FROM January 1, 2000, all loose goods weighed out and priced at checkouts, counters or market stalls will have to be in grams and kilograms as Britain's shoppers and traders are pushed further along the metric road.

Customers will no longer be able to buy fruit and vegetables, meat or meat products like sausages and cooked meats, poultry, fish and other seafoods, or cheese and other dairy products in traditional pounds and ounces.

Non-food products sold in weight or length, like nails or curtain wire, will also be affected, shoppers will no longer be able to buy a quarter of sweets and a pound of apples will become a thing of the past.

Reporter SHELLEY WRIGHT spoke to those on both sides of the counter about the change.

IT'S 3pm and Blackburn's Three Day Market is bustling with people on the lookout for the bargain of the day.

Fruit and vegetable stalls, pick and mix sweet carousels and a host of traders are advertising their goods with brightly coloured signs in a bid to persuade shoppers to buy.

But on January 1, 2000, all those signs will have to change.

Where cut-price sweets are offered by the quarter, the signs will read in grams and best Bramley apples will no longer be offered at 58p a pound. Stallholder Gillian Hugo, who runs the W and D Moss produce stall with husband Courtney, has already had the till and scales converted to metric, but believes the change will cause problems for customers and especially the old.

She said: "It will cause problems for the elderly and there is a lot of resistance to the metric weights. People are generally upset about it and don't see why it has to change."

Blackburn with Darwen Council's chief trading standards officer Chris Allen feels the change will bring goods sold in length and volume in line with pre-packed goods already sold in metric weight.

He said: "There is going to be a bit of confusion and it will affect traders and shopkeepers, but the metric system has been around for almost 100 years and we already use it for so many things.

"Some people will jump on the bandwagon and ask why should we change to be in line with the EC but they must see that Britain is the second to last country in the world to adopt the system."

Mr Allen likened the changeover to decimalisation in 1971 and urged people not to keep converting metric back to imperial weights. He said: "If people start using the system they will get used to it very quickly as they did when decimalisation began."

But East Lancashire traders disagree.

Michael Gordon, who owns two sweet stalls on the market, said: "We already sell loose goods in metric which is how pre-packed sweets are sold, but we show conversions on the stall and people can ask for stuff in either imperial or metric weight.

"From January 1 they can still do that but, of course, they will be weighed and priced in metric."

Shopper Joyce Grunshaw, 72, of Audley, Blackburn, said: "The new system could be confusing for some. I haven't got a problem with it but for some older people it will be a big change.

"Problems will also come when people are working in yards and inches because you will have to buy in centimetres and metres, which is more."

Gail Whittaker, who runs a fabric stall, agreed.

She said: "It is very hard work and I am spending time explaining the difference to people.

"The problem comes with things like curtain wire which we sell by inches and yards.

"From January we will have to sell it by the metre which equates to 39 inches where a yard is only 35 inches.

"People will have to buy four inches more than they want and cut it off when they get home. It's barmy." Mr Allen said that although it will be illegal to sell goods in imperial weights from January 1, there would be no problem with traders showing imperial equivalents next to metric prices and weights.

He said: "As long as the goods are marked up and sold in metric that is fine. Traders should make sure their scales and tills are converted in time but are welcome to have equipment which shows both systems.

"But I would urge them to act now and not leave any conversions until the last minute."

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