"Pay As You See Fit": Gimmelwald’s Honesty Shop, a Store Without Prices

Nestled in the the heart of the lush Lauterbrunnen Valley in the Jungfrau region of Switzerland, lies Gimmelwald. A typical Swiss mountain village anchored on the slopes of the alps. The village is surrounded by fertile wheat fields, hungry Swiss cow herds, steep mountain biking trails and and forest clad hiking paths connecting neighboring villages.

Gimmelwald is also home base for many adventure seekers. Centuries old chalets, conventional hotels, and quaint adventure youth hostels line the switchback cobblestone streets. Walking through the town, one can venture into one of a handful of tourist shops, artisan bakeries and made by hand woodcraft shops.

Amidst the many shops selling high priced goods and quality souvenirs lies a small shop that has no attendant or prices. The vacant shop is lined with no more than a few shelves and a small refrigerating unit. The shelves are full of a variety of unique goods, some of which look very expensive. From hand carved and crafted cookoo clocks (a Swiss trademark) to intricately laced macramé to general food items such as cookies and soda, the shop is like no other in the country, if not the world.

Looking past the shelves of goods, one can find a small antique oak box with an envelope sized slit sitting atop a wooden stand. Above the slot in German, French, and English, a small carved sign reads “Please Pay As You See Fit”.

This shop relied upon the honesty and trustworthiness of its customers. Truly a pure case of business ethics. Pay as you see fit. Now I am sure that there have been a few people that have come across this store and took what they say they needed for free, but for the most part the honor system had worked.

Talking with a couple of locals that owned a one of the hostels in Gimmelwald, I came to find out that the shop had been their for over 15 years and that every week villagers, not just from Gimmelwald, but from all over the Jungfrau region would come to the shop to sell items. The village designates a local to be no more than a care taker to make sure the shelves are filled as well as collect the money which is then split among Gimmelwald and the neighboring villages.

Two things stand out to me about this concept and the shop itself that I find most fascinated. 1) the shop had been open for 15 years meaning that it has been a viable source of income for the village and 2) The types of items in the store.

When visiting the store I was accompanied by a few friends. One of them found a hand carved smoking pipe that looked to be over one hundred years old. Surrounding the pipe we found intricate hand painted figures and decorations highlighting Swiss culture. In any of the big cities in Europe, this item was worth more than $200 but there it was sitting in a “Pay as you see fit store”. My friend bought the pipe for around $150. Items like these were found on the shelves amongst candy bars, chocolate and postcards. This shop was a treasure in and of itself. 


People are generally good hearted, honest, charitable individuals. I believe that if more of these stores existed throughout the world, business owners would still make plenty of money while at the same time creating a customer loyalty which will keep them coming back. I guess you could say it would be the first stepping stone to building a Utopian world society. The shop was just another example to me of one of a plethora of things that Switzerland is doing right.