For most Americans, when we pick up a bottle of coke with the price labeled as 0.89€ (or whatever currency you may be using), we're not generally phased when we are asked to pay 1.14€ at the cash register. Of course I know Germany doesn't have sales tax (or at least they fix it in to the labeled price unlike the US when it's always a surprise to check out), but having been raised in country that did, minor price differences from shelf to check out don't generally catch my attention.
However, that mysterious 25 cents is not lost forever!
In Germany (and I'm sure many, many other European countries), most plastic or glass bottles are charged a Pfand (or a deposit), so when you take the empty bottles back, you get your 25 cent Pfand back. While it might not seem like much lost when you toss that single 25 cent bottle into the trash (well, let's be honest, in Germany, you'd still recycle it with the other plastics...), imagine collecting all those deposits until your one 25 cent bottle turned into a collection like this -
When Patrick and AJ came to visit in Munich (along with two of their friends from England), a lot of bottled beverages were purchased over the first 4 days. But fear not, I did not let a single bottle go astray! Thanks to my unnecessarily large purse, I was able to gather the above pictured collection of 15 and 25 cent deposit bottles.
The return of that impressive collection yielded a staggering 4.50€, which paid for my lunch the next day.
So if you're ever in Germany, don't forget the Pfand!
Please note: although you may now be thinking "woo hoo! I'm going to collect empty bottles and make free money!!", please consider your actions. While I neither condemn nor condone such behavior, you'll kind of look like a homeless person...
*sad news, for those of you that know how much Gemma and I love wine, wine bottles have no pfand. :(
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