Metrication

The process of change from imperial to metric measurements in Britain has been on-going for many years.

Today food and drink are still sold in a mixture of both measurements. One of the pre-conditions for Britain joining the European Union (or then the European Economic Community) in 1973 was that the country converted to metric. From the outset Sainsbury's led the way in this conversion.

In 1971 Sainsbury's printed both imperial and metric weights on their own brand packaging. Attempts were made to anticipate future changes: an extra fold was added to top of sugar bags so that they could hold metric weights as well as the 2lb imperial weights.

In 1972 Sainsbury's sold the 'value calculator'. This 10p slide rule allowed customers to compare the price of goods that were no longer packaged in 4, 8 and 16 oz weights. Comparison was made easier still when the retailer began to mark shelf edge labels with the 'price-per-pound' in 1973.

Despite the government's relaxation on compulsory conversion, Sainsbury's continued to convert pre-packaged foods to metric measurements. Over the years, a series of customer awareness leaflets have been issued to encourage customers to shop and cook in metric rather than imperial measurements.