Visit any shop or supermarket to buy a pound of apples and you will now have to ask for about half a kilogram instead.

Strictly speaking, you should ask for 0.4536 of a kilogram, but only apple-loving mathematicians need worry their heads about that.

For the rest of us, it should be enough to know that a kilogram is a little over two pounds in Imperial weights.

New European regulations that came into force on January 1 dictate that loose goods must be sold in grams and kilos. This change is not proving popular with everyone, though at Newgate Market in York the main response seems to be one of disgruntled acceptance. Traders are not exactly happy but they knew what was coming and have adapted accordingly.

This is a sensible reaction and the only way forward. Pre-packed goods have been sold in metric weights since October 1995 and shoppers appear to have coped without too much difficulty.

Imperial measures are not yet lost to us completely, though they are certainly on the way out. For the next ten years, traders will be allowed to display imperial as well as metric values on their goods, so long as the imperial measure is in smaller print. This compromise is only fair and should go some way to placating those who are wary of metrification, especially older shoppers who have always shopped in pounds and ounces.

Some of us may still resent metrification, but the change has been coming for a long time and a whole generation is now growing up that has no understanding of the Imperial system. Once we have accepted the switch, buying goods in metric measurements is in many ways easier as the metric system is more logical than the Imperial.

It is important, however, that no one feels they are being short changed by the new metric way of buying loose goods. Traders have to ensure that everything they sell is marked up fairly, with no sneaky price rises smuggled in under the guise of metrification.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.