The great news is my friend's family owns several grocery stores. One of their scales broke. Well the price computing portion, not the scales itself. The scale company said it is fine, just an electronic problem. They decided to get a new one instead of fixing the old one. Then they gave me the scales! All it cost was a jar of their favorite Jelly.

I am so excited about it. I was not really looking forward to spending 200-300 dollars for a new one.

I just had to tell someone, I am soo excited!

And still I use the non electronic scales far more often as they are just as accurate. For market I have used an old fashioned hanging scale. until last year it had not been certified but it was sealed by the county weights and measures guy when he visited the farmers market. I had been told for years that non electronic scales could not be certified but was told by the W&M guy that is not true-as long as the scale is made for commercial use (i.e. no baby scales or postage scales) it can be certified and sealed as long as it is weighing accurately (or can be fixed to do so)