"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. 

Trummelbach Falls: Mist in the Mountain

Lauterbrunnen. The heart of of the Jungfrau region of Switzerland. Home to the famous Monch, Eiger,Lauterbrunnen, Murren, and Gimmelwald. Flowering meadows, shear rock faces, and weathered mountain huts characterize the landscape. Avid rock climbers, paragliders, and base jumpers frequent the baby blue skyscape and mountain tops. The valley of Lauterbrunnen gives birth to 72 waterfalls that cascade down shear granite edifices. Their mist gives vibrant life to plush green pastures and lush mountain sides.
Jungfrau peaks. Nestled in these peaks one can find centuries old alpine villages such as

This valley also has a secret that can't be seen from a moving train, passing car, or a drifting paraglider. Trummelback Falls.

As one of the 72 falls in the valley, Trummelback is very unique. The average passerby can't see the falls because they are tucked inside the mountain itself. Acting as the life blood of the mountain, the falls themselves originate from thousands of years of glacial runoff, widdling a path or waterfall through the heart of the mountains and creating a beautiful spectacle that you can't find anywhere else in Europe.

When arriving to see the falls, you have to pay a small fee (10 francs) to get to the trailhead that leads to the falls. A path leads you from the main road, past some tourist junk shops and through a green meadow that allows you to take in the views of the imposing mountains on each side of the valley.

Once at the mouth of the falls, you can choose to take a lift to the top of the falls, or hike the path to the top. Once at the top you can explore the falls from five different look outs along the way. The path leads you deep through a damp caver into the heart of the mountain. From various lookout spots you can witness the raw power of this waterfall ripping through granite rock and through the mountain at a ferocious rate. Also, don't be afraid to get a little wet as the mist bellows from time to time from the cavern as if the mountain were alive and breathing.

Throughout the hike in the cavern, there are many spots where pillars of sunlight seep through the top of the mountain helping to give light to the cave and some amazing colors and rainbows to the waterfall itself. The waterfall is an amazing work of nature and is just one of many natural awe-inspiring sites that this region as well as the whole of Switzerland has to offer.

While traveling through this region, there are gobs of things to do, see, and explore. Seeing these falls is well worth the time and will further enrich your experience and motivate you to further explore this region, the most beautiful of Switzerland.