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Many Swiss farmers use honor system to sell their products

businessfondue.com

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

#121

Post by jlarocco »

dontbenebby wrote: post #12
sunseb wrote: 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.

Yeah, it's a bit odd that they focused so much on the Swiss.

Even the article mentions it's widespread: "Unmanned stalls with vegetables can be found all over the world. Germany, Norway, the U.S., Australia, Canada, the UK are among the countries where the honor system isn’t any novelty."

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

#122

Post by stordoff »

WalterBright wrote: post #72
Stratoscope wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the reasons this worked so well at Caltech was that every freshman's first night included an introduction to lock picking. If you locked your door, you might expect a polite note like "I noticed your door was locked. Thanks, it gave me a chance to test my lock picking skills."

When I attended in the 70's, lock picking was there but wasn't much of a big deal. The protocol was: door is open, come on in. Door is closed, don't come in. As simple as that. My favorite was the bathroom, which had a sign on it with a rotating pointer, and 4 quadrants labelled: 1. men 2. women 3. don't know 4. don't care where you selected one on entry. For the 70s, it was way ahead of its time :-)

> door is open, come on in. Door is closed, don't come in

Same protocol at Cambridge (UK), at least in the rooms with two doors (outer door open: come in, outer door closed: do not disturb/I'm out). Lock picking wasn't really a thing, but one of the tutors did point out to us that the locks in a specific corridor could be opened by sliding a knife down the edge of the mechanism (it was "fixed" by screwing a steel plate to the _outside_ of the door, which felt like missing the point somewhat).

I'm possibly missing something obvious, but could you explain why you'd need to pick a quadrant? I'm not seeing why that is necessary.

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

#123

Post by rossdavidh »

mpfundstein wrote: post #80
rossdavidh wrote: post #75

The book "Freakonomics" details a similar bagel-selling system, where they would put bagels in the break room of workplaces, and you would pay on the honor system. After years of collecting data, the owner realized he had been doing a real-time, real-life experiment on how honest people are. You don't know WHO took without paying, but you can tell HOW MANY of your bagels were paid for. There's analysis of how it vari…

Mind telling tthe findings? :-)

It's been a while, but I seem to recall that honesty skyrocketed in the months immediately after 9/11, then gradually came back down to normal. I also seem to recall that the professions which made the most money were NOT the ones with the highest compliance, which is not all that surprising, but still...

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

#124

Post by 013a »

dontbenebby wrote: post #12
sunseb wrote: 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.

Yeah, this sounds like an article written by someone who lives in a big city and has never been to rural America. This isn't even uncommon; its pretty darn standard. Another common, similar thing you see all over (climatically appropriate) America are fruit orchards where you pay for a bag upfront and you can fill it as full as you want (or take more than the bag, or not even pay for the bag if you're dishonest).

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

#125

Post by WalterBright »

stordoff wrote: post #122
WalterBright wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I attended in the 70's, lock picking was there but wasn't much of a big deal. The protocol was: door is open, come on in. Door is closed, don't come in. As simple as that. My favorite was the bathroom, which had a sign on it with a rotating pointer, and 4 quadrants labelled: 1. men 2. women 3. don't know 4. don't care where you selected one on entry. For the 70s, it was way ahead of its time :-)

> door is open, come on in. Door is closed, don't come in Same protocol at Cambridge (UK), at least in the rooms with two doors (outer door open: come in, outer door closed: do not disturb/I'm out). Lock picking wasn't really a thing, but one of the tutors did point out to us that the locks in a specific corridor could be opened by sliding a knife down the edge of the mechanism (it was "fixed" by screwing a steel pla…

The purpose was to temporarily, while you were in the bathroom, say what kind of bathroom it was.

If you don't care who else uses it while you're in there, dial "don't care". If a man dialed "women" and went in, he'd likely face some angry students. To my knowledge that never happened.

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

#126

Post by dusbajd »

netsharc wrote: post #76
sunseb wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, and the next logical question would be: what has changed in Geneva these past 30 years? Hints: individualism, globalization, multiculturalism. My father told me that when he served for our national army back then, soldiers just left their weapons alone in front of the train station while they were having a coffee before going into the train.

IS "globalization" and "multiculturalism" just euphimisms of "Those damn non-white people!"?

I’m very proud to be Italian, and proud and love my countrymen.

If I were a Swiss, though, I would not leave my rifle, or any valuable, around in a Swiss train station if Italians are around. Or English, French, Germans, etc.

I wouldn’t be afraid if there were a group of Japanese though.

We’re just not as civilized.

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

#127

Post by duxup »

Waterluvian wrote: post #93
rossdavidh wrote: post #75

The book "Freakonomics" details a similar bagel-selling system, where they would put bagels in the break room of workplaces, and you would pay on the honor system. After years of collecting data, the owner realized he had been doing a real-time, real-life experiment on how honest people are. You don't know WHO took without paying, but you can tell HOW MANY of your bagels were paid for. There's analysis of how it vari…

I worked somewhere that did this. Every month there was much more money left than bagels sold. We gossiped about this for a while. Eventually an anonymous note was left (paraphrased as best as I could remember): "Some people are forgetful or hungry or in a rush. I don't want these times to sour this workplace because people grow to think someone is stealing."

Also.... exact change can be an issue.

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

#129

Post by froindt »

vram11 wrote: post #98
jt2190 wrote: post #16

Even retail establishments with staff and security systems balance the extra costs of these “loss prevention” measures against customer convenience. The goal is never perfect security but sufficient security. Large retailers typically set targets on loss and try to minimize them, within reason. Farm stands that operate like this have simply found a reasonable cost/benefit trade off. (There’s an apple orchard near Bos…

Loss from stealing was called 'shrinkage' by retail industry people, in Sam Walton's autobiography 'Made in America'. As you say, they expected to have some. I wonder why it can't be prevented 100%.

Prevention to 100% would be costly. They have diminishing marginal returns.

Why would someone pay $50,000/year for a hypothetical system which would theoretically catch everyone and fill out the police report automatically when the store experiences a tiny $300 annual shrinkage loss?

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

#130

Post by sumedh »

kenneth wrote: post #109
sunseb wrote: 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).

Being from Gimel (a small town in Vaud), a lot of the stories in the article remind me of happy memories growing up. Switzerland has been struggling with an identity crisis of late as a lot of poorer immigrants from war-torn places (Albania when I was growing up, Maghreb and Middle East now) have been moving in to the cities, oftentimes not respecting our old traditions. Theft and petty crime is on the rise, and almo…

> oftentimes not respecting our old traditions.

Can the govt do something like introduce culture lessons for new immigrants?

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