When you pick up a travel book about Zurich you always read about how expensive it is. That didn’t really sink in with me until I was here looking to buy something or get some food. It’s insane. To get your bearings, at the current exchange rate you can buy 1.19 Swiss Francs (CHF) for 1 US dollar. A typical no frills sit down lunch spot with an entrée and a beverage will run about 25-30 CHF per person. Throw in a salad or appetizer and you are easily at $30 US dollars for a modest lunch. At the noodle house where we ate for lunch on Monday I ordered Phad Thai and Chiz ordered a soup dish and we shared a bottle of mineral water. We left there $50 lighter. You guys in Bellevue think you have it bad. To punctuate the normality of these prices we were seated right next to two 14 year old skater kids who themselves plopped down an easy 60 CHF for their curry dishes. There are a ton of food stands and “take away” options but the Kabobs go for 8.50 CHF and a bratwurst or pretzel would run you about 6-7. At dinner time, the sandwich board sitting out front of the Spaghetti Factory (no relation) has no problem informing you that the nightly entrée special will run you 40 CHF. Throw in the expected bottle of wine and kiss your money goodbye. Bar prices are no better. You are looking at 7 CHF. minimum for a beer and a whopping 14 CHF for a shot of JD (almost $12). The two pints of Guiness and side order of fries we ordered at Oliver Twist (cool British pub) came to 25 CHF.
The food is just the tip of the iceberg. The myriad of storefronts all prominently display a sample of their wares in the windows. Most of the stores actually have no qualms about displaying the prices right along side the window items. It’s shocking. I would have to say the two most prolific store types are the shoe store and the watch store. They really do love their watches here. I don’t think I ever saw a pair of ladies shoes that was less than 129 CHF. You would be very lucky indeed to find just a simple men’s watch for less than 100 CHF and it was the norm to see the majority of the watches over the 1000 mark. The windows with no prices in them scared me immensely. Jeans are upwards of 100 CHF. A new XBOX game is 90 CHF. A men’s haircut is 90 CHF and a woman’s is 100 CHF. I bought a popular fiction paperback book for 15 CHF. Service related industries are not much better. Our modest hotel room was 240 CHF a night.
Wow!I think I will have to raise
Oh say can you see..., February 1, 2005 04:12 AM:my prices here.Every one knows how much
I like my JD.
Glad you used that example.
...my house from there?
I think you have to bring the JD and smokes with you from the land of true freedom. You can trade them for food, clothing, and what they call love almost anywhere in Europe.