Tipping the scales

I can remember as a kid my grandma and my mom being faithful users of the supermarket produce scales.  They would put 5 peaches in a bag (sidenote:  even then, the plastic produce bags required the proper rubbing together between the thumb and finger...on both ends....before they would open.  God forbid if you got them wet because you'd need an exacto knife to get them open) anyways...they would then scour the produce area looking for the scale.  If it the lever bobbed over the 1lb mark, we only got 4 peaches that trip.

Emiley and I had planned on kabobs for dinner tonight.  Venison for me, chicken for her.  I stopped at the store to get a variety of vegetables that would skewer nicely and taste good grilled.  I spotted the green peppers (for my kabobs only) and had to wait behind a woman that appeared a little older than my mom.  She would pick up a pepper, inspect it for blemishes and then gently place it in the produce scale.  She'd anxiously wait for the lever (is that the right term?) to settle.  Three times, she would remove the pepper from the scale and place it back amongst the pile.  Then it dawned on me, she was looking for a specific weight for her green pepper.  When her third pepper hit the scale, I had to ask "are you looking for a pepper of an exact size?"  She very nicely replied that her recipe called for 1 cup of chopped green pepper and that 1C is the same as 8 oz or half a pound.  Then she scowled and slapped her hand down at some invisible object (you know exactly what I'm talking about don't you?) and said "and I don't like anything to go to waste"

I personally have not used one of these scales in years.  If a pepper is $1.19 per pound, I pick up a pepper, struggle getting the plastic produce bag open and am on my merry way.  I'm never concerned that it's 3/4lb or 2/3lb.  It will get all get used.

I'm curious, does anyone use these supermarket scales anymore?

Oh, and by the way....the kabobs were AWESOME!