Observations on quality

I am learning what is meant by quality. I feel the only way I can do this is to have something to compare. Not just chocolates or watches. I mean, these are givens because they are the most widely known reputation about Switzerland.

The following are a few observations I can readily think of, but also what I have observed within my first 10 days:

• If I compare the quality of my house with the quality of my rented apartment, I notice a few things. My house has lots and lots of shortcuts to maximize the builder's profits while also reducing his expenses. Lots and lots of shortcuts. I was so frustrated at how many shortcuts I noticed after we bought it, I now put home builders in nearly the lowest "trustability" category, just above Enterprise Content Management software sales vendors. My rented apartment has concrete floors that emanate heat in the winters, well insulated walls and windows (almost sound-proof when they are closed), stone tile floors in the bathrooms, a sunken stone tile shower floor where the water just disappears over the edge of something, and towel warmers in the bathroom. But the most curious of all to me is that all cabinets and drawers (and even some building doors) have these strange springs on their hinges or rollers that allow you to fling it to a point, and it closes the rest of the way on its own... very very quietly. Considering I used to awake early on weekends to someone opening and shutting cabinets without springs, constantly rummaging for something, this is a fantastic benefit. I can also understand why these are a necessity in Switzerland, considering QNQ ("quiet neighbor quotient") is a valuable score to maintain.
• I've noticed a difference in cheese availability. Though I haven't tried this in somewhere like Wisconsin, I used to pay tons at wine & cheese bars in NY or Kansas. I would seek them out, just for the opportunity to ask them for cheese flights, to experience various appellations while resting comfortably on my rump, and to read the interesting provenance always so neatly printed for me in colorful language (English!) ... Here, I can go to almost any grocery store and find variations of cheeses I have never seen nor tasted, nicely portioned and lain in order of stink level, from soft to hard, from very mild to horribly poopy. I am working my way through all, just not all at once. Refrigerator space is a premium, and I will never be able to put in a can of diet coke and pull out a diet-coke-ice-cube-in-a-can. At least not without the ozone police handing me citations.
• Everything here comes with a two-year automatic warranty. OMG - What? How is this possible?? I can just bring it back and get another one if it breaks? This must be built into the price of everything, because the actuarial hedging on something like that... either that, or these folks are very very confident about the quality of their purchases.
  
• I learned today from an expat colleague a ton of useful things, of which I now owe someone later as I am expected to pay it forward. They will deliver my groceries for a small fee. Price Chopper would have laughed me out of the store. Here, they have no expectation one will lug home a 25lb bag of dog food on a train, bicycle, or by foot. They'll deliver it. To your door. With other groceries, too. I'll be taking advantage of this, considering I'm the lady's pack-mule. I am coveting my calories lately more than my francs. NO WAY am I spending calories on lugging any more.
• Doggy poop disposal is paid for by the citizens, included in the taxes. Poopy socialism. All you have to do is utilize the bags they offer, and place the poop accordingly into the proper container. Every time. That's all. NEVER leave it. EVER... you disgusting uncaring imbecilic slob. EVER.