Re: Personal Swiss Misconceptions Revealed
 

That Switzerland was safe--back when it was safe:msngrin:, was attacked in broad daylight in a very respectable part of the city with 1 week of setting foot in CH

That Switzerland was clean--all the graffiti made the city extremely dirty looking even if the street cleaning machine just passed

Re: Personal Swiss Misconceptions Revealed
 

I thought the residents of Switzerland did not make Organ Donations or
stand last in the Index of Transplants?

Re: Personal Swiss Misconceptions Revealed
 

Hahaha!! I liked the bit about the crap under your fingernails! Come to think of it, we just use more paper which is probably equally wasteful.

(I sometimes get a feeling from your posts that you are annoyed and/or insulted :msncrazy:... I hope it is not the case and you are just being sarcastic.)

As far as parking in big stores goes, I think it's not the customer who should pay the state for the parking but the shop. Like you never charge your house guests for nibbling on the peanuts in the bowl. It's proper hospitality and politeness. It's really absurd to pay 200 CHF for stuff in IKEA (or Migros or Coop) and still pay 2 CHF for parking. If I were a big retailer I would include the cost of the parking in the prices and only allow people to park for free if they have spent let's say more than 15 Francs (just to avoid people from neighboring lots to park on my lot). It's important to make your customer feel welcome and feel that he's being rewarded by a brand that he trusts, especially in the European culture where every Rappe has a purpose (see "Take care of the penny and the pound will take care of itself").

Nevertheless I am sure that the money you pay is spent for a good purpose. The Swiss have convinced me about this from the first day.

Re: Personal Swiss Misconceptions Revealed
 

Toilet paper: Yeah, you needn't tell me that. My American OH uses about a roll every other day even in Switzerland, just because she grew up with the American next-to-nothing paper.

Me, sarcastic? Never. No, now seriously, I just like to make fun of things and people on both sides of the Atlantic.

As for parking fees at big stores -- I think you didn't get the point. Green circles (which is not necessarily the Green Party alone) talk cantonal and local governments into forcing stores to collect parking fees from the car drivers. They want to hurt the drivers at their most sensitive spot, the wallet. They believe they can make them think twice before they use the car for shopping. They believe the possibility of saving a CHF or two is an incentive for automobilist to leave their car at home and go to the mall by train, tram, bus etc..

Which proves that intelligence or knowledge of human nature are not necessarily essential requirements to become a politician.

Re: Personal Swiss Misconceptions Revealed
 

Is that Kloten in the Dutch sense of the expression?

Re: Personal Swiss Misconceptions Revealed
 

What you suggest above will NOT be accepted by the Greens. They will NEVER agree to the parking lot being paid by the shop. They adamantly insist on those who park their cars paying.
--- ADD to this that your recipe would be absolutely unjust to the users of Public Transport.

If we here speak about "the Greens" you have to realize that we not only speak about members of the GP and GLP but also about those many clandestine "Greens" in all the other parties.

Further on realize that also quite many shops in "Zürich-Suburbia" have a majority of customers arriving by Public Transport. And as an example, the Glattzentrum-ShoppingCenter now has a TRAM-station right in its center. Line 12 connects Schwamendingen-Stettbach (almost 10 S-lines) with Glattzentrum, Glattbrugg and the Airport. And in addition to this, Glattzentrum is served by many bus-lines. If you see the big numbers entering the Center that way, you realize that this is an important aspect.

Re: Personal Swiss Misconceptions Revealed
 

Under pressure from the Netherlands, mostly from KLM (meaning: Königliche Luft-Matratze), Zürich-Airport dropped "Kloten" from its name around 1960 , and the postal address of the Airport is "CH-8058 Zürich-Flughafen" ;)