Strawberry Law

From: Kevin McManaman


For your information, I recently read a state supreme court opinion dealing with strawberries. Believe it or not, the Nebraska Supreme Court very recently decided an opinion dealing with the methods of sale for strawberries in stores. Apparently the Uniform Weights and Measures Act adopted by many states says that one can sell small berries, in this case strawberries, "by weight or by volume" and the state inspectors decided in all their wisdom that a store cannot sell them both by weight and by volume in the same store at the same time, although they could sell by weight one day and the next day by the pint, half-pint, etc. The store commissioned a survey and over 80% wanted them sold both ways and the rest didn't care. Nevertheless, the state prohibited such a sale method because it would confuse patrons as to which was the better deal. As a result, the little old lady must by an entire half pint with the mouldy ones at the bottom in order to have strawberries for her cereal. She cannot buy just two hand picked strawberries. Or else she can only buy by the pound. It is up to the store to decide the only way to sell 'em that day and she cannot choose. They are prohibited from entering any other sold of a sale method than one of the two mentioned above at a single time. The case name is Baker's vs. Dept. of Agriculture, and is only 2 weeks old. [as of Jan. 4, 1996--JAMM]