An unexpected weight

Supermarkets specify VERY closely to what levels a product should conform.

Even the number of blooms, and their diameter on a pot plant! (We were told this by a supplier of plants to a supermarket.) Consequently a computer controls the lighting and temperature of the greenhouse, to ensure compliance when the plants are taken for delivery.

So the supplier has to deliver a package whichn meets that specificatioin very closely, if they are to continue as a supplier..

Howard

My weekly size '10' Pineapple from the big M varies. Don't know where the 10 originates, Diameter, Length or Weight. On odd occasions, an '8' gets mixed in, yummy.

Regards Ian.

.

With your ‘inside knowledge’ Howard … do you have any idea how they achieve the feat that inspired this thread ?

If every bag of Pears is required to be saleable as 610g … what is the tolerance, how is it specified, and how does the supplier achieve it ?

A guess would be that the weight must be 610g with a tolerance of say +20 / -0

[customers rarely complain if they get a little more than they paid for]

and an even wilder guess is that the packer has a wonderful computerised robotic pear-shuffling machine which can find suitable sets of four or more fruits.

All this for an end-buyer’s price of £1 a bag !!

If true … it’s an amazing world we live in.

MichaelG.

It's going back a bit and times / laws change.....

4o odd years ago my then local hardware sole trader had some scales that he only used to sell putty by the pound out of a big drum. The weights got putty stuck to them from his hands. Weights and Measures were very unhappy about this and insisted that either he cleaned his weights or took a trip to court.

So back then at least giving the customer more than expected was frowned upon even though the greengrocer next door had clean weights but had to give you extra for obvious reasons discussed above.