Is there any alternative to Ikea?

I should hope so, from the prices I saw on their website Not exactly Ikea territory.... As an alternative to places like Möbel Gallati or central Zurich, maybe...

15+ years ago one could find antiques at a good value in the ZH area, especially true of heavy wood furniture. But that seems to have changed; I now see more and more of what Carlos describes, even for heavily damaged pieces.

What still remains a (for Switzerland) decent value is custom made furniture from a local Möbelschreiner. Surprisingly, one often can have solid wood custom pieces made for prices below the mass produced particle board masquerading as high end furniture here. Yes, more expensive than Ikea, but sometimes not by all that much. And given the quality a better value IMO.

Antiques-in-waiting, if you will.

I would say go with:

IKEA for tables, bed, closets.

Conforama for couch, sofa, chairs as well as some appliances (TV, fridge, microwave oven)

PS: you could also buy second hand, if that's something you want to consider.

There are groups on English Forum and other social sites, where you can buy and sell furniture (we are selling our furniture this way right now ourselves, but it seems there are always more sellers than buyers).

Moebel Dogern has some very reasonably priced things. We just ordered 2 guest room beds 200x180 for 900 euros incl delivery and assembly....

You really should stop wearing that "I'm a gullible foreigner" t-shirt when visiting these places.

I bought most of my furnitures at LIPO, there are many of them in Switzerland, good quality, good price, look on the website!

Thanks for the tip. Should I also leave my bowler hat behind?

Also worth keeping an eye on Ottos. You can find some gems in amongst the tat.

I should have been more precise: The building houses a lot of different shops all owned by one company. Moebel Dick is the flagship one with the brands, there are a couple of cheaper ones that are definitely IKEA territory. One for baby stuff, one for sofas and one for "cash and carry" furniture... and one for lights if I remember correctly.

There are many shop to buy furniture, I think that home 24 is a good alternative

http://www.home24.ch/