Package of staples WTF



  • "5000 staples

     210 per strip"



  • That's how ISO certification works: As your controllers buy by the number on the package, exactly 5000 staples would mean filling out a lengthy form for every staple that wouldn't punch through or the like.

    Now, when there's actually 5040 in it, you have a few free misses and MIGHT be able to accomplish some REAL work ;-)



  • @Sgeo said:

    "5000 staples

     210 per strip"

    I don't really get it.. 210 is a little weird, but I have never gotten a box of staples that had perfect, unbroken strips in it before. I hardly think anyone would notice if there was a 'remainder strip'.

     

    I could be missing something here though...



  • I guess the "5000 staples" figure is accurate to 1%, and there are actually 24 strips of 210.

     



  • It's like a baker's dozen.



  • @MasterPlanSoftware said:

    @Sgeo said:

    "5000 staples

     210 per strip"

    I don't really get it.. 210 is a little weird, but I have never gotten a box of staples that had perfect, unbroken strips in it before. I hardly think anyone would notice if there was a 'remainder strip'.

     

    I could be missing something here though...

    We need to prove or disprove MPS's idea here. Sgeo, can you count how many staples were ACTUALLY in the pack, and in what size strips?



  • Buy a 1 litre bottle of water in Spain and read the label. It'll say "980ml" for exactly the same reason. They can guarantee 980 ml, but not much more...



  • @Sgeo said:

    "5000 staples

     210 per strip"

    That's the way that quantity labeling works: they are telling you that there are at least that many items in the package. There are severe penalties for selling short measure, but none for selling too much.



  • @Carnildo said:

    @Sgeo said:

    "5000 staples

     210 per strip"

    That's the way that quantity labeling works: they are telling you that there are at least that many items in the package. There are severe penalties for selling short measure, but none for selling too much.

    I always thought they were allowed to quote an average, using something like 'Approximately'. Also, the '℮' symbol seen after weights in the EU specifies the allowed degree of 'short measure': http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/"Estimated"_sign

    And I believe there will be severe penalties for selling too much alcohol (either quantity or strength), and possibly cigarettes and petrol (and anything else taxed by quantity rather than price)




  • @phelyan said:

    Buy a 1 litre bottle of water in Spain and read the label. It'll say "980ml" for exactly the same reason. They can guarantee 980 ml, but not much more...

     

    The weight of the water is constant as is the weight of the bottle. Must be a strike of weights and measures inspectors in Spain? 



  • @phelyan said:

    Buy a 1 litre bottle of water in Spain and read the label. It'll say "980ml" for exactly the same reason. They can guarantee 980 ml, but not much more...

    It probably has more to do with the fact that they can legally sell a bottle that looks like one litre but is labelled as containing less. A 2% reduction in the quantity of product should have a similar increase in the gross profit. 



  • @medialint said:

    @phelyan said:

    Buy a 1 litre bottle of water in Spain and read the label. It'll say "980ml" for exactly the same reason. They can guarantee 980 ml, but not much more...

     

    The weight of the water is constant as is the weight of the bottle. Must be a strike of weights and measures inspectors in Spain? 

    or it could be that the factories are based on efficiency and thus you don't test every single bottle.  So they do statistical sampling to make sure that almost all of their bottles are above a given amount.  This works because water and staples are so cheap to make they they would rather make the production and testing faster and risk giving the customer more than they are actually advertising.  

     

    and no, taking 20 ml out of every bottle is not going to give them a lot more profit.  What do you think the cost of 20ml of water is? 



  • @tster said:

    What do you think the cost of 20ml of water is? 

    Exactly 2% of normal, full cost.



  • @dhromed said:

    @tster said:

    What do you think the cost of 20ml of water is? 

    Exactly 2% of normal, full cost.

    Price breakdown of one liter of bottled mineral water (1 €):

    • bottle: 15cts
    • bottling costs: 5cts
    • transport: 25cts
    • marketing:20cts
    • retail margin:20cts
    • profit: 15cts
    • water:0.0000cts


  • @JvdL said:

    • water:0.0000cts

    You're either a bloody communist or a bloody idiot. Drinkable water is not free. Check how much tax money your government spends on getting it to you. The mineral water companies have to pay all that stuff themselves (except possibly in the US, where I would not be surprised to find government subsidies on mineral water).



  • Some day I'll figure out why a bottle of plain water costs more than a bottle of pepsi the same size.



  • @medialint said:

    Some day I'll figure out why a bottle of plain water costs more than a bottle of pepsi the same size.

    Because there are people who are actually stupid enough to buy it?



  • @asuffield said:

    @JvdL said:

    • water:0.0000cts

    You're either a bloody communist or a bloody idiot. Drinkable water is not free. Check how much tax money your government spends on getting it to you. The mineral water companies have to pay all that stuff themselves (except possibly in the US, where I would not be surprised to find government subsidies on mineral water).

    You are confusing the price of water with the cost of what it takes to get water from A to B, exactly as my price breakdown conveys: the price of a spring water bottle includes all that cost (and some profit), but none for the water.

    In Spain, drinkable mineral spring water tends to flow out of rocks. In some places it flows in abundance and mostly into the sea or onto crops. In most places, however, it is in very short supply and vast infrastructure and costs are required to get it from wet zones to dry zones and/or preserve it from the wet season into the dry season.

    Spring water is not like oil that requires drilling and treatment - if it does not flow into a bottle it simply vanishes. This is different from tap water and drilled up, treated, bottled waters that Nestlé and Coca-Cola are pushing into the stores.

     

     

     



  • @asuffield said:

    @JvdL said:
    • water:0.0000cts

    You're either a bloody communist or a bloody idiot. Drinkable water is not free. Check how much tax money your government spends on getting it to you. The mineral water companies have to pay all that stuff themselves (except possibly in the US, where I would not be surprised to find government subsidies on mineral water).

    Could have sworn I made this post already.  WTF.  Maybe it's a conspiracy by the aquafina and naya to rid the internet of all defamatory statements about them.

    I always thought that they just sold us water from the tap.  Bloody waste of money. 



  • @JvdL said:

    @asuffield said:
    @JvdL said:

    • water:0.0000cts

    You're either a bloody communist or a bloody idiot. Drinkable water is not free. Check how much tax money your government spends on getting it to you. The mineral water companies have to pay all that stuff themselves (except possibly in the US, where I would not be surprised to find government subsidies on mineral water).

    You are confusing the price of water with the cost of what it takes to get water from A to B, exactly as my price breakdown conveys: the price of a spring water bottle includes all that cost (and some profit), but none for the water.

    In Spain, drinkable mineral spring water tends to flow out of rocks. In some places it flows in abundance and mostly into the sea or onto crops. In most places, however, it is in very short supply and vast infrastructure and costs are required to get it from wet zones to dry zones and/or preserve it from the wet season into the dry season.

    Spring water is not like oil that requires drilling and treatment - if it does not flow into a bottle it simply vanishes. This is different from tap water and drilled up, treated, bottled waters that Nestlé and Coca-Cola are pushing into the stores.

     

    Ahh, I see, so the bottling companies, simply put their bottles under the rocks, and let nature fill them.

    It all makes sense now!

    I wonder though... What happens if an animal comes along and helps nature fill them?

    Lemonade?



  • @medialint said:

    Some day I'll figure out why a bottle of plain water costs more than a bottle of pepsi the same size.

    If it didn't cost as much, it wouldn't sell as well. See Veblen good.



  • @MasterPlanSoftware said:

    What happens if an animal comes along and helps nature fill them?

    Lilt. 



  • @medialint said:

    @phelyan said:

    Buy a 1 litre bottle of water in Spain and read the label. It'll say "980ml" for exactly the same reason. They can guarantee 980 ml, but not much more...

     

    The weight of the water is constant as is the weight of the bottle. Must be a strike of weights and measures inspectors in Spain? 

    Liters are a measure of volume, not weight.



  • @PerdidoPunk said:

    Liters are a measure of volume, not weight.

     This is true but you can also measure by weight, as do the assembly line machines, unless gravity is a variable. Which sometimes happens.
     



  • @medialint said:

    @PerdidoPunk said:

    Liters are a measure of volume, not weight.

     This is true but you can also measure by weight, as do the assembly line machines, unless gravity is a variable. Which sometimes happens.
     

    Yeah, but only on Thursdays.

     

     

    Wait... what?



  • @MasterPlanSoftware said:

    @medialint said:
    @PerdidoPunk said:

    Liters are a measure of volume, not weight.

     This is true but you can also measure by weight, as do the assembly line machines, unless gravity is a variable. Which sometimes happens.
     

    Yeah, but only on Thursdays.

     

     

    Wait... what?

     AFAIK gravity is a bit lower at the equator. But scales should be calibrated for that.

     



  • My humor can be cryptic at times ... hints are in the tags.


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