How many items make a pack? part 3

Two more odd sized packs for the record.

Tesco supermarket is selling packs of Broccoli with a nominal 335gm ... why? .. so they can sll them at 50p each and display a price of £1.50 per kilo!

A mail order company offered me packs of paper hand wipes (see part 2) with 260 in a pack.

How many items make a pack? part 2

Today I gave blood (it was, according to the records, my 66th time). The UK blood donation service collects a donation of 470ml. Why 470? I asked, being an Elephant's Child with insatiable curiosity (or "'satiable curtiosity" as Kipling wrote).

The service decided on 470 because it was found to be an amount that a healthy donor of minimum weight can safely give; if it were to be increased, then it would prevent some donors from giving. If it were reduced, then handling it (because each donation is divided into parts) might become difficult. So it is 470ml (or equivalent because it is weighed) for good reasons.

How many items make a pack?

From time to time, I observe a package or a product in a shop or elsewhere, and wonder why the manufacturers have selected a particular size or number of items.

On my website, there are pictures from the ROCARO conference in Niamey in 2004, including a picture of a beer bottle holding 48cc. Why 48?

The paper towels in the washroom here come in packs of 180 towels. Why 180?

British food packaging is plagued with anomalous sizes. Jam, marmalade and numerous other items are sold in packs weighing 454gm or 340gm (equivalent to 1 pound, or 12 ounces). Flour is sold in bags weighing 1.5kg -- a reminder that it was formerly sold in bags weighing 3 pounds (why 3?)

For the final consumer, these assorted sizes are little more than an irritant; but within a supply chain, they can be more serious.

Now I shall start to collect and report odd-sized packs.