As the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) continues to execute its mandate to ensure that all weighing and measuring instruments used in trade are verified (stamped), it is also crucial for consumers to do their part in trade transactions involving measurements to guarantee their monies worth.
Daily, consumers visit the community shops, markets, supermarkets, and other retail outlets to purchase a variety of goods, such as rice, flour, sugar, meats, ground provisions, preserved fruits, and cooking oil by weights and measures. The prices of these goods are on the rise and for those buying them your vigilance, your diligence, and your understanding of the measuring process will ensure that you get the quantities requested and value for money.
To ensure that you are getting the “bang for your buck”, the GNBS implores consumers to take up the following rules of thumb when purchasing goods by weights and measures:
- Buy goods from vendors who are using verified scales and other verified measuring instruments. If used properly, approved devices give correct weights or measures.
- Look for GNBS verification seals on verified measuring instruments. The affixed GNBS seals are one way of determining whether measuring instruments (including scales) were verified for accuracy.
- Make sure the instrument used to weigh or measure your goods is clean and tidy. Dirty scales often give inaccurate weights and measures and can cause the contamination of goods.
- Make sure that you can see the measuring indicator of the scales. Ensure that the scale is positioned in a manner that will allow you to see the weighing process.
- Do not buy from vendors or shopkeepers using the domestic (kitchen) scales. These scales are not approved for commercial trade because their internal mechanisms are quickly worn, hence they give inaccurate weights.
- Do not accept purchases if you have doubts about your weight or measure. You are free to make your purchases elsewhere if you are in doubt or not satisfied.
- Buy in metric quantities. Devices used in the marketplace are in metric units and by requesting goods in metric quantities you are assured of the number of goods issued to you.
- Buy all solids by weight instead of measure. Rice, peas, and channa are solid goods and should be weighed, not measured. Request these goods in grams and kilograms instead of pints and gallons.
- Buy prepackaged goods that are labelled with the quantity (net contents). For example, 450 g, 1 kg, 3 litres, etc.
- Call the GNBS hotline or visit the GNBS or Weights and Measures office in your Region if you want to learn more about the sale of goods by weights and measures. You can also make your complaint if the need arises, and it will be investigated.
For further information, please contact the GNBS on telephone numbers: 219-0069, 219-0065, 2190062, or WhatsApp: 692-4627 or visit the GNBS website: www.gnbsgy.org
