Comments on: Milk pricing – is there method in the supermarket muddle?

By: Michael Glass

Michael Glass — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 14:15:23 +0000

Surely the consumers association in the UK should take up this matter, as selling milk in both pints and litres is totally confusing for the consumer. It’s time to ditch the pint and simply package and sell milk in rational sizes based on the litre.

In Australia, milk and cream is sold in 300ml, 600ml, 1 litre, 2 litre and 3 litre containers. We haven’t dealt with pints since the 1970s.

By: Richard Copus

Richard Copus — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 16:22:41 +0000

Pints of milk and pints of beer were accepted as such an ingrained part of British culture that they should not be subject to the metrication rules. I can't understand why anybody should prefer to buy supermarket milk by the litre rather than pint when the price per unit is usually higher that way. [Richard Copus appears to have misunderstood the meaning of "unit price". It is of course the "price per litre", and it will be the same whatever the size of the carton. The unit price enables the shopper to compare value for money for different sizes of package. Unfortunately, the failure of the Government to publicise this useful information has meant that many shoppers are unaware of it. - Editor]

By: Shaun

Shaun — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 11:05:58 +0000

I was in Northern Ireland last summer and I noticed that althuogh one pint bottles of milk are still available own brand bottle larger than a pint are in multiples of one litre. I also noticed that own brand bottles say produced in Northern Ireland on them. Could this be an influence from the Republic? If large bottle have already been converted why not introduce a 500ml bottle. A half litre bottle would be in a round metric size and could create more reasons to buy a one litre bottle.

By: Mark Preston

Mark Preston — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 22:45:28 +0000

I’m the same, I look out for metric packages, one supermarket selling metric only is the Dutch owned Spar.

It’s even odder with own brand milks because own brand filtered milk, own brand organic milk, own brand soya milk, own brand goats milk, own brand flavoured milk etc are all sold in 1 litre packages !!

By: Delta

Delta — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:27:58 +0000

I may be taking it too far, but if I am shopping and I can’t find any milk in a nice rounded metric container I just don’t buy milk.

By: A

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:22:56 +0000

I have noticed that Morrisons sell their own brand 1.136 L (2 pint) milk bottles for less than the branded 1 litre milk bottles. A pricing difference of around 20 p for a volume difference of 0.136 L!

The use of pints for liquids in shops seems to be only unique to own brand milk (as far as I have noticed). None of the brand companies use pints for milk, they all use metric quantities. Yet own brand juices are labelled in metric units only, just like other brands. A plastic bottle is a plastic bottle, makes no difference what it is filled with! This raises the question as to why own brands insist on using pints.

One exception I know is Farmfoods which sells its own brand 2 L milk bottles for £1. They are labelled 2 L but the bottle itself has a marker in litres and pints. This may have something to do with the packaging manufacturer rather than Farmfoods.

By: Martin Vlietstra

Martin Vlietstra — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 15:58:14 +0000

Milk is one of the few exceptions where metric units need not be the principal units – but only in RETURNABLE containers. If anybody wants to cause a spot of bother, take your empty 1, 2, 4 or 6 pint milk containers to wherever you bought them and ask them where they can be deposited.

By: Weeble

Weeble — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 00:54:32 +0000

I have noticed that milk in supermarkets tends to have a big number and no units on the front. The number will be the whole number of pints. On the side it will have the measurement in litres and then in pints. Is the lack of unit on the front some sort of trick to get around the requirement that the most prominent measurement should be metric? Can they claim it’s just a decoration or part of the name or something, rather than an imperial measurement?