Where I’m from you ask for deli meat in grams. I noticed the scale was in pounds and decimal format so I asked for 0.4 pounds. She looked at me like I wasn’t speaking English. I ask, what is the right way to order? She showed me a paper with bunch of fractions and their decimal equivalent. She said, “you can get any of these” the closest fraction was 1/3 of a pound, so I asked for that. So I’m wondering can you only order deli meat in fractional increments?
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You can ask for decimal increments of imperial measurements if you want, but most people are less particular than that & order in round numbers or fractions
Im Australian… But i usualt say “a good handful” *she gets it* me? ” About half that again”
Works for me!
Yeah, fractions of a pound is the norm (quarter, third, half)
A few times I bought some by the amount of slices but most people probably don’t do that
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That said, you should have been fine with saying 0.4 pounds.. The person working the deli that day wasn’t very bright if your request confused her
You should also be able to get it in grams.. all they have to do is push a button on the scale to weigh in grams
Because why would someone order 2/5 of pound of deli meat?
Just get half a pound. Or a third. Keep it normal.
Ordering 0.4 lbs of something would be… Weird. But I can’t imagine why it would be a problem. The fact that they *have* a fraction to decimal conversion table tells me their scale reads in decimal (like… What scale doesn’t?) and that they have to convert all of the fractions people tell them to decimal to weigh it out properly.
I think you got a particularly “I’m not paid to use my brain” person that day who didn’t want to deal with someone not following exactly the pattern that they are used to.
I usually order in fractional increments of 1/4 lb, but the scales are all in decimal so I feel like I could order 0.4lb at my local grocery deli counter.
The scales can totally do 0.4 lbs, she was just being a stupid bitch. But yeah, most people will request a pound or a half pound. Also I’ve noticed in some stores, they will put some on the scale and if it comes up 0.45, that’s close enough and they print the barcode whether I like it or not.
Generally speaking people order by the fraction of a pound, quarter and half pound increments are the norm.
In pounds. If I ask for 1 pound I’m good if you’re within +/- 10%.
Meat is usually priced by the pound and asking for quarter pound increments is typical: quarter pound, half pound, 3/4 lb, pound, etc. That said, I have no idea why they objected to your request. Most places have them punch in the product on the scale and it prints out a label with how much the order is.
I worked at a deli before, would have no problems getting you 0.4, though most would just ask for a half pound at that point. But I did work with some idiots that couldn’t do basic fractions/decimals at all.
Had some young girl ask me on her first day what a quarter pound would be… she wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed.
You will never get the *exact* amount you order. So people order a quarter pound, half pound, pound, knowing they may get 0.29, 0.46, 1.09 respectively. If you order a half pound, there’s a slightly above 0% chance that you will get 0.5. Everyone knows this, so it would strike someone slicing meat as odd to order a very specific (0.4 pounds) amount knowing you’re not actually going to get that specific amount.
Did you say nought instead of zero?
We don’t do that here and I can understand her confusion if that’s what happened. We would usually just say “point four”, but sometimes “zero point four”. Otherwise, decimals would be a bit odd, but understandable.
Integers, Halves, or Quarters would be the most common. And then after they give you the amount you can “a little more” or “a little less.”
I’m surprised you had a problem with 0.4 lbs. I’d have expected the scale to be able to read out in decimals, but maybe it was set to fractions and she didn’t know how to change the units.
I’ve tried ordering in ounces (16 ounces in a pound, I asked for 8 ounces) and been told I can’t do that. Some people just don’t think when they hear numbers.
Quarter pound/half pound, etc
I order cold cuts by fractions of pounds. Quarter pound, third, half pound etc.
I used to be a meat cutter for a few years, so not deli but the same process. I have sold meat to quite a few Europeans who ordered in kilos and grams I would just do the conversion and give them what they wanted. We had people order anyway and in amounts from a single shrimp to asking for however much a certain amount of money (it was something like $62 if I remember) will cover. Most of the time people are not picky and sick with 1/4’s, 1/3s, 1/2s, or whole pounds. You probably ran into someone that doesn’t understand conversations, or is unwilling to do them.
THIS PART DOES NOT ANSWER YOUR QUESTION:
I was in Florida and dropped off a rental car a couple weeks ago. The girl at the counter asked how much gas was in it. I said like three quarters of a tank. And she asked, “Is that when it’s mostly full or mostly empty?”
I couldn’t answer her directly. I said “So imagine I have a whole orange and cut it into 4. I took away one piece which is a quarter. So there are 3 quarters left. That’s how much is in the tank.” I hope I help a teeny bit.
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I am worried your deli person had a cheat sheet and just didn’t understand math or numbers at all like my gas lady.
I only order in fractions 1/4, 1/2 or full LB.
The scale measures in decimals of a pound so it should be possible, but we always order in fractions ie a pound of krakus, 1/4 pound of mortadella, etc.
Most people order in fractions (a half pound, a quarter pound, etc), but that’s just what’s most common, not a requirement.
There’s absolutely no reason why the lady couldn’t have given you 0.4 lbs. People do that sort of thing all the time here.
I suspect you encountered a nitwit … nothing more complicated than that.
Grocery store workers are not specialists, not unless they take a personal interest in the task. For 0.4lbs I would ask for “A little less than half a pound, please”
My guess is that either the lady was in a “I’m not paid to use my brain” mood, or she thought you were trying to pull off one of those stupid “retail hacks” from some idiot on tiktok since ordering by decimal isn’t what people usually do, especially something like .4 of a pound.
Hot ‘n spicy quarter cut sandwich slices with a side of dill pickle stackers.
Most people probably order by the fraction of a pound, but it shouldn’t have been a problem considering it was probably an electronic scale.