Wouldn’t it be nice to shop for goods or services and know that your purchase makes you happy and supports a humanitarian program? The online store Shop & Help does just that: up to 85% of your shopping cart funds a human rights, education, health or environmental program. A non-profit organization, Shop & Help receives donations that it puts up for sale at a price slightly lower than its market value. The difference goes to your favorite program, since you can select a specific one at the time of purchase. So rent a car, stay in a hotel, buy wines, jewelry and more, and help! Deliveries worldwide, services mostly available in the Lake Geneva area, but will expand with new, and welcomed, donations.
Migros baby slippers: recalled for safety reasons
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Migros is alerting the public to blue and white baby slippers with a moose head decoration that it is recalling for quality problems: parts on the moose head can come loose and pose a safety risk to small children. The slippers have been sold since July 2010. Article number: 8923.023, price CHF12.90. Contact your nearest Migros to return them.
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Switzerland will soon have full-service 24-hour shops and restaurants at gas stations on roads “with heavy tourist traffic”. The law currently differs for shops and restaurants on main tourist routes, with shops closed between 01:00 and 05:00 at stations that are open non-stop and that have cafes, but changes to the law will end the shop sales bans.
The ruling Federal Council agreed to back a parliamentary initiative that will simplify the situation for the petrol stations and end confusion for consumers. The rationale has been that the stations should only offer “essential” services, but in reality managing the distinction has been a problem, the council concedes, and the full service in a limited number of areas will provide night workers, for example, with an important service.
The council insisted, however, on adding “with heavy tourist traffic” to the phrase “along major traffic routes” to avoid conflicts with laws governing Sunday and night work, laws the council says must remain in place.
The law applies only if cantonal law allows night and Sunday openings.
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Migros, Switzerland’s largest supermarket chain, is about to start trialling two new shopping systems, both designed to save time in checkout lines, says the store. The first will allow shoppers to scan a limited number of large items themselves. The second will allow them to check themselves out by scanning a limited number of items and paying for them.
Ikea has had a similar system for some time, but not for food items. Migros is starting its Subito system in Zurich, Lucerne and several areas in eastern Switzerland 6 September before rolling it out across the country.
Smart phone orders now more than 8%
Source: Le Shop, 2011
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Le Shop’s steady strong growth continued in the first three months of 2011, but with a new twist, as shoppers increasingly used smart phones and tablets to place their orders.
Le Shop’s sales rose 9 percent in Q1 compared to the same period a year earlier, to CHF41.5 million for the three months. Smart phone and tablet orders now account for 5,000 orders a month, with a total value of more than CHF1 million a month, or about 8 percent of Le Shop’s total sales.
The share of customers with iPhones has increased in the past year from 25 percent to 37 percent, says Le Shop. The target clientele is working mothers with young children. Some 45,000 clients now spend at least CHF230 in one order, at least once a month.
Crime rate low, but insecurity an issue; de-centralization carries day on higher taxes for wealthy: voters strongly refuse initiative
Geneva rejects longer shopping hours, Vaud town says yes to Lake Geneva public access
Update 2, 21:10 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Swiss media and political parties are scrambling Sunday evening 28 November to analyze the significance of a solid majority of voters approving the right-wing UDC (SVP, Swiss People’s Party) popular initiative to automatically expel foreigners found guilty of serious crimes. Fifty-two percent of voters went to the polls and approved the foreign criminals initiative by 52.9 percent. Not a single canton accepted parliament’s alternative counter-initiative. French-speaking cantons, with the exception of bilingual but French-majority Valais , rejected the UDC proposal, but all German-speaking and German-majority cantons voted for it except the city of Basel.
Voters also resoundingly rejected a Socialist popular “fair taxes” initiative that would have obliged some cantons with low taxes for wealthy people to raise their tax rates. It failed by 58.5 percent.
The Federal Justice and Police Department Sunday evening issued a notice that the government will set up a working group before the Christmas break to begin looking at how the foreign criminals vote can be implemented. In its statement it noted that:
“The working group will have the task of examining open questions and drafting a proposal as to how the initiative can be implemented, which the FDJP can subsequently put to the Federal Council. Ultimately it will fall to parliament to decide how the initiative is to be implemented in the form of a federal act. The Federal Council will also be counting on the sponsors of the initiative to keep the pledge they made before the vote to contribute constructively to producing a solution that is compatible with the constitution and international law.”
Sunday and late shopping in Geneva fails while La Tour-de-Peilz says yes to public lakefront
Voters also settled a number of cantonal and communal issues. In the Lake Geneva region: Geneva voters rejected later shopping hours while in canton Vaud the town of La Tour-de-Peilz voted in favour of making the Lake Geneva waterfront accessible to the public.
What the foreign criminals vote means
Evening shopping soon a reality in Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – The Grand Conseil, or cantonal council of Geneva voted Thursday evening 17 June to extend shopping hours in the city to 20:00 weekdays and 19:00 Saturdays, with a review of the new hours at the end of three years.
The project now becomes law, but Socialists and members of the MCG (Mouvement Citoyens genevois) say they will force a popular referendum on the issue, the first to protect workers, notably women who work in shops, and the second to protect family life from a growing consumerism that is replacing family time with buying, the group argues.
Castle tower, Saint Prex, Vaud, Switzerland - May 2010
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Reminder to readers from outside the country (or visitors who are surprised to find shops closed): Thursday 13 May is a holiday in Switzerland and much of Europe. Some shops and businesses are open Friday 14 May, but this varies according to location. Tip: if you’re looking for food because you forgot to stock up, petrol stations with shops increasingly carry staples such as meat, salad, bread and milk. Remember if you’re traveling Sunday 16 May to check our travel advisory.
Post Office version of new Swiss digital ID card
Quo Vadis is the other Swiss ID card distributor
Price starts at CHF39 for three years through La Poste, with government cashback
Update 16:25 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Switzerland Monday morning 3 May unveiled its new online ID system, called SuisseID, which uses a USB key or card with chip as proof of identity. The cards and keys are available as of Monday 3 May.
The system is available to businesses and individuals, and Bern expects to see 200,000-300,000 of the digital IDs delivered by the end of 2010. Swisscom is the sole vendor for companies and Quo Vadis and the Swiss Post Office sell it to individuals.
The new ID system will move more business operations to the Internet and should prove useful for government offices as well as private business.
