I saw a fleece jacket in a UK shop yesterday that had an International price label.

It shows the price as CHF119.00
£24.99 (RRP £55.00)

Either a strange exchange rate or an allowance for 'Swissness'

so 2.18 CHFGBP

What were the other rates?

Since 01/01/2006 I have an avg mid rate of 1.933 - min 1.1736 max 2.4894

Yes, considering that Norway prices make Swiss prices appear low!

Tom

Hi
We are staying here for almost 2 years, so I think I can add something here.

The kitchen items are pretty costly it also appeared to me when I started early 2010. But the thing is that the kitchen pan I bought for 50 Sfr, is what I am still using today for cooking with little scratches in the non-stick layer. So, high priced things are of nreally good quality, so once the investment is made it is sure to fetch results in futures also.
I must say, the food items, I am buying even today from Migros , Coop city, at the same price as two years back. So contrary to other countries of the world, where price index is steeply on the rise , controlling inflation within the economy for this country is really a tough job , I think.
So , if you stay in swiss, dont compare prices with other countries/cities, but compare prices in Swiss over time... You will be surely filled by awe

I saw a packet of Monitor Screen Wipes in Media Markt for 9.9CHF. There was a large star sticker on it proclaiming 5.99EUR!.

1.65

AYB

Not very long ago that was the rate.......

You realise "a discretion" isn't an American phrase, don't you?

So around late 2007 / early 2008 rates.

Lets say that the product is sold in Germany and Switzerland. Both counties have experience low inflation since those dates. In those countries currencies their price has remained the same for the last 4 years.

Stop the price paranoia. If you are paid in CHF and CHF prices haven't risen what is the issue??

In 7 years, the price of a pint in the english pubs in Zurich has barely moved!!

Mobile intelligent consumers that can, and do, seek out the best deals. I'll pick some up next time I am in Germany.

But please don´t patronise me or accuse me of paranoia or one might accuse those that tolerate such pricing as stupid gullible sheep ?

AYB

Are you guys still feeding the...

...?

End of 2007. Need I explain further ?

AYB

If everybody thought like you, Switzerland would be different, if Swiss companies thought like that, they could find someone from Germany to do your job cheaper. No redundancy to pay or damages, just give you notice on the contract & say good bye.

Different ! No please. Anything but that. I don't want better. I don´t want cheaper, I don´t want more convenient. I just want things to be as they always were, even it means sticking to the most obtuse argumentation.

Perhaps if someone in Switzerland was in a position to fire me, you might be correct. However lets not let that detract from a discussion of the evil forces of "best-person-for-the-job".

AYB

You don't seem to be enjoying Switzerland very much, they must be paying you a hell of a lot for your daily pain.
No doubt when the CHF declines to 1.6 chf / $ or 2.50 chf / £ your bosses may not feel like doubling your pay, however good you tell them you are at you job.

Best FMF

It does not matter even if your the boss, your salary / profits is unlikely to maintain it's spending power outside CH, prices here seldom move. As all your expenditure is outside CH even though you 'live' here.

Of course I am earning overtime whilst writing this, I have to wait for a billionaire, he can keep me waiting as long as he likes.

Deleting your own posts now!

hmm people seem to have forgotten the American mentality of the last decade which appears to be "spend what you don't have".

given that credit cards being accepted in many locations is new to Switzerland, I dare to suggest that in real terms, two things have been happening:

1) People spend what they have or less
B) In real terms, Swiss Franc-earners actually are not impoverished by the alleged high pricing

In other news, sellers of consumer goods are still ensuring that their prices are high enough for Swiss consumers to believe their products are of high enough quality to purchase

I have to say, I find the prices of games to be ridiculous. I can import a game, pay the import duty if they feel like picking on me, and the game would still be at least 10CHF cheaper than getting from a store here.

On the other hand, computer components seem to be about the same as in the UK, sometimes cheaper.

It all seems a bit random to me at the moment We had a part replaced on our Agila that would have cost £80 to buy in the UK, and here it cost CHF 500! but then we also had a lot of work done on the car (lights changed etc) that would have cost around £1,200 in the UK, and it cost CHF 1,100. So some parts are much more expensive, others aren't and labour seems to be cheaper.

Will take me a few months to get used to it Also, the price of chicken here means i can't eat it as often as I would like to

I don't understand you. Revenue and expenditure in different currencies will be affected in different ways. Exporting is good in one climate, importing in another. You can hedge this to a certain extent with instruments or simply marketing strategy. All good fun.

AYB

That's an important point. Swiss people very often follow the motto, "You get what you pay for." On the other hand, many (read: most) companies know very well how to keep prices just a little bit below the pain threshold, which obviously is very high. Simple proof: Many products Made In Switzerland are much cheaper abroad than here. And when I write much, I do mean much, like, say, a fraction of the Swiss price, in certain fields 1/10 or less. I have plenty of carefully documented evidence for this phenomenon.

When it's easy to sell Swiss products to the Swiss at totally astronomic prices, it's all the more easy to do the same with foreign products. In many cases, competition on the market doesn't seem to play a major role. It looks like a wide-spread live and let live philosophy.

Example: Two weeks ago I came back from the USA with a few packages of an American material for oral surgery in my luggage (correctly declared at the customs counter, mind you). Price in the USA: $7.60 a bottle plus shipping. Customs: a shrug and a grin, "Not even worth filling out the form." Price in Switzerland: CHF 248.00 a bottle, again plus shipping, but shrug and grin included. I'm afraid Swiss oral surgeons wouldn't even buy it at the American price, saying to themselves it can't be the right thing when it is so effing cheap.

__________________

"This is AMAZING! I have the exact amount of money Joe Biden has cost us playing golf in my sweatpants pocket!" — Kona Lowell

Strange........

The opening post of this thread was about .......ahem ...... something to do with humans consumption of meat and the suffering of animals.

And it`s followed by the price of things from cooking pots, nit-picking the exchange rates of curriencies .....auto repairs ..... salaries .....video games prices .............

So, I take it everyone has their heads in the sand when it comes to actually paying attention to How Your Meat finally arrives in its neat little plastic covered receptacle with a clear label......?

I saw this with a thread of mine ... the one on the VgT magazine ....... completely ignored.

And so ...... the suffering goes on.

But not for humans, only for those without a voice and ability to overcome their problems they are having with the unfortunate turn humans have taken in their occupation of this planet.

If you`ve read this far in my post then I want to add another dimension ......... Last week I happened on a TV documentary filmed in Germany - a chicken factory wholesaler selling 1 1/2 million "Free-range" chickens a week.

Fine. If it was not for how those chickens lived and died.

The "healthy" were harvested....... after living in what looked like at least 10 inches of their own faeces........ for 6 weeks (fed growth hormones to reach adult size in that time). The weak were left behind, still living, stuck in the faeces with broken legs .... and simply scooped up in the "cleaning" process and dumped in containers.

Okay, now that the thread is back on topic ........ cheaper meat production......?