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Comment by mhb | Hacker News Reader

The price of food in Switzerland was insane when I was there.

If you're referring to restaurants, that is because the waitress makes around 4000 CHF per month; if you're referring to food in supermarket that is because the clerk behind the counter gets 25 CHF / hour and not 7 EUR like in Germany.

So higher cost of living results in higher prices. Strange that. /s

Higher pay too.

So you're suggesting what, gardening? Gardening is great, but it's not responsive to, "the price of food in Switzerland was insane..."

My sister in Geneva sources a lot of her food out of a community garden.

In Switzerland, imported and unprocessed food is surprisingly cheap. Veggies are maybe 20-30% more expensive than Germany.

Processed food like frozen pizza is expensive as a substantial amount of (manual?), well-paid labour goes into convenience food.

In Switzerland, imported and unprocessed food is surprisingly cheap. Veggies are maybe 20-30% more expensive than Germany.

I must be misunderstanding something, because these two sentences seem to contradict. In Germany itself, "unprocessed food" is more expensive than in most of the rest of the world.

According to Eurostat food prices in Germany are at the EU-15 average and slightly above the EU-28 avarage with fruits and vegetables slightly below.

Sure, in most of the rest of the world food is pcheaper but that compares to even lower income levels.

I don't know how much supermarket clerks earn, but German minimum wage is 8.5 eur/h.

Not only that, but Switzerland puts import fees on quite a number of food items. For instance, Swiss meat farmers are heavily protected, and that shows when you check the prices for meat in the supermarket or in a restaurant. A steak can cost three times as much as over the border in Germany.

I cant talk for anyone but this is something we highly value in this country. You pay more but you usually get always good quality. Its not a hit or miss like in the surrounding countries.

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