Random Observations Photo Essay

I was out and about today and thought I'd just take some photos about things here that I find amusing, different, or just worth commenting on. There's not much of an organizing theme and nothing important going on here, but you can get an idea of the little differences I see from day to day.

1. Parking is usually a tight squeeze. Granted there are more small cars here, but there are a lot more tight spaces, and they usually have big columns impinging on one or both sides. This is under a mall with a pretty big grocery store in Lausanne. I tried to park our car in the space you see on the right, but it was a no go. WAY too tight for the Touran. Or, maybe I'm a wimp.

2. This is part of the skiing section at a sports store chain in Lausanne. Just the skis and a tiny portion of the boots. It doesn't include the space devoted to helmets, goggles, snowboards, clothing, avalanche probes, etc. It's a fairly large store in Swiss terms, but nothing approaching a sports mega-store in the US. I guess people like to ski here. That might also explain the absence of many overweight people and the surprisingly large number of people moving around on crutches....

3. It's amusing to see foreign language books for English on the store shelves.

4. Swiss efficiency, part 1. The carts are all chained together in the parking lot, and you have to put a 1 or 2 franc (typically) coin into the cart to detach it from the other carts. Then, you bring the cart with you into the store, use it to transport goods to your car, and return it to the queue of carts to retrieve your coin. Would a $1 to $2 charge keep me from stealing a shopping cart if I wanted one? No. Is it enough to convince me to walk the 20 yards metres back to the cart queue? Absolutely!

5. Swiss efficiency, Part 2. All of the shopping centers have a dry cleaner on the bottom level just inside the doors from parking. Sometimes shoe repair, too. Convenient place. You're going to the shopping center anyway, you don't want to carry this stuff with you through the hallways, and probably cheap rent below ground....

6. Swiss efficiency, Part 3. This is one of Laura's favorites. The parking garages have counters to tell you how many spaces are available. These things are great, you can see the sign count down by one number when you drive past. Then, the levels and sections are split up with sensors and signs to tell you how many spaces are available in each section. That way you don't waste time driving through full sections when there might be more spaces available on a different level. There's also a sensor at the exit of the section, of course, so that the sign counts up by a space when a car drives out. This particular garage had another feature I hadn't seen before with lights to show empty or full spaces. You could drive through a section of red lights to see a green light down the row and know that that space would be available. (The individual space lights are hard to see, but you can see it if you click on the picture and explode it to full size.)

So, these were just amusing observations from my day today. I have now visited nine different furniture stores and haven't been able to find the side table I want. Maybe it's time for me to change my list of requirements?

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