. As I recall (and this is only my personal experience), the switchover to metric in the late 1970s was extremely unpopular, and despite the government’s best efforts to sell it nicely (humorous TV commercials telling us how much less we’d weigh in kilos), and conversely, to crack down on dissenters (the “Metric Cops,” as they were known, arrested the owner of a gas station that sold in gallons and padlocked his pumps–this was the Car Cafe on Queen Street in Toronto, if anybody cares to search), most Canadians resisted. They did so by not using metric units for anything, if they could help it. In some ways, it was forced: radio and TV had to report temperatures in Celsius, and wind speeds in km/h, and snow/rainfall in centimeters and millimeters respectively; and highway distances and speeds were posted in metric. But otherwise, Canadians stuck to what they knew, regardless of how metric was promoted. As a result, we use a mishmash of both systems. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-produce-in-canadian-supermarkets-english-vs-metric-units/593704/38 "2011-08-23T05:22:34Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > In Safeway, no matter the package / main price units, there’s usually a “per 100g” price which is useful for comparing between brands, and I’ve posted before about how even deli counter staff consistently cannot figure out that “half a kilogram” = 500g. I’ve posted the same thing more than a few times (including above, in this very thread). So I just want to point out that neither one of us is the others’ sock puppet. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-produce-in-canadian-supermarkets-english-vs-metric-units/593704/39 "2011-08-23T05:25:34Z")
Just recalled an incident I witnessed years ago, shortly after the switchover. It may illustrate my point about how metric was implemented. I was in the supermarket, at the deli counter. Ahead of me in line was a sweet little old lady. The clerk asked her what she wanted, and she answered, “A half-pound of Black Forest ham, please.” “How many grams do you want?” the clerk asked. “A half-pound,” the little old lady answered. “How many grams?” the clerk asked. “You have to ask for it in grams.” “I don’t know grams,” the little old lady replied. “Just give me a half-pound of ham.” “You have to ask for grams,” the clerk said. “That’s the law.” “Well, how many grams is a half-pound?” the little old lady asked. “Give me that much.” “No, you have to ask for it in grams,” the clerk replied. At this point, this sweet little old lady, who looked like she volunteered for the coffee hour at her church, visited shut-ins, and baked for the church bake sale, fixed the clerk with a look, drew herself up to her full five-foot-one, and said, “Please give me a half-pound of Black Forest ham.” “You have to ask for it in grams,” the clerk replied. “Fuck you,” said the little old lady. “Take your metric and shove it.” And she left. Knock me over with a feather! I sure didn’t expect to hear that from the little old lady! But while that was one instance, and an anecdote besides, I have no doubt that similar situations occurred in supermarkets across the country. Just for the record, when my turn came, I asked for two _dollars’_ worth of salami. I admired the little old lady, but I also wanted my deli meat. Asking in dollars made sure I’d get it without an argument. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-produce-in-canadian-supermarkets-english-vs-metric-units/593704/40 "2011-08-23T11:47:32Z")
> [@Tengu](#): > > Who are you talking to that uses Celsius for other things that use Fahrenheit for those? I use Celsius for outdoor temperatures (since that’s what the weather report uses) and Fahrenheit for indoor temperatures and body temperatures (since that’s what was on our thermostat and thermometer when I was growing up). I agree, it doesn’t make much sense… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-produce-in-canadian-supermarkets-english-vs-metric-units/593704.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/price-of-produce-in-canadian-supermarkets-english-vs-metric-units/593704.md?page=3)