Living in Zurich and food shopping in Germany. Do people actually do this?

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21
Living in Basel I do most of my shopping in Germany or France. Throughout the year we sail through customs and are never stopped, but come December and the run up to Christmas, we get stopped practically every week. I always reply the same, yes we have been shopping but have got less than the permissible limits and they never enquire/search further to check. Luckily, this is nearly always the case so perhaps I do say it with a ring of truth?

22

I would not underestimate the availability of a customs-officer to spot an outright lie.

When I first started working in Switzerland (close to the German border), I lived with my parents for the first three months and commuted to work by car.

After about a week, the customs-officers had figured out that I was a "regular" and wanted to see my permit - on a small border-crossing frequented by roughly 10k cars per day.

So, I would be careful - because they might just pick you out on the day when you have the suckling pig loaded in the trunk of the car...

The tariffs on meat especially really do hurt.

23
Another point that hasn't been addressed, is that you are allowed these amounts of food because you are a traveller. I believe you have to live more than 20 km from the border to qualify. If you live near the border, they can refuse your import and send you back.

When I had 3 Kg of bones they declared it was still meat, and I was now over the limit. I had to go back into France and give the bones to the French border guard dogs. The alternative was I would have to pay to have the bones incinerated in Switzerland.

I may be wrong, as the laws may have changed, but it should be confirmed or rejected.

24
If you are less than 20km from the border, then it's 1L of toll free wine rather than 2, and a couple other things (I think mainly dairy) are less, but meat and processed meat (ham, sausage, cooked meat) are still 0.5/3.5 kg respectively. Kids also count towards the meat and other limits.

In any case, just stop by Swiss customs and ask for the pamphlet that shows the limits. It's even available in English.

Tom

25
Red Meat in Real shop (in Singen for instance) is not only a lot cheaper but great quality as well.

26
I used to do that, but then I found out that it's actually much cheaper to do my shopping in Lidl (and now also Aldi as they'd opened up nearby) for groceries and other everyday needs. Even if this includes red meat (I recently stocked up on some delicious Brazilian "entrecotes" from Lidl, at 35CHF/kg).

Whenever I went shopping to France, I ended up spending heaps more on delicacies and other items I didn't need, but got them since they were cheaper or simply unavailable in Switzerland. I also got more then I actually needed.

Next time I go to France will be when I run out of Bourgogne mustard and Foie Gras

27
So what are the places across the border closest to Zurich with adequately large shops for a wide choice of groceries? I see Waldshut and Jestetten have been mentioned. Any other towns with a decent range of shops and stores catering to Swiss consumers aware of the current exchange EUR-CHF rates?

28
That's not fair. Most kids weigh much more than 3.5Kg. I guess you could donate them to an orphanage.

29
Konstanz is pretty good with the Kaufland supermarket a bit further on for food and goodies. There was a thread on this quite recently so you can probably find a few more tips and tricks there.

EDIT: 'ere you go ...

30
The small town of Jestetten close to Schaffhausen is worth a visit, it has a lot of shopping and is easy to reach. I sometimes shop there for fun.

However I found that, with today's gas prices and all, and the time & effort I need to get there (let alone exchanging the money and keeping two seperate kinds of coins in my wallet), I might as well shop at Migros.

Say what you want but Coop & Migros are just neat stores with nice, healthy kinds of products.

31
Yes, Konstanz is the shopping Mecca that we all know and love. It's there for your Saturdays when you want to stock up on supplies for a full month. But I was wondering if there was any place closer to pop in from Zurich in the evenings after work. The nearest town across the Rhine seems to be Hohentengen am Hochrhein. Any large enough supermarkets there?

32
I hadn't done an over-the-border shop into Germany, but decided to make a run today since I was curious and wanted to see if there were any decent bread flours available. I went to Lörrach, which is about an hour by car, to the Hieber Markt ( Hieber site for Lörrach ) and I was pretty surprised by just how cheap stuff is there. Meat, detergents, cereals, and dairy are all particularly cheaper than in CH. The oxy-clean stuff I use on my daughter's clothes is 4.95 eur there and 15 CHF here (for a 20% smaller container no less). The amount of variety and choice of different foods was a wonderful change of pace.

Unsurprisingly, the entire store was filled with Swiss folks shopping. I think only about 1 in 8 cars in the car park were German.

I filled an entire cart and still only managed to spend 80 euros. If only I had a freezer and a large hungry family instead of only one 4.5yo who is at the stage where she eats less than a mouse and only if it looks like pizza or hot dogs. Even with the time and fuel, I'm sure the trip paid for itself and then some. I still don't understand the economics of the prices of goods here. I'm sure someone does, but I sure don't.

33
Since this thread is revived, I'd like to ask a related question. What is the closest cross border shopping from Bern?

I'm thinking across from Basel in Lorrach or Weil am Rhein?

Bah, I lived in Germany for almost 3 years before July and I am having trouble adjusting to the prices here.

34
Hey,

in my opinion, if you have a car and you have Swiss plates, and also speak some German, it is ok to make shopping in Germany(more or less taking in account the lefleat from the border) because sometimes when it is traffic, the officers stop only the cars with foreign plates(I got used to be stopped and every time I passed the border and man or a women to control every litlle thing in my car

At a point they started to know me because i often go to Germany in Konstanz to make some shoppings (only non-food).I never buy meat but i definitely know the reaction of the officers so...I will be also glad to know what is the procedure with the train.

I have also a question, if you are not allowed to bring more than 2,5 kg of meat, and you have these barriers with all import, isn”t a waste of time, going by train, paying the ticket etc? In my opinion the amount paid for the ticket and the time spent do not reflect the small prices from DE , but this is my first impression, you can also make some research.

P.S. just got an answer from my wife regarding the train-pass-border, she never got controlled when she passed the border with the CFF SBB but this is not a rule.

35
From Bern would probably be Lörrach as it wasn't that far from the border and it certainly was a nice store. Geez, I mean they had rye flour and bread flour and spelt flour and...I started to be a bit overwhelmed, really, at all the choices.

And, yes, the prices here are wicked difficult to get used to as I am still barley able to bring myself to buy meat here. Today, I got 1.5kg of bio chicken breast for a little over 10 euro. I think here it would be somewhere around 45 chf. I still don't understand the premium on most goods here. Coffee isn't really that much different in price, so why such extreme variance on meat, detergents, etc.?

36
I cook meat every day (in some form or other), and groceries (including non-food) still ad up 140-180 chf for 2 people. I don't think that's too bad.

37
We often go to Jestetten (mentioned earlier in the thread) of an evening during the week as it is only 30 minute drive from North Zürich. Edeka is a great supermarket there: good quality/range of food with a meat/cheese deli at the back. You have also got the cheaper Aldi further up the town and I have also spotted a Lidl there too. There's a DM, drogerie/drugstore center of the town good for vitamins/minerals, with a small organic, dry food section - try the cafe next to DM for a good spagetti pesto and the ice cream is not bad either.

38
Yes. I go there every 1-2 weeks. There are 2 Edeka Supermarkets, 2 Butchers, and an excellent Whiskyshop.

Then there is a sport shop, some restaurants and cafes, and a baker, but i have only visited the butcher, whiskyshop and supermarkets, and they are excellent, though not big.

The price difference on the 500g. meat I am allowed to import, covers the petrol costs, so the saving is the price difference on everything else I buy, and of course the VAT refund :-)

Doc.

39
Assuming that you mean in CH and that number is per week...I think even without the CHF being as strong as it is, part of the appeal is having a much greater selection of good from which to choose as well as not feeling like you're being held at gunpoint over prices. Even with a higher salary in CHF, the price differences on SOME goods just doesn't add up. Coffee is nearly the same as are a lot of the canned goods and such, but other things like meat, dairy, detergents, etc. are so, so much more expensive in CH that it pays to shop in DE, especially if you have a family or if you're not making a lot over the average salary. I'll admit that if I were also working as I am used to doing, I probably wouldn't bother but....since I'm not, as soon as my daughter goes back to school, I'll be making a trip up north every other week for things that I either can't get here or can't get here for a reasonable price.

It's sort of like NH in the US where they had cheaper booze and no sales tax which led to folks from MA heading north in droves to shop for big ticket items and booze on the weekend to save money. MA tried to force NH to charge MA sales tax to MA residents at the point of sale in NH or to have troopers at the border hassle people for sales tax to which both NH and the people of MA said...'not bloody likely'. When you have to choose between 7.5% sales tax and 0% sales tax, especially if you're buying something expensive, you're going to make that 50+ mile trip up north and nothing can really prevent that. Maybe I'm just too much of a Yankee, but knowing that I can get something for 1/3 the price with a short drive...I'm going to do it. It's anathema to a yankee to pay more for something you know you can get cheaper, especially if it's remotely convenient to get there.

40
Wooo! Coop has actually grown a pair and stood up to the high prices from abroad.

Sorry, it's only in German but they are taking the high priced imported products off the shelf and flogging what stock they've got at a knock-down price as a protest to the continually high prices from their suppliers whose own currency is tanking.

Migros could follow suit.