Treat of the day

Last week when we went to grocery shopping I spotted a new chocolate I have not tried before. That's not a huge deal for me actually because most of the time we do not get into the chocolate/sweet isles in a supermarket since I am not a huge fan of eating bar chocolates. Once in a while yes but I would rather go with a special, dark Frey one or with a Toblerone. Guess what? The one I spotted was a Toblerone with crunchy corn and I loved it. Chewy and crunchy at the same time...I cannot wait to go to the supermarket again:)

Money hoarders?

In yesterday's newspaper there was an article about Swiss keeping their money (in 1000 notes) under the mattress. That's pretty funny considering the bank culture in the country.
Whole article in German

What's with these countries in W Europe?

Having lived in several different countries and continents and living in well off countries let me tell you there is one amazing thing is going on in each and every one in Europe. And that's the lack of competition. In the US the competition is fierce therefore you got to have a fairly good product and customer service as well as price. And then there is Europe...where businesses get offend when they are faced with reality that they only exist because we, the customer actually buy the products and he/she should be the king. They get offended when you compare prices and go with the one which is cheaper or choose them whichever other reason.
Ok, to be fair I have worked in marketing all my life and I am completely aware of the balance a business should keep in order to be profitable (aka not abused by customers) but still satisfy its customers and when they complain they should be taken seriously.
Here, in Switzerland, there are a few examples from my own life when I had to face how businesses operate here. And let me tell you, it's not what you would expect.
1) I needed a special business insurance so I asked for two quotes. When one of them was basically double the price of the other one and had to turn it down, I got no response whatsoever. I actually wrote the gentleman that I would be happy to co-opearte on other insurances when needed etc and yet no response at all. Seriously? It's like being in kindergarten.
The 2) is the same story: I needed an accountant, so I talked to two accountants, having a 10 min chat, asked how they think about the business, price etc. After deciding and turning down one of them, I got an email saying how I dare to do that and he invested in me so much time. Make no mistake: when I left I asked how much I owe him when he said, no worries that's a marketing cost. Really? But when I turn you down, you write me an email saying how a mean person I am? That's simply ridiculous.
Nr 3 happened to me recently. I ordered a LOT of fitness equipment. After packing it out it turned out that one of them is defective and cannot be properly used as such. I emailed/called the company and for 3 weeks I did not even get an email or any response how we can solve the problem. Typical situation: you are a king until you spend your $$ then we do not give a &*@@ about what you are doing especially when complaining. So, no other choice, I took it onto social media and got some response at last. No, the defective equipment still does not work and had to listen to the customer service complain how I dare to do it plus they  are very busy, but at least they said they would have a look at it. Again, that's crazy because the parts needs to be changed...instead someone might come out some time to have a look at it (pics is not enough) and then we will see what happens. So, they are really busy, but I should be patient and have the time to write several emails, calls, messages whatever until I get a response.
Actually, the Netherlands is the same from this aspect too. The king is the business the customer is something essentially bad they have to deal with. And these are not the only ones...  I really do miss the US sometimes.

Mission accomplished

We have a new freezer! As I said earlier the Swiss freezers are VERY small and can hardly have enough space for weekly necessities. I was searching for a freezer for a while now here in Switzerland as well as in Germany and I am shamed to admit but we ended up getting it from Germany again. Not only the price is almost the half what we would pay here but also I have not found a decent one that would be suitable.
After checking it online I found a couple I liked in Germany, however the problem was that they did not carry them in an actual shop only online. This is a problem when you want to get the VAT back as well as ordering it to a German address (which is possible) and end up paying for that service as well. Finally after spending some time searching, I found a store called FLÖSCH which has several shops even close to the Swiss border. Since the freezer is 'only' 65 l we were able to put it in the back of the car and carry it with ourselves. Now I am one happy person. No more food falling out on my leg.

I desperately need....

... a small freezer. Here is the thing. The average flat in Switzerland comes with a small fridge and a built in freezer (around 5 liter!!), which is ridiculously small even if you are alone but if you consider this space for a family it's even more ridiculous. Until now there were other household items that needed to be purchased so I did not pay too much attention to this subject. Lately however as our flat started to turn into a real flat with furniture there is more time to figure out what else we need. And not only that. We lately started to pop left over fruit in the freezer to save it for smoothies or ice cream and our tiny little freezer filled up quickly and I cannot take anymore the small frozen packages landing on my feet every time I open the freezer. It's so annoying! Even more if you consider that supermarkets close at 6:30 pm (and 4 pm on Sat, everything is closed on Sun) which means you cannot just run down and buy what you need. I am not sure how the Swiss do it, probably they go out every other day to buy what they need but we are in a serious need for a freezer. That's gonna be on my list for the upcoming weeks that's for sure.

HUG factory

And here we go again. After visiting the Kambly cookie factory back in November we decided to check out another one. One of the factories of HUG is maybe a half an hour drive from us which made it an ideal destination for a rainy afternoon visit. Compared to the Kambly one it's definitely much smaller but they still have a good variety. You can try out all the products and buy bigger packages of goodies than in a supermarket. You can also try out and purchase a few test product, which is also fun. While Kambly is a place to spend almost a day, this HUG factory store is mainly to have a quick overview of their products, try them and leave. It offers a different experience than the Kambly one but definitely worth a visit.
Sorry, no pictures this time.

Around Central Switzerland

We have been on a mission to check out places in Central Switzerland. We visited a couple of small towns/villages around Luzern. Here are a couple of pictures how they look like.