Another edition of the small things that I have taken note of since moving to Zurich.
1. Dairy
Some would argue one of the better food groups and the Swiss take their dairy very seriously. There is a large dairy fridge section in each supermarket and the cheese selection is spectacular (and quite aromatic at times). However, the thing that I have noticed the most is the amount of milk fat in everything. You struggle to find milk with 2% or less. The norm is 3.5% and I’m adjusting to 2.5%. Same with the yogurt, rich and creamy seems to be what the Swiss enjoy. You can get 0%, but why would anyone do that (even in Canada)?
2. Church Bells
I gather that religion is a major thread in the fabric of Swiss society. The sheer number of churches in Zurich (a city with only 300,000 residents) is impressive. More impressive is the ringing of the bells of every single church every 15 minutes. You probably wouldn’t want to live too close to a church, because sometimes they play for a solid 15 minutes (Sunday morning), but also seemingly randomly…
The church (St. Thomas Kirche) down the street from my place.
3. All-In Pricing
What you see in the store is what you pay. Period. None of this getting to the register and being shocked at the numbers on the screen. It’s great. You can really go to the store with 20 CHF and figure out what you can buy because the entire price is on the sticker.
4. Polluter Pays
One of my personal favourites. Within Zurich, all garbage must be thrown out in Zuri-Sacks. You must buy these at the store from the cashier and they cost roughly 1 CHF per sack. There are different sizes available (17 L and 35 L being the most common) and sure you could try to throw out some trash without a Zuri-Sack but you better hope you have no identifiable garbage in there, including receipts, because they have garbage detectives who will identify the guilty party and you’ll end up with a nice fine in your postbox. I think this system is ingenious and because you pay up front, it makes you take pause before throwing away huge amounts of trash.
5. Sunday Shopping
Or the lack thereof. No Sunday shopping in Switzerland (I suppose there are a few stores open at the main rail stations). I love it. Perhaps that is because Nova Scotia had a similar system the entire time I lived there, but I really think it allows you to take full advantage of a day to relax and go biking or hiking or throw a disc…
Please bring me cheese! The higher the MF content the better (I also like it stinky ;-)
ReplyDeleteI wish we had all-in pricing. Although I am a maverick at tax calculations. But who remembers what the tax is nowadays on certain items?
ReplyDeleteThe milk thing: when we were in Hungary visiting family, my dad would make fun of them by saying that they liked high percentages because they thought that meant that was how much percentage milk was in it....
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