Doesn't every country think the same?
Don't even get me started on what my Swiss friends who are living in London tell me about their Tesco's experiences.
Not sure whether that's not wishful thinking.
Well, given that I am quoting a buyer (and a Swissie at that) for Migros... I am not sure what your point is.
If we were to take his comments as only heresay (sp?) then we perhaps the fact that I have lived in Germany for 5 years, Netherlands for 3, Spainf for 2, Paris for 1 and the UK for 20+ (I am skipping Belgium for 6 months as the only think I bought there was Haagan Daz) whilst also regularly shopping in Austria, Italy and now Germany and that nothing I have seen comes close to the appalling lack of quality of Swiss supermarket products. Add to that the ALDI quality (and success in Switzerland).. How can you not go to a foreign supermarket and not be embarrased by 'Swiss quality'.
If you don't think the quality in CH is that bad, perhaps you could suggest where you are coming from. I remember Moscow and Jarolslavl 'shops' where grey boxes proclaimed that they had 'meat' inside. Beef, Chicken or lamb - anyones guess.
I have to agree I've been very disappointed with both COOPs in Oerlikon recently. Everything from strawberries, nectarines, peaches, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, lettuce, peppers (some of which were produced in Switzerland and are in season now so no excuses!) being moldy and or rotten in the packaging when I unpacked them 5 mins after purchasing them. I even check before buying there but it seems the bad ones are always hiding on the bottom. Also saw the delicious looking strawberry stand on Saturday and vowed never to buy strawberries there again.
Farmers/local markets are all well and good but most of them seem to be open only during work hours (eg Winterthur, Tuesday and Friday mornings) so, while I'd love to shop there (I was a regular at the Sat morning farmers market back home) it's not possible and I'm limited to the convenience of COOP and Migros.
Well if I had to guess...
Food lasts for ever.
The fruit and veggies taste of nothing.
Far too much choice of the same product.
The supermarkets are too busy, too large and too far away.
Individual products are cheaper but every trip costs a fortune.
The car parks are free.
The can't buy swiss wine.
One thing they won't be saying however is:
The veggies are rotten on the shelves, the fruit is rancid and the bread rock hard...
Thats the baby, I saw it and almost took a photo just to post on this forum..
Oerlikon has two a week in the square behind the SwissHotel, Wednesday til 12pm and Saturday til 12pm. There is an Italian meat and cheese stall towards the back (last but one row furthest from the hotel IIRC). Products to die for, pricey of course. But the taste...
Will have to check out the Oerlikon one then.
Yeah right. I've been to Britain a couple of times and never thought they had better products than here.
Apart from that: it's illegal to sell moldy stuff here. Next time just inform them that they'll be hearing from the "Gesundheitsamt".
peter
I've got used to the short shelf life of fruit and veg here, and just buy stuff every couple of days.
One thing that ****es me off though is when they package veg up, so I always buy more than I need. I can't just buy one brocoli, or a handful of runner beans. If I want a different variety of potato to whatever they have that month, I have to buy a sack. And chilis, the tiny hot ones, I only ever use one or two in a dish, yet they will only sell me a pack of 10. Still, they do this back in the UK too, and it annoyed me there too.
Don't know about the choice.
Last time I tried to buy rabbit at a Tescoes the guy looked at me as if I'd just come from the Moon. The choice of cheese is pretty miserable. The organic stuff (if you can find it all) is a bit of a joke and overpriced at that. The bread only stays soft because it's got more chemicals than wheat. Ditto for the fresh strawberries you get in February (they actually have to fumigate these and then spray them with strawberry essence so they smell right). Your so called choice often just amounts to the same product with different wrappers and labels. etc etc etc.
Rabbit meat is not widely available in England, neither is Horse meat. Culturally the Brits ride Horses rather than eat them and Rabbit has not been popular since the 50's. I'd be interested to know in which Tesco you found the cheese selection to be poor.
I consider myself to take a pretty objective view when comparing UK and Swiss supermarkets, Tesco does come out on top though when you consider your buying power in Tesco compared to Co-Op or Migros.
That happens alot in the US also. Once they are picked they really don't last long. Isn't that normal??
Sounds like everything must be better in the UK...except the humor of course... ... kidding of course...please don't attack
I dont think anyone has said that veggies in the UK are better, its accepted that they last longer because of the preservatives etc used in the growing and pre-sales process but nobody said that the UK fresh-food is tastier. I did say and its mostly agreed on this thread that Swiss SUPERMARKET fresh-food however is inferior in quality and doesn't last much beyond the checkout to almost any other countries super markets. I tend to like the austro-german-italian products far more than either the UK or CH.
The Canton? The city? price per kg (lb)? Any more detail?
Nev, thanks for the very informative and useful post.
of course I'm aware of that. But I had the impression we were talking about choice here and in a supermarket choice is about being able to find a broader variety including unusual products rather than all the same just with different labels.
That sounds awesome. I'd love to do that myself, but frankly your garden is about the same size as my apartment!
Back to the evil duopoly for the poor grad student...
the British are the most tolerant nation on earth - but there ́s one thing i will not tolerate and that ́s aspersions on our sense of humour.
we lead the world on that front (as well as many others).
it ́s just that it ́s so sophisicated that many others simply do not understand it - if you see what i mean
I think you mean English sense of humour right? Some Scots have a sense of humour too....because laughter's free. The Welsh can certainly laugh at themselves...which is just as well 'cause everybody else does.
As Peachy said, neither horse nor rabbit are popular in the UK so it would be pretty shortsighted of a supermarket to stock them if they are just going to go rotten on the shelf because no-one buys them.
They might come into fashion again - meats like ostrich and kangaroo became popular a few years ago so they were available quite widely but I don't think they are necessarily popular now. Supermarkets have to tailor their variety to the needs of the consumer.
Usually, in the UK if you want something a bit unusual you can find it in a specialty shop.
In Swiss supermarkets you do find rabbit and horse but that is probably because these meats are more popular in Switzerland and the supermarkets are just responding to demand.
It's either that or management being unwilling to try something new?
London claims to be one of the most cosmopolitan cities on the planet. Over 300 languages spoken. People from many different countries and cultures. And yet nobody has an appetite for rabbit? Strange world.