migros i would think

You are entering in the hugest philosophical helvetic debate. Are you more Migros or Coop. It's one the main questions the people ask when looking for a new lover...

It'a as important as Mac or PC.

So.....   : o )

Go to France - even Migros in France - as you'll save easily 30% to 40%.

The day Swiss stores learn to compete at reasonable prices, then do your shopping in CH.  Given that 75% or more of what you see even in a grocery store is imported, the price should reflect the current high purchasing power of the Swiss franc - which neither Migros nor COOP has been able to do.

Once with Mac, you never go back!  :o)  JT.

It's not really a question ...

They have different products.

Here's a "hierarchy" of Swiss grocery stores, price and quality increasing with each.

Denner (cheapest; products are .... there's no quality to mention)

Migros

Coop

Manor

Globus (luxury products, best quality available, prices accordingly)

Sure, you will find some products in different stores, but the prices for those will most likely match, maybe 10 cents off. 

If you don't care about quality, you'll go to Denner, any time. Migros maybe.

Globus has ripened cheeses, "Pata Negra" ham, 1982 Chateau Petrus for 8'500,- CHF a bottle ....

It's one of the main questions people ask when looking for a new lover?  In that case, let me refrain my enquiry: which of the two aforementioned grocery stores do most single women prefer? ; )

Poster, I can't go shopping so easily in France because I live in Vevey, not Geneva, and I don't have a car.  Thanks anyhow.

Hehe.... NOW we come to the REAL problem.

You focus on the wrong issue m8 :-))

Women got the the store, which is closest to their workplace, when they leave it at 6pm.

You don't need to focus on the place, but the time. Nobody goes to the cheaper store during week, after leaving work, when they only have 30 minutes left for shopping and just finished their workday....

Coop City at St.Laurent and Manor next to place de la Palud are packed between 6 and 6:30 ;-P 

Order online... :o)  JT.

Vevey ? Nestlé. Many many commusters. Your best bet is any grocery store which is next to the train station....

exact!!! coop or manor! 

The really sad thing is that we, living in Switzerland are forced to choose between Coop or Migros. They both remind me of 1970s British supermarkets, until you go to pay. Then they remind me of  a night out in Monte Carlo.

  I just got back from the UK, and it's strange; when I go into Waitrose/Sainsbury's/M&S/Tesco/Morrisons/Asda  it's  like falling in love with supermarket shopping all over again.

Can someone please explain to me why the Swiss are prepared to put up with such a bad shopping experience? It seems they don't even realise it either. They think the supermarkets in the UK are still in the 70s, not their own.

Oh yes...  and I reallly enjoy supermarket shopping at 2.00 AM...

   obviously not here though

@Cristina

....and experts supporting my hypothesis 

Thanks Cristina 

Ha ha - I took my partner for her first visit to the UK last september, and I think she fell in love with Tesco's.

Julian, I already order my protien powders from abroad (and yes, it's cheaper than buying them here - even with airmail!).  Do you, however, really order fruits and vegetables, and juice, and milk, et cetera on the internet?  Which site?

Here's  the real  "hierarchy" of Swiss grocery stores, price and quality increasing with each:

Migros

Migros

Coop

Manor

Migros

Unfortunately the issue is more complexe.

I believe, Salary of basic employee in Migros France 1500euro  in Migros Switzerland 3500CHF

I'm not Julian, but:

www.leshop.ch (Migros shopping online)

www.coopathome.ch

Although there is a minimum amount to spend in order to have home delivery + shipping costs. I shop online every other month, to buy big quantities especially of heavy products (e.g. washing powder, cleaning products water bottles, softener etc.).

However, I recognise it is not convenient to regularly buy fresh products in this way, especially if you are single. 

Do they have this in the UK?  I thought this was only an American thing.

And yes I miss this so much.... nothing like going into a Walmart SuperCenter at 3 am and doing some grocery shopping oh and you can pick up that TV you have been wanting to buy too :)

I do not think anyone has mentioned Aligro.  Is much cheaper and you do not always have to buy in bulk.  Only one I know is near the patinoire de Vernets which is inconvenient for me so do not go often.  But if you want to fill a freezer it is a good bet-

I hate shopping but it was only after coming to Switzerland that I started to appreciate the variety of foods available in UK supermarkets.

Also if you do shop in France, it is npot just a question of prices but also the variety of products avaialble.

I will now continue eating my sardine (Migros) sandwich (sliced bread from Coop)

I shop as little as possible in Switzerland. I find that by sharing petrol costs it is worth going across the border to Carrefour. I prefer to go to Aosta, a bit futher but a fun drive and the selection of foods is to my liking. Prices are often 75% lower than at Coop and Migros. 2 of us can fill my car with food and still be within our customs limits.

Nobody has mentioned Lidl or Aldi.

Their fruit and veg are quite good and far better priced than Migros or Coop but the selection of products is far lower.

Always try one item before filling your cupboard with Aldi/Lidl products because they maybe good and then again they maybe rubbish.

Prices aren't as good as France but you will save substantially over the 2 Swiss supermarkets - however be careful and still shop around - Just because its in Aldi doesn't mean its cheap. Almost everything that is not normal foodstuff, cleaning or hyigene products is normal swiss priced and unknown brands (not always - but almost).

Toasting bread in Aldi is half the price of Denner, but Denner is good for other important stuff like wine and chocolate - often has big discounts.

For meat you need to find someone that has lived here for a while and consider buying direct fom the farmer -  you will save a fortune, just buy a big freezer.

Yes, but staff costs (should) account for only a small fraction of the actual price you pay for a product.  So if the real cost to acquire n imported product has fallen about 25-30% in the last couple of years, why haven't prices in Swiss stores also fallen by the same percentage ?

The original Swiss prices (say in 2007) were already higher than in France to reflect these higher indirect costs, but the bulk of the sales price is calculation based on the imported cost.

Do the math and someone is making out like bandits !

Marks & Spencer

For real savings? cross the border if you can. In Geneva I just take the tram to Moisullaz, walk for 10 min and go to a mid sized Casino. Opened on sunday util 12h30.  If you have time and patience than from the border, by bus you have a range of choices from small to big, extremely cheap or not so cheap: Spar, Casino, Geant, Lidl, Carrefour etc. Geant is a little far from the border but theres a Decathlon there too and it is well worth the trip for sports stuff.

Lidl in France (Annemasse) is a must if you are really really really trying to save money. You can buy a lot of decent quality stuff for a price that is almost impossible to believe. Overal shopping experience near zero though.But again for hypersavings I think that is the place.

Geant I find is quite nice, but most of the time I just go to Casino in Gaillard and I can walk in and out from the border. 

Please notice that I live just a few tram stops from Moisullaz so I don't find this a hard thing to do once a week.

And yes, Gyms here, from what I have seen, are not inviting...Expensive and strangely stuck in the 80's. Solution: run or buy a bike (not the same but keeps you healthy). 

What I find a little strange here, is that most of the posts imply that you're all either restaurant owners or Michelin 2 Star chefs.

And I don't think you are.  Actually.

Most of the posts come from people who ACTUALLY just want to buy something for breakfast (possibly lunch, though probably not as purchased at work) and dinner, with some nice wine chucked in.

So stop being so bloody snobby about where to shop and just nip down your nearest coop (save your petrol for driving into France, save the enivornment and Nicolas-bloody-Sarkosy's wages to boot) for some cheese and eggs (lovely omlette), buy your wine in Denner (cheaper than the rest of Europe) and if you want something fancy to impress a new girlfriend at the weekend, then buy some fancy deserts out of Manor or go to Globus if you think you're luck's in.

Honestly......you've all been watching too much "Masterchef".  

Yours

Ex Waitrose Shopper Snob :-)

Carolyn,

It's not about that, at all. And it's not about being "snobby", for me at least, either.

It's a long thinking process, and, actually, I might offer a discussion group about this, because it's something I only partially understand so far, and I want to learn more about it. 

It starts with http://www.storyofstuff.org/

The movie itself, for the discussion about food - it's not really to the point.

The entire "Story of Stuff" story is nothing really new, it's something we all know,  but somebody just had to pronounce the word. Somebody had to say it out loud  before ppl start to see the obvious.

So, the "Story of Stuff" just gives me an idea, I understood a concept. Some ancient cultures had that concept 5000 years ago, some lifestyles and some religions preach it.  (It's really a subject for itself, and it's hard to steer clear of the "environmentalist nutjob / spiritual guru" corner).

Believe me one thing: I'm not a religious guy AT ALL, I'm not anyhow spiritual interested, nothing of this nonsens.

I'm not a an animal rights activist, I'm not member of PETA, hell, I'm not even vegetarian.

But I know, that Transglutaminase in my cheap ham from Aldi, Lidl, Denner, Migros, Coop is not a good thing.

So I got to Manor or Globus and buy the stuff that's twice as expensive, but I know it comes from local farmers and has some control (even the label "Bio" - don't trust it just like that; it's not really regulated enough), and it has the shape of actual ham.

I try to buy food without MSG, because I know that stuff is really bad. And I certainly do not buy food where big on the front is orinted "NO FLAVOUR ENHANCER", but is has yeast extract, in it. MSG is made from yeast extract.

The eggs i buy from the shops where I can see that it's from chicken who have more then 20 square inches space to live, and I don't give a crap about the chicken themselves, believe me.

And the chicken breast I try also to get from local farmers, because I know that they do not produce 150.000 chicken breasts a day. 

It just can't be good to "produce" food like that. "Food Industry" - sounds horribly sick to me.

Watch movies like "Food Inc", "Supersize that", any food documentary of that kind.

Long explanation, my point (finally ;-P) being:

cheap supermarkets buy their stuff cheap - therefore can sell it cheap.

The "cheap", well, that is money somehow saved in the production, mostly. Ok, also transport and labor cost from the seller and bla bla bla.

Me, I just want a little more control over what I buy, and I want to buy stuff where the ingredient list reads the same as the name of the product. 

No "E" numbers. Go to Denner and buy 10 products where the name and the ingredient list match.....  hint: they won't let you stay over night in the store for searching ...

And all the cheap stores - the stuff they sell ist mostly crap.

period.

I know I have no full control over what I eat, not by buying from Globus or Denner or Manor or Coop.

But I DEFINITELY know that I buy better products when I buy - not from Denner, Lidl, Aldi, Migros.

Has nothing to do with being a "snobby gourmet" or being a "Birkenstock wearing Greenpeace activist".

So why didn't you just say that in the first place?  None of what you point out above, has anything to do with being a food snob.

That was all far more educational and interesting than any of the posts on here, and extremely entertaining to boot.  Thank you!

PS:  I agree with every single word you say - avoiding yeast extract and MSG is the bain of my life. And I only suggested Denner for wine - nothing else and you wouldn't get me within 10kms of a Lidl or Aldi, so I guess I'm STILL an ex-Waitrose Shopper Snob 

Don't knock Denner, it's probably the best place to buy decent reasonably priced wines Schweiz.  buy cases when a decent wine is on sale, sale is usually 50% off and you frequently can get around 5chf/bottle.

:)))))) so true, but I ended up with Migro and the one in the Airport, I live near and usually do shopping on Saturday or Sunday and the feeling of not being restrained to make it until 6-7 helps a lot. In airport they work even on weekends and until 21:00

I think migros a bit cheaper, on average, than coop. but migros don't carry many of the bigger brands that coop does, and the shopping experience in most migros is not pleasant (if that matters to you). 

i find that surprisingly, prices in manor for most basics are almost in line with coop prices. plus you have the choice in manor of going for more premium stuff if you want it, and the shopping experience is pleasant. 

fully agree with those who said coop and manor are both behind the times. on the other hand, uk super markets are amazing, it's a real pleasure shopping there. 

Well, Carolyn, the initial question was a lot easier ;-P

The discussion just slipped into being more complicated.

I wrote from the beginning where to get the good stuff - just not explaining what it makes "the good stuff". 

Besides - the discussion also kinda split. There's two kinds of ppl interested in the discussion, the ppl who are more price-aware, and the ppl who are more quality-aware....

Obviously, the answer to the initial, simple question is not the same for those ppl.

Besides, the guys asking the initial question, dmarienthal, added another question of much bigger importance, and basically nobody is adressing the much, much bigger issue here .... :-(

"which of the two aforementioned grocery stores do most single women prefer? ; )"

To answer the original question, I've found Migros to be somewhat cheaper than Coop, but Coop seems to be somewhat better in quality.

The cheapest stuff (usually) comes with a price.  Snobbery sometimes helps drive the price down in the long run, if adoption happens on a larger scale (trend towards organic farming, for example).  Thought the attached video was interesting, but not sure if it is just good marketing?

The problm with going to Carrefur in Ferney Voltaire is that any economy savings are wiped out when in your excitement at the product range you need two new fridges

Now available at Jim's British Market - both Gland and Switzerland 

er... Sorry that was a Reply to the Mark's and Spencers comment earlier in this thread.

Jim's (yes I work there) has a range of Marks and Spencers food, shame is the that what we have is all we have until September.