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Many Swiss farmers use honor system to sell their products
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Re: Many Swiss farmers use honor system to sell their products
#42Last year we found a place on the Oregon coast that had a little freezer with Salmon and Halibut. Also a table with Cherries, Peaches, and a few vegetables with an honor box and, interestingly we thought, QR codes to accept BTC and ETH.
Halibut was killer, but I paid in USD because my phone was dead.
Re: Many Swiss farmers use honor system to sell their products
#43As 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).
I've seen this on farms within the city limits of Zürich. Schwamendingen, at that, not exactly known for its civility and kindness.
Re: Many Swiss farmers use honor system to sell their products
#44I've seen this with firewood in California. It probably costs the producer more to have someone there then it does losing a portion of stock to theft.
It's very common with firewood bundles in areas of New England where, in the summer, a lot of tourists are buying firewood to burn at a campground. Quite a few houses have some bundles of firewood out that they probably cut themselves from dead trees/branches on the property along with an honor box. Very small-time supplemental income operations that aren't nearly worth someone hanging out all day for maybe only $20 or so.
Re: Many Swiss farmers use honor system to sell their products
#45Seems to me that the farmers will need to charge a premium to make up for theft, assuming that the total amount stolen is greater than the cost of someone sitting there.
For rural areas where turnover is low and where there’s more trust, this system sounds pretty effective.
On a side note, this isn’t exactly an honor system, as the cash is still locked away I’m guessing.
Re: Many Swiss farmers use honor system to sell their products
#46I 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.
Would police every bother investigating simple theft from such a store..
Even if there is excellent video and identification?
Re: Many Swiss farmers use honor system to sell their products
#47This is a sign of a deeply trust based society. I don't think articles like these are good for the system's health :)
It's also a society with really high wages, so the barrier to staffing a stand is higher.
Re: Many Swiss farmers use honor system to sell their products
#48As others have noted, this is common in rural America, which tend toward being very high-trust communities such that many people don't even bother to lock their doors. Bartering local goods and services is such an integral part of the rural social fabric that everyone has an interest in making it work well with minimal transaction costs.
Part of what makes it work in rural areas is that no one is really anonymous. The local social networks tend to be very quick to identify bad actors.
Re: Many Swiss farmers use honor system to sell their products
#49In Paris pavements are routinely lined with stacks of books, magazines, comics, etc. The idea being 'you take some, you leave some. Or just take, at least the books will find some use.' I've seen it abroad so it's probably widespread.
Slightly more tangential, but people also often leave furniture (or clothes) they don't need outside for the taking, often because they're moving places. You notify the municipality, put up a post-it with a number on it so that they can eventually identify and carry the stuff away if it finds to takers, but in the meantime other people are free to help themselves. I have friends who would completely furnished their apartment with furniture found on the street.
Re: Many Swiss farmers use honor system to sell their products
#50I ran into this in California at a small farm along Highway 1 a few miles north of Santa Cruz. It's a scenic ocean side rural locale but near all the big Bay Area cities and frequented by day visitors from there. There was a shack with a good variety of their produce laid out, with price labels. Up front there was a cash box, with about $40 already in it, and a sign that said pay here. This was late '90s. I really ho…
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