I was at the Coop in Oerlikon yesterday getting some food for dinner with a German friend of mine. We were chatting in English in the check-out line and then he went to pack the groceries and I paid. Now my German isn't very good but I'm taking classes and am generally okay with everyday interactions at restaurants, grocery stores, that sort of thing. Well, as I was about to leave the checker said something to me and I didn't understand and told her so (I now think she was testing me). I grabbed my receipt and started to walk off. She loudly began seriously bad-mouthing me to the checker behind her and the people around her. My german friend was furious at her and made a comment about how you shouldn't say such things assuming people can't understand you. She didn't even look at him.

I know I'm living in another country. I know I don't speak the langauge very well but I think for an employee of a company to actively trash a customer to another employee with other customers present is completely uncalled for.

You should have reported her there and then, it's the only way those kind of people will understand how to behave. Did she have a name tag?

What was she saying btw?

Next time, proof them that you are Swiss enough and complain at the Kundendienst.

Oh, the usual. Can't believe people come to her country and don't know the language, foreigners are stupid blah, blah, blah and a couple insults directed at me personally. My german friend who translated it to me was pretty up in arms about the whole thing (fuming mad) and I think he was spairing my feelings so didn't give me the actual translation.

I know I should have complained right there but I was just kind of in shock that it happened.

Might be that the person in the Kasse was not a Swiss citizen. Oerlikon..hmm, I guess it should be a quiet good place.


But neverthless, don't consider that. Keep on track and have fun !!

Considering the nature of the insults, I doubt it was a foreign worker. No doubt who she votes for too...

Without knowing what you look like, what you were dressed like, what you did or said or what was said to you and what the employee who made the remarks was like either, there is little anyone can say, except perhaps that few of Coops Zurich's checkout staff are Swiss.

Additionally, that sort of thing is best dealt with in English. Don't try having an argument or dispute in a language that you are not completely fluent in. By doing this you will be putting the other party at a great disadvantage, as most people living here - even those working in Coop - know some English they will likely try and answer in English: their disadvantage.

So the clerk said something, you said you didn't understand, grabbed your receipt, and walked off? That seems sort of rude in and of itself. If someone says something to you, you shouldn't just dismiss them and walk off, which is what it sounds like you may have done.

Edit - To clarify, it just might be a reason she got mad, not an excuse for her behaviour. You should have gotten her name though, and reported her.

I shop at the Co-op in across from the Oerlikon bahnhof all the time, and I don't think I've ever seen a Swiss employee. But, I go at the same time every day, so I don't see the whole staff I'm sure.

Geez, sorry I didn't explain my story properly with excrutiating detail. I shouldn't have just said I walked off. I stood there for several more seconds and she didn't say anything else. I assumed she would repeat herself in english after I said I didn't understand. She didn't, I took my receipt off the counter thing and went to go grab my bags. At which point she turned around to the checker behind her and said what she said. I don't believe she was actually asking me anything, I think that after she heard me speaking english she was testing me. I've seen this sort of thing happen before.

Regardless of anything, it was completely inappropriate behavior by an employee of a large company. I also never said, nor implied the checker was swiss.

I think is must have felt horrible to you and the whole incident was definitely very unfortunate. The good part is that this probably was your first and your last incident of this sort. I have been living in this country for 16 years and have never had anything like that happening. So, it is not somethings that you get a lot (maybe if you are a person of colour, but not as a white woman).
As the incident lies in the past, I'd recommend you to forget about it - you cannot do anything about it anymore anyway.
For the future, normally they ask you in the end if you have a Coop Supercard or if you need a bag. Just so that you are prepared for the "final question" and feel confident.

Nope, was neither of those questions. I'm totally fluent in Coop Deutsch

This totally doesn't change my opinion of Switzerland in the slightest. I love living here. There are tons of Swiss people I interact with on a day to day basis that are absolute gems. I was just curious if this type of thing has happened to anybody else.

I've seen this happen before at Coop & Migros where cashiers will complain about a customer or even about another employee. One cashier compained directly to me about another customer!! It's unbelievable that this happens in front of customers and I agree with you that it is totally inappropriate. You could always go back to that Coop to see if the same cashier is there and then go to customer service to complain.

Take some small comfort from this ... who's the research scientist & who is working on the checkout ?

I experienced something similar in Germany...I was in McD eating my food and a young boy (I guess 10-12) came and sat at my table and started asking me something, and when I said I didn´t understand, I got this backlash...most of which I couldn´t understand, but did catch something about being in Germany and not speaking German...on another occasion had a 4 year old at my aunt´s kindergarten say the same thing...it is scary, that people so young can have such attitudes. I empathise with you cos I know it´s a bit of a shock to the system to have someone speak to you in such a manner when you´re just going about doing your business. Bet she got a bit of a shock when your friend answered her back and she realised that what she said had been understood

I have never experienced anything like that here in Geneva, but maybe I just didn´t understand it... I have found cashiers in Bern and Luzern more smiling and helpful than the cashiers here in Geneva, but I don´t speak a word German and am a typical tourist when going to the German part.

When we came to Switzerland we got a bit shocked about how poor the service was in the different shops. We use coop regularly and often the cashiers are talking to each other rather than let you pay, they don´t always say hello or goodbye and sometimes they don´t even look at you... I´ve gotten used to it and the cashiers know us by now and most of them are nice.

As mentioned by others I too get the feeling that you have met the only swiss person working as a cashier...

The kids don't have the attitude, it's the parents who have the attitude, and the kids are only mimmicking there parents as all kids do.

And chemgoddess,should that happen again, Say in perfect english, ' can you speak english,'if she says 'no',

Reply, 'How unfortunate'.

...just to add on to some of the people`s attitude towards foreigners here. After 1 year in Switzerland and having successfully completed my 3 levels of intensive Deutsch Kurs...(never mind that my previous qualifications from my country of origin didnt seem to count for much here even though the qualifications were awarded from a college in England- and I had worked for many years at a UN agency ). I thought its high time I made some rounds in the Employment Agencies in Zurich in the hope that - by some stroke of luck I would hand in my CV with other relevant qualifications to an agency to find a job where my qualifications fitted in.
So together with a colleague/friend from my country, who had lived here longer than I and is already in a good job in an international company in Zurich decided to check in on some of the EAs in Zurich. In one, I believe its the second we visited that day (I still remember the name) . We walked up the stairs, rang the bell to the office and one female employee or even the agency owner (she didnt give us the chance to find out who she was so to this day I wonder who she was in that agency), came to the door opened it and as soon as she saw my friend I she banged the door to our faces!! We didnt know how to react at first - but my friend having lived here longer and probably having developed thicker skin than I, decided to ring the bell one more time just to be sure that we didnt `dream` the first reaction from the staff who opened the door. The door was not opened the second time. We decided to leave and as we were walking down the stairs we met a security guard who asked us if there was a problem and if he could help us (this was all asked to us in a very condenscending way). By then were already too disgusted to even say anything. We said no and walked on from there feeling quite put off. We believe the woman even called security personnel for us as we were walking down the stairs. We thought of going to complain to the anti-racist police or any- other- such- equivalent- place, if it exists here - because we felt that the only reason that door was banged on our faces was because we happened to have a different skin color, namely; dark-chocolate-brown - Whatever else we had to say or whatever qualifications I wanted to present to that Employment agency didnt mean a thing so long as I was of that color. How frustrating can anything get? To feel that you have been judged on first glance just from the color of your skin?! I have also met some liberal and open minded types Swiss. Though these are only to be found in ^far-and-in between - land^. I have since found other EAs that are bigger and more professional and try to keep my contacts with those.
I just had to vent my frustration about that 1 incident - because much as I try to forget it and shoo it away - it begs the question sometimes - Are such people with such attitudes or mentality e.g the woman at that agency, form the majority or the minority in this country?.....If I have no problems with my skin color - its really too bad when someone else seems to.
If you have managed to read this far - Let me know if you think I may have let this ^traumatise`^ me more than it should....Perhaps there is more horror to be thrown my way?


N

Sadly, no you have done neither, it is a tragic way of life here.

I'm not sure about today, but at the turn of the century up until the 1950's, Switzerland had the highest ratio of cretinism in the world, so maybe there's still to many cretins wandering the streets,just look at them as the cretins they are.

It was in Valais, Switzerland that the very concept of cretinism was discovered by visiting French anthropologists.