What is a stone?

What on earth is a stone?  How many US pounds is it?

14 lbs.

Ugh!

Hey at least it makes the number seem smaller!

Mental weightloss imagery.... literally carrying around a 14lb stone...
 

Our lbs are the same as yours!  It's the liquid measures that differ - our pint is larger than yours (not everything American is bigger!  ).  This is quite an important consideration when discussing beer!

Oddly enough stones only seem to be used in connection with personal weight:  it would be unusual for you to ask a greengrocer for a stone of potatoes - you'd just say "14 pounds".

There's another weight measure between the stone and ton - hundredweight, abbeviation "cwt."  Do you have that in the US?  Weighs 112lb, 1/20th of a ton.

Not that I know of Howard.  That whole ton thing is highly unappealing to one trying to lose weight though.  I weigh Xth of a ton?  OMG. The hundred weight is something I think we used to use way back when -you know before the independence! 

Still laughing at the stone thing.  Can you even imagine needing that many potatoes?  I should go to the store when I get there and ask them that on pupose to get a laugh...   5 stone of apples please.  You see I am from America and we do everything big. 

Oddly enough stones only seem to be used in connection with personal weight:  it would be unusual for you to ask a greengrocer for a stone of potatoes - you'd just say "14 pounds".

But surely then the green grocer would get fined for selling in imperial measures and not metric! I usually wind up asking 'can I have whatever 1lb of ....... works out to be' and hope that the accent gives me some sort of feeble excuse for not paying attention those 3 weeks when they tried to teach us metric in school.

Personal weight in "stones" is much less depressing though! 

No, I don't think he would be fined.  Lots of people ask for things in lbs, still, - I do!  If the item you want is already wrapped/packed and doesn't need weighing (eg, butter) he will simply give you the nearest metric equivalent: "Half a pound of butter please" will get you 250g of butter, though it's actually close to 9oz.  For stuff that has to be weighed, the scales have to be in full view of the customer, and have to have a metric scale on them; but i can't recall having seen one that doesn't also have lbs and oz as well. At the end of the weighing you are asked "Is that all right?" and if the lbs and oz look ok to you, the grocer or butcher will work out (or the scales will work out for him) the price for so many grammes.

Personal weight in "stones" is much less depressing though!

Beer in British pint measures is pretty undepressing, too!

Ah, but I remember quite clearly in the press maybe about a year or two ago (maybe it was too regional up here) that they were "cracking down" on market merchants and such that were still selling by imperial measures. Something to do with EU regulations or something. They even did "undercover traps" to catch them and someone was caught and decided, rightly, to fight his position that he should be allowed to sell in either/both formats to satisfy his customers. In typical news story fashion, I never heard what happened to him afterwards.

We always get our fresh veg (and sometimes meat) from the market stalls in town and I was always bit terrified that I wouldn't be able to ask for the measures I was used to. I have NO idea what to ask for in Kg (or whatever it's called) or how much it'll cost now with the metric measurements per £ on display. Our grocers never ask if the amount is correct as they're too quick to stick it on the scale, get the price and stick it in the bag. Wow. Hope I'm not getting ripped off! LOL. I wonder if I should go to night school to learn metric/imperial conversions. 

On the other hand, British pints of beer are yet another great aspect of this great place!! 

I remeber that case, Lynne, but i think the reason was that the trader refused to have a metric scale - would only measure things in imperial.  I think you can measure things in anything you want, provided you can immediately give the metric equivalent.  I think also that prices per weight have to be advertised in metric too, but perhaps some of our legal eagles (peedal?  elle? ashley?) could ask the law experts what the rules are!

Oh okay then, that makes more sense I suppose. I think it was around the time when I had first started venturing out on my own and actually buying things here so I didn't get the full gist of it. I probably heard the 'you can't sell in imperial, it must be metric' bit and panicked!  I know there was a lot of hype about it but then disappeared.

The actual law of it would probably be very interesting to know though because I never really looked that closely at the actual scales and always just rode through on the "ignorant american" angle for not knowing how much stuff I actually wanted in metric terms. It's simple, I'm sure, if I really thought about it but it's hard to when buying something used to be so automatic.

Unfortunately, the law firm I work for wouldn't know the answer but at least I can tell you probably who's likely to win in a road traffic accident dispute! LOL! 

I recall when they put the law into effect. I was buying cloth material that day and they decided they were going to refuse. The next stop? The butcher. And he was up in arms, but accepting it...complaining about having to replace all their equipment. A few stood firm, and the government realized the backing was so strong, they now allow both. I think the rule is that you have to provide metric, but they won't stop anyone selling imperial. I can go into the butcher these days and ask for a pound and they don't bat an eye.