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Many Swiss farmers use honor system to sell their products

businessfondue.com

21–30 of 162 posts

Re: Many Swiss farmers use honor system to sell their products

#21
post #8

As a Swiss guy, I must say I only see this in rural areas. It wouldn't work in big cities like Geneva I think (too many people living in urban areas who don't respect our wonderful country and that's a shame).

In Geneva thirty years ago there were newspapers for sale on the street using this system.

It's still the case but I wonder for how long. Not because of theft but I assume the newspapers that survived are probably making the bulk of their income from subscribers. I haven't seen anyone putting coins into those vending boxes in a long time.

Re: Many Swiss farmers use honor system to sell their products

#22
post #10

This is more common than you might think in rural areas in California

IIRC I saw this for strawberries when driving to SF for an internship. I've seen it for pumpkins in the midwest too.

Swanton Berry Farm along Hwy 1, perhaps?

Re: Many Swiss farmers use honor system to sell their products

#23
post #8

As a Swiss guy, I must say I only see this in rural areas. It wouldn't work in big cities like Geneva I think (too many people living in urban areas who don't respect our wonderful country and that's a shame).

This is actually fairly common in rural areas in America too. Maybe someone sets up a bunch of pumpkins, apples, etc at the end of their driveway (which in rural America can be measured in KM) and a box to put money in.

I don't think Americans would measure it in KM... ;)

Re: Many Swiss farmers use honor system to sell their products

#26
I was recently in Zurich and entered a small shop that was honor system. Scan and pay for your own items, no staff. Small food items, drinks, wine available.

Might be different since there could be cameras or some other form of accountability, but I found it interesting.

Re: Many Swiss farmers use honor system to sell their products

#27
post #5

They used to have this in Finland too, but it seems to be dying out. Such a shame, but I guess it is inevitable.

Why are they dying out?

I don't know, but I can guess there are two main reasons:

- farming contracts where all produce is owned by X

- decrease in honesty

Re: Many Swiss farmers use honor system to sell their products

#28
post #8

As a Swiss guy, I must say I only see this in rural areas. It wouldn't work in big cities like Geneva I think (too many people living in urban areas who don't respect our wonderful country and that's a shame).

In Geneva thirty years ago there were newspapers for sale on the street using this system.

With very high fines if you were caught paying less or nothing, that helped a bit I guess.

Re: Many Swiss farmers use honor system to sell their products

#29
post #10

This is more common than you might think in rural areas in California

Once upon a time I cycled through vast fields of strawberries and other yummy looking produce in California.

I did see honour system stalls but they were pretty rare considering the size of the area. They were more like curious exceptions rather than the norm. They were also geared up to sell at volumes that didn't suit the bike, so too much to carry.

I got the impression from the article on Switzerland that this was more of a way to do your shopping, so sensible quantities not vast bulk purchases.

Incidentally I did not stop to freeload a single strawberry. On a bike with nobody around this should have been simple, there weren't even any barbed wire fences. However, my riding buddy - also a non-American tourist - was not so keen. The reason why was a simple one - 'don't they have guns in America?'.

Actually they have guns in Switzerland too and there is a lot of national service practice going on at the weekends. In fact weekends are quite wonderful in Switzerland as the shops are closed and people go out and do things including going to honour system stalls. The guns though are quite terrifying if you are cycling as you can turn a corner on a descent and feel like you are suddenly in a firing range (rather than right next to one).

I have to say that the Californian produce looked good but was not that good when I bought it in the shops. The land of plenty turned out to be quite expensive and bland to European tastes. Meanwhile, in Switzerland, the roadside appearance of plenty was not so good but the food bought in shops was as expensive as everything is in Switzerland (so no surprise) but delightful to taste.

The relative abundance of Swiss roadside honour stalls doesn't just say things about how honest people are in squeaky clean Switzerland, it also says something about the produce being of value rather than bland.

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