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As an assistant meat manager at a large grocery store, i have never heard of anyone ordering nine tenth's of a pound of anything,but,it's not hard at all to figure out what nine tenth's is on a digital scale. .90 . Unfortunately the average deli worker that i have worked with would give you that blank look and make those same comments that you wrote about. My pet peeve is when a customer asks for a T-Bone steak 5/16's of an inck thick.Or 5/8's . We dont have micrometers or digital knives in the meat dept. There....i've finally got that off my chest. In ending i feel that any service employee should make every effort to get what their customer wants !!!

I'm in an EU country, so nearly all food weights are expressed in grams; it makes it difficult to ask for an amount that would seem 'odd'.

Most people probably simply think in increments of whatever system they use (e.g. US or metric), but I don't think there's anything wrong with requesting a non-standard amount; the amounts you describe don't go to any more decimal places than ordinary quarter-pound-based quantities.

On the other hand, you might want to be ready to consider [re-]expressing your request in the equivalent number of ounces (or grams), or to explain how to key in 9/10 of a pound.
The sales staff should be trained to handle this sort of request (don't get me started on how fundamental, practical maths skills should be effectively taught at school), but there's a good chance it didn't happen. On those occasions that your request is turning into a major production/a massive queue is starting to build up behind you, however, you might want to just go with 'fine, between -.-- and -.-- of a pound is fine', and hope for better luck next time.

When I first read the title of the thread, I thought you were asking for a third of a pound of something. Nine tenths of a pound is a bit over the top in my opinion.

By the same token, you should be treated with respect wherever you shop.

I think I'd just go with less quantity for each purchase to avoid waste and overeating. Between the odd looks you must get and holding up the line, it's just not worth it. Today someone paid at Costco with one dollar bills and I thought I'd blow a blood vessel.

I'm so bad at math, a request like yours (9/10 of a pound) would make my head explode.

Hey, to each their own ..... but what business is your husband in?

Inquiring minds, et al ....

if i did that at my deli, they would be polite, but i'm sure they would talk abt me when i left... i think its a bit much, but ... in my house we would just get the pound and with two yorkies... they would happily oblige the extra tenth of a pound.

Do I think you're being overly anal rentitive? Yes. Should that matter to you? No. If you want to have that degree of control over lunchmeat portions, it's certainly your right. Whether the deli people will be able to accomodate it is another question. I guess it depends on how thin and small the meat slices are, and whether the scales weigh in ounces or tenths. (see, I really don't buy deli meat much -- I don't even know how the scales are set.) If a tenth of a pound is a few slices, they should be able to get close. If a tenth of a pound means they have to start tearing slices in half, then it may be too much to ask for, since no one is going to want to buy the other torn half.

Honestly, I've never weighed deli meat when I'm making a sandwich, so I can't tell you how much each slice weighs, but I've got to say that on the rare occasions I buy and eat deli meat, I portion it by slice when I build a sandwich. Maybe you could keep the same degree of control by telling them how many slices you need rather than specifying a weight.

If .9 lbs is what you want, then that's what you should order. It's a digital scale which means it's less about poor math skills and more about learning to eyeball how much meat or cheese is a pound, a half pound, etc.

On the other hand, you could buy your own digital scale to have at home. Then, if you get more meat (or whatever) than you originally wanted you can portion off the amount you won't use for the week and put it in the freezer.

I would be too embarrassed to order .9 pound and would just order "a little less than 1." But why is .9 pound any harder to measure than .75 or 1? Maybe they're more accustomed to eyeballing the "normal" numbers, but .9 pounds does not sound that crazy to me. Now, moving out to two or three decimal places...

@dbcurrie - I thought of the number of slices comment, but then I thought actually typing the comment, would lead people to believe I wasn't recovering from my life as an accountant very well!

Hey, if 9/10 is what you want, then 9/10 is what you should get. But you also need to factor in that your average supermarket deli person may only have a high school diploma and may not know how to convert that in to decimals. So help them out and tell them you want the scale to read .90 for your order - and that should be fine no matter how you want it sliced: thick, thin, average, shaved, etc.

Do I think they are going to look at you like you are crazy? probably
Should you stick with 1/4 pound increments? Not necessarily, heck they might learn something!
Are you and hubby overly anal retentive about amounts? yeah, but that is your perogative. :-)

I just had to laugh when I read the OP. It reminds me of the new show Pop Fiction which spoofs the paparazzi. Are you kidding me? A pound of deli meat is a lot. 1.6 oz (thanks for the math SusanZ) is a few slices at the most, depending on the thickness of the slices, which is not a given. So, that means you can't determine the number of slices in .9 of a pound and would have to vary it week to week. Regarding .9, I think the average 4th grader could figure that one out. It's just that the request is so shocking it would cause one's mind to go blank. I think you're spoofing us to see how anal retentive we are. What did you learn?

My hair hurts!

I agree BESSFOUR about the "only a high school diploma" statement. My parents "only have a high school diploma" and are much smarter than people I have met in university!! That is a close mineded statement.....sorry.

You have every right to order your 14.4 oz of meat, but coming from someone who is anal, I think squabbling over a little over an ounce difference is a bit much with non-scientific quantities like cuts of deli meat. The suggestion above where you order # of slices is a great idea to skirt the awkward moments for both parties.

I've never paid attention, but does the scale display in ounces if it's under a pound? If so, this would probably be a bit much to expect from someone if they are unaccustomed to it. The average person would probably try to calculate in their head 9/10 of 16 oz, instead of 1/10 of 16 oz (a lot easier). That's like asking a cashier these days to instantly be able to calculate your change for a $7.67 receipt total, if you give them $10.42.

You may not actually be getting the exact same amount of meat each week, even if the label reads 0.9 lb, or more likely 14 oz. I realize the accuracy of scales are regulated, but to what degree are average deli counter scales precise at any given time?

The worst part -- why are we still using archaic units of measurements in the US?!

i think its less about whether or not they can figure out how to weigh it, and more about the ridiculousness of asking for nine tenths of a pound. get a pound, pop a few more slices of turkey on your sandwich and be done with it. learning to "just deal with" the "basic quarter pound increments" shouldn't really be too hard when you're asking for 9/10... are you really going to worry about 1/10 of a pound? thats only 1.6 ounces!

@craz......Nada. Thankfully! Probably a transformer?

I think the math issue is not nearly as significant as the sheer fussiness of the request. Were she asking for 4/7 of a pound, or even 1/8 a pound, math skills would be needed to make the conversion. But converting 9/10 to a decimal is not exactly complicated, and it's more like a question of numerical literacy than calculation.

The difficulty arises if the scale displays in ounces. But I've never seen a scale like that.

wouldn't make much a difference at all if the slicers had scales built into the receiving tray. Maybe some do, but most that I've seen require eyeballing as you slice, and weighing on a separate machine.

I think you kind of come across as a douche, really. There, I said it. I mean, if this is what leaves you guys "flabbergasted", what do you do in the event of an actual crisis?

no, i'm not kidding. i guess we are overly anal retentive in my household. and maybe too intelligent for our own good, since we can figure out decimals from basic fractions pretty fast?

but i also expect people who work at the deli to know what those extra decimal points on the scale are for (it is a digital scale, goes to 2 decimal points). and i expect their managers to show them what those extra numbers on the scale are for.

if they can learn how the scale works, they are invited to make fun of anal retentive customers like me as much as they want.

sometimes i go into citarella and ask for two chicken livers for my cat.

What it comes down to is this: someone going into a shop that sells a particular item by weight, and requesting exactly that.

The quantity is not bog standard, but it's not outrageous in the number of decimal places involved (same as for half a pound), and the TYPE of request (plain old quantitative) is perfectly reasonable; it's not asking for each slice to folded into an origami frog, or that the meat be wrapped in pink gift wrapping paper with a pretty bow.

I know standardisation is the norm, and seems reasonable since we're so used to it, but for a customer to simply settle for something they don't actually want, in order to avoid making the counter person have to think--or say 'and HOW am I supposed to do that?'--ISn't reasonable. I'm all for being polite and helpful to sales staff (I've been there), but this just doesn't seem that demanding. Stack slices until 0.9lb (or 408g) is reached, then stop.

@wookie - I just had the BEST laugh!! Scared my dogs again!

I wonder if it has something to do with the quote-unquote dumbing-down of America, this inability to measure a specified-in-weight small pile of deli meats without difficulty.

This article in the Washington Post discusses that thesis .

My favorite line in the article:
That leads us to the third and final factor behind the new American dumbness: not lack of knowledge per se but arrogance about that lack of knowledge.

It's good that none of us here are like that. :)

I am still laughing out loud!!

Upon further thought I've decided that the act of attempting to order an exact amount of deli meat should be considered a mitzvah. In the secular sense, of course.

@crazyspice & jeang -- glad to provide a laugh.

@Karen-- I second, the "huh?" Isn't a mitzvah a good deed?

@Karen - What was in your coffee this morning?

I do not drink coffee, but I was just a wee bit curious. Fantasy. Does it come in a bottle?

Do you change in a phone booth? I am having a fantasy.

'And rhetorically I will attempt to find reasons for her to continue...'

Leaving aside the fact that what she and her husband do isn't exactly extreme, in the overall scheme of things, and they weren't discourteous, as far as I can make out, nor are they trying to press their approach on anyone else, I think the strongest argument on redhead's side is that, in a sense, the basis for requesting slightly unusual amounts is simply another facet of what brings us ALL to SE: some greater-than-average level of interest in/amount of thought about food.

We all manifest this differently: some seek out the novel, others are interested in anything and everything about food, others yet are ever fine-tuning... something. A recipe, the state of their kitchen, their diet, whatever. I see redhead and her husband's quest as another manifestation of this, and it seems as valid a way of thinking about food as that of those who are on the quest for the perfect cassoulet or sourdough bread (in the McGee's 'The Curious Cook', there is a chapter entitled 'The pleasures of merely Measuring'; there are plenty of fans of perfection and precision out there).

There's certainly nothing wrong with asking for what you want, but the flipside is that if you're being too rigid, you're setting yourself up for some frustration. At any given time, the person at the deli might be math impaired, new on the job, customer-unfriendly, having a bad day, or just not good at estimating weights. I don't think I've ever gotten exactly a pound, half-pound, or quarter-pound when I've bought deli meat, but I don't care. If you do care that you only get .9 pounds of meat for a given length of time, it might be less frustrating to approach it in a different way. Buy a whole hunk of meat and slice it yourself, so you can portion it any way you want to. Or figure out how many slices you want, and ask for that. Or, if you've been buying your deli meats at a grocery store, try shopping at a butcher shop or deli, where they may be a little more interested in customer service.

@Kerosena - You Go!!

I'm afraid my empathy lies with the poor girl at the deli counter who has been denigrated and judged, unfairly IMHO. She was neither discourteous nor rude, just confused. I'm sure it was the first time she had ever heard such a request and it threw her, but she tried her best to comply. And I'll bet she didn't laugh and mock. She probably had to stop her heart from racing, and think about what just happened and how she could better serve next time. When I first read the post, I thought you were joking. I'll bet she did too, at least for a moment.

deli counter worker: so, like, a little less than a pound?
husband: no, nine tenths of a pound. that's exactly how much my wife and I can eat before it goes bad.

here's my question: are we overly anal retentive about quantities .....

To answer your question. I think yes, you are. Answering a specific question is not an insult. It's just my opinion.

if you are going to put yourself out there and share, please take your "Eats" seriously and not yourself. Check the egos at the enter key. ;-D

crazyspice at 4:39PM on 03/18/08

Was that a directive given, crazyspice?

As far as redhead needing a bodyguard, I doubt that she does. The name-calling and tone of some of the comments bothered me (That's me with a capital "M" actually!) so I take responsibility for my personal opinion on that (this is aside from the fact that personal attacks are against the SE conduct rules that are posted, regardless of how very funny they may be to those who enjoy that sort of thing).

umm, hi, redhead here.

i don't feel insulted, offended, or perturbed by anything in this thread, be them comments directed to me, or anyone else who posted. in fact, i'm shocked to see how many responses there are! i figured i'd come back in a week, and there would be one response of "yes, you're weird. don't you know deli etiquette calls for asking for things in quarter pound increments, and you should take whatever the deli employee gives you?"

i wanted to know if my deli counter requests were weird, and the major response so far has been: pretty much

i was interested in know if other people also ask for odd amounts at the store, or just kind of take what they are given, and the general response has been: people pretty much take what they are given, even if it isn't exactly what they want.

so my questions have been answered. if i'm of the opinion that the college kids working at the deli should have at least an 8th grader's understanding of math and fractions, then anyone else is welcome to the opinion that i'm fussy, anal retentive, weird, etc.

SE is as fun as ever for me.

I'm not sure that luck has anything to do with certain venues not having employees who know basic skills and/or know how to provide good service.

If a certain performance level is asked of an employee and then they are held accountable for that level of performance, then the level of service and skills should be met, aside from the usual mistakes and accidents that happen to everyone in any activity on a daily basis.

Most employees will rise to the level they are held to. Look to the management, not the employee - when service level is consistently low.

As far as fussiness goes, as I said that's fair play when a service or goods are being exchanged for the customer's money. The customer has the right to ask for what they want or go somewhere else. And every person on this earth is a little nutty, including myself who is major-league nutty.

I admit to detesting the use of the word "douche", particularly when given as description of a woman. But I guess that's just a style thing. :) That I find it offensive certainly does not mean anyone else has to!

Yours in detailed fractions and ounces,
Karen

Definitely a case of a customer trying to show his superior "intellect". When someone purposely embarrasses a service employee, I have no sense of humor.

I'm confused. It's not a question of math or fractions at all to know that "nine-tenths" is the same as "point-nine." I think that's pretty standard. I think the poor deli worker's confusion was not that she didn't get the math, but that she had never heard someone ask for such a specific amount. To speculate about her education is frankly uncalled for, particularly in a post with spelling errors and a complete disregard for capitalization and other grammatical niceties.