What hearing aid is suitable for working in a food industry (noisy environment)?

@RicoWave said:

Optical Center because they are primarily opticians

When I went there I had to make an appointment with a visiting audiologist, who only does HAs. Not sure that you get better service in a place run by a herd of audiologists, but I understand your concern, if money plays no role.

We need a ranking of the best audiologists. Are Google reviews reliable?

Prices for the same model:
No. 1 €3400
No. 2 €3540
No. 3 €2800 : trial in progress

Yes, because the best hearing for 4 years isn’t as important as your daily life. Why do we care lore than you do. This job…

RobHooft, Maybe you have answered this in a previous post. I’m curious as to why the large difference in price for hearing aids between France and Switzerland? Are there other goods and services with a large price gap? As an outsider unfamiliar with either country, it seems kind of surprising. Both very prosperous countries, both speak the same language (at least one of them), both high tech countries etc.

@portage said:

why the large difference in price for hearing aids between France and Switzerland

@portage said:

Both very prosperous countries

No, there is actually a very, very large gap in GDP per capita between France and Switzerland (46 and 105 kUSD, respectively.) Switzerland’s numbers are comparable to the US, but there are also country differences, such as the insane wealth concentration in the latter (its Gini coefficient), with an amazing tolerance for poverty in its midst that is unique among OCED countries.

What causes discrepancies in the “wealth of nations” is endlessly debated. Not having fought the two WWs (at least not on their soil, as the US) is probably relevant, and also how countries are run (France is not governed very well, imho), but I am not an expert here (and I don’t think there is a consensus at all).

Differences in prosperity produce differences in prices and costs for services. This is nicely captured in the yearly “Big Mac” index (by The Economist), comparing an identical product made by a mix of goods and labor across countries. So you pay about $6 for a Big Mac in the US but $9 in Switzerland and $7.30 in France (snapshot numbers). Note that this figure also reflects taxes, exchange rates (investors like to buy inflation-proof CHFs, pushing up its value), competition, real estate prices etc.

International merchants are keenly aware of such gaps in purchasing power, so even purely digital goods sold over the internet get widely different price tags. For example, the very same digital, English edition of The Economist costs you 415 USD/y in Saudi Arabia but 126 in India. In France, Netflix costs 20 Euro/m, in Switzerland we pay 27 Eur (converted) for (mostly) the same French content. There are also many interesting stories of what the same return flights cost if you buy (and start) them from country A or B.
Once, in the old and innocent days, the internet became a great tool for international shopping, but today it is a bit as if shopkeepers ask you for your passport before announcing their prices (the emporium strikes back, if you like). Your IP and creditcard address service this purpose very well. Brick-and mortar shopkeepers cannot ask you for your passport, but national distributors will happily inflate prices if they can.

Now, economy (again, not an expert here) is complicated. For instance, healthcare is controlled by the state in places like France and the UK, resulting in a significant reductions in costs (scale, negotiations, reimbursements), unlike WildWest places like the US (and Switzerland). Some in the Pharma industry joke that the US “subsidizes” medicinal R&D costs for the entire world. Sometimes (rarely), Trump has a point to be upset.

So where do HAs fit into all this? They are mostly sold as a curious mix between electronics and labor (fitting). Now, electronics are actually quite a bit cheaper here in Switzerland than in France because these come with a significantly lower VAT. Labour costs in Switzerland are, however, significantly higher, and these constitute the bulk of what HAs are sold for, explaining the price gap. Leave out Cosco, and US prices are similarly high (I believe).

From a personal perspective- what is listed above is ofc very much a “luxury problem”. Living in a high-income, high cost country sometimes comes with mild irritation and forces a lot of shopping creativity, but is something that one can certainly live with…

RobHooft, Thanks for that response. Lots of new information, well, new to me. The only international border I am personally familiar with is the U.S. - Canada border. The first third of my life was spent a mile from Canada. Way back when, dollar exchange rates varied a few cents either way. Now CDN dollar is about 73 US cents. Regarding hearing aid prices, it is only since reading this forum that I found out the Costco difference. I have no excuse for that ignorance as there are a number of Costco stores around me.

@Hearing_Potential said:

Your audiologist is doing the right thing by you using BTE devices.@tenkan

Yes still here and reading the post, interesting new information, a medical issue that compounds the problem.

RicoWave, As RobHooft stated, Costco is a large retail chain of stores which sells a large variety of consumer goods. Costco has Hearing Aid Centers in most if not all of their stores. They sell hearing aids made by the Big Five manufacturers but with a different name. For example, Phonak HA are sold under the Sennheiser brand, Oticon under Philips. Costco prices are much lower. For instance I bought an Oticon Real 3 HA in 2023 for $5,000 from a private audiologist. A Oticon Real 1 was available at Costco (unbeknownst to me at the time) as Philips for $1,700. Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart, as the old saying goes.

@Hearing_Potential said:

The discharging ear is definitely a contraindication for a receiver-in-the-canal device like the Phonak Audeo Infinio Sphere. Your audiologist is doing the right thing by you using BTE devices.@tenkan

I agree about altered anatomy of the ear canal and wax discharge.

@Bimodal_user said:

You need earmold with no vent, so earmold should fit even in narrow ear canals. Unless you have seriousl anatomical candition like underdevelopment of ear canal or so.

However, I disagree with the inaccurate information provided by his Audi about working hours of the Phonak Audéo Infinio Sphere.

He could’ve been referring to total time that the spheric speech in loud noise program can be used, which is less than the total battery life for general usage. When clients/patients remember less than 60% of what is explained in an appointment on average it’s always a good idea to take what is repeated with a grain of salt.

x475aws, Thanks for that correction. I just went back into this forum from 2024 and read the extensive thread, or at least one of them, discussing the enumerated and detailed differences between the Oticons and Philips HA.