The Price is Richtig

Moving to any new location naturally requires leaps of faith in multiple areas--one can't possibly compare all the nuanced differences in living conditions, even if fairly familiar with the new location. One major factor that never goes unanalyzed, however, is cost of living. When I moved from my home/college environs of Green Bay, WI/West Lafayette, IN to the big city of Chicago fifteen years ago, of course I expected the cost of living to be higher. I still remember the shock, however, at how much higher--the price of everything from rent to a round of beer to parking tickets to car insurance seemed to increase exponentially. Yet after a while, perhaps a year or more, those Chicago prices felt "normal" and the majority of the U.S. (save expensive outliers like New York, D.C., San Francisco, etc.) became a relative bargain.

Funny how history repeats itself sometimes (always). Of course when the expatriate rumblings began in earnest nearly a year ago, we knew Zürich's cost of living was higher than Chicago's: we checked Internet reports that indexed Zürich's COL at 107.6 vs. New York's at 100.0; we hired a financial planner who employed a +30% COL adjustment; we'd toured Zürich two or three times prior and price-tested some glasses of beer and wine; Stephanie and Hyatt negotiated her Swiss salary with all those things in mind, no complaints. And remember we've experienced this adjustment once before, moving to downtown Chicago (ha!).

Well, now...upon our living here (not simply touring here) I can say the magnitude of the price increases on nearly every item has seared our brains with its intensity and the scars are still healing. We've come to truly understand that living in Europe is significantly more expensive than the bargain-priced U.S., and Zürich is expensive even by European standards--9th most expensive city in the world (in the U.S. only N.Y.C. & L.A. make the Top 50; full chart for 2007 is about 2/3 down this page.) Anytime anyone asks us about life so far in Zürich, Steph and I automatically simultaneously blurt, "Great!" and "Expensive!" (we take turns exclaiming one or the other).

OK, fine, but what does that really mean, right? As with any concept, examples illustrate better. I'm even fresh with some recent comparisons from our frenetic Chicago shopping spree (I'm omitting rent, it's probably 30% higher for 25% less space in Zürich vs. Chicago, we were prepared for that). I've formed it as a quiz, so your job is to add the units: a 'USD $' or a 'CHF' (Swiss Franc) in front of each of the following 12 comparisons. For you international financiers, the exchange rate currently favors the U.S. slightly at 1 USD : 1.1 CHF, but for purposes of this quiz, do what we do and pretend they're equal:

___0.29 per 10g of dried non-organic thyme
___2.45 per 10g of dried organic thyme

___2.00 for train ride w/ bus transfer including antiquated seats, poor signage, occasional fecal aroma, 100-decibel metal-on-metal screeching noise, no dog access and completely unreliable service
___2.00 for train ride w/ bus transfer including modern traincar construction with digital information displays, dog access (extra fare) and near-perfect on-time service at nearly every street corner every 7 minutes

___4.95 for a full lunch of BBQ pork sandwich and chips (excl. drink)
___6.50 for a double espresso (excl. food)

___1.69 per kg (~2 lb.) of dried black beans at any grocery store
___8.00 per kg of dried black beans at a super-high-end specialty store

___3.46 per dozen eggs, of unkown geographic origin (and animal)
___3.20 per four organic eggs, guaranteed to originate from a hen within 20 miles of your home, laid within the last week and individually date-stamped

___1.50 for dry cleaning a men's shirt
___11.00 for dry cleaning a men's shirt

___9.00 for average restaurant pasta or pizza offering
___25.00 for average restaurant pasta or pizza offering

___2.00 tip for a ___73.00 restaurant meal with decent service
___12.00 tip for a ___73.00 restaurant meal with decent service

___17.00 for men's haircut, excluding shampoo but including extremely valuable hot-lather, straight-razor neck shave
___60.00 for men's haircut, including shampoo

___35.00 for 30 lbs. of Eukanuba "Large-Breed" dog food
___102.00 for 33 lbs. (15kg) of Eukanuba "Large-Breed" dog food

___491.50 for a Tissot 'T-Touch' Swiss watch on a popular Internet site
___998.00 for a Tissot 'T-Touch' Swiss watch at a fancy watch & diamonds store

And finally the comparison that I believe sums it all up:

___60.00 most common Quick-Cash option from ATM
___200.00 most common Quick-Cash option from ATM

Answer Key: Look out, there were some foolers in there! All comparisons were USD first, followed by CHF, except the thyme (that's right, dried herbs are a real bargain here, you should see our pantry) and the restaurant tip (I figured you were all cheap tippers). So menu prices look a lot worse but you save a bit on the tip.

Now in fairness to the Swiss, individual items cannot always be compared apples-to-Äpfel; in Switzerland you pay for quality and nearly every product is high quality, Swiss-made (astonishingly little from China) and quite often actually locally-made; food ingredients are incredibly fresh. My new motto is, "In Switzerland, you pay more to get more (because you often don't have a choice)".