Things that are different about Switzerland: Part 2… Food and Shopping

Mayonnaise, mustard and ketchup in a tube? Dairy products that aren’t refrigerated? No brown sugar as we know it? Vanilla sugar instead of vanilla extract? These are some of the questions you have when shopping in a Swiss grocery store if you are used to shopping in the US.

The condiments in a tube is just odd, but really works just like our condiments in plastic bottles (just without the splurting sounds we are used to when squeezing ketchup on your plate). Seriously though, did you know that dairy products don’t always have to be refrigerated? A sealed box of heavy whipping cream can last for months on your pantry shelf. Eggs – well, they also don’t have to be refrigerated (and aren’t always), but I am told the non-refrigerated ones don’t last as long as the ones that are (according to my in-house shopper, Darrell). Speaking of eggs, so far you can buy boiled and colored eggs in our local store year-round (think Easter eggs, but conveniently packaged in plastic on the store shelves, and apparently the coloring is so you know they are already cooked). Brown sugar here, well technically, it IS brown, but it is like granulated sugar with a bit of color thrown in – it really doesn’t taste as good no matter what anyone tells you. And then there is that lovely (vanilla) extract we tend to think of as a liquid. Yup, it isn’t a liquid here, instead it comes as a little package of vanilla sugar, and from all accounts, it is as good as our extract if not better.

If you have ever shopped in Europe and tried to purchase fresh vegetables, odds are decent you have experienced a flustered check-out clerk sitting (they all sit, no standing for the clerks here), saying something to you in a foreign language, shaking the carrots at you, looking ready to lob an apple at your forehead. You don’t know what they are saying, but know that something is really really wrong… Why else would they be shaking your vegetables at you? OK, so here is the deal. In every country in Europe I’ve been to, you have to weigh your own produce. It is really simple, as long as you can remember to do it. When you pick out your produce, find the number on the shelf tag, then find the scale in the produce section. Put your produce on the scale and push the number that matches the shelf tag, take the sticker that prints out and put it on your produce. Voila! You have just weighed and priced your own produce – and saved yourself some check-out anxiety and embarrassment…

Finally, buying coffee beans… if you want to buy your beans and grind them at the store, you can count on the fact that the grinder is outside of the check-out line. This just plain makes sense – and it really is brilliant if you think about it... In our stores in the US, you grind your beans before you pay for them, so a little ground up bean left in the grinder doesn’t matter to you. Who cares if the next person gets a blend of your residual Bellinghamster blend with their dark Ecuadorian free trade roast. In Switzerland, you’ve already paid for your beans by the time you grind them, so you can be darn sure you'll try to get every last particle of ground up bean out of the machine – it is yours after all on this side of the check-out. Truly brilliant!