Cheers
Having been told that I ought to cross the border to do any shopping, I don't have a car in Switzerland... anyone know the quickest and cheapest way to get into Germany, from AG (Lensburg or Aarau) for a day to get a big load of shopping ?
Watch out to stick to your allowance though. I was stopped yesterday as I had a rib of beef weighing 950gr (and only allowed 500gr of fresh meat [+3kg poultry and prepared meat like sausage, ham, etc] and Maximum 300CHF per person. For us it makes sense as we live so near the border and can go regularly- but depends on your train fare!
Laufenberg is the place to go, only 35 minutes by car from where you are. I am not sure how long it would take by public transport or how much of your savings would be gobbled up by your train-fare. But the best thing is the variety and the easy availability of the elusive brown sugar
easiest by train is Waldshut, because (1) there is a train to Waldshut (only rail bridge between Basel and Schaffhausen), takes about 50 mins from Lenzburg with changes, and (2) there is a massive retail park just next to the train station.
Thanks, yes... Waldshut looks like the easiest, since I use a pass to get to work in Zurich I can use that to get to Killwangen-Spreitenbach and it'll only cost me CHF 4.80 each way... not bad at all!!....
Thanks also for the mention of allowances, I don't eat a lot of meat because even in the UK I will only buy meat which I know does not rely on cruelty to achieve a low price, and is not pumped full of hormones ... which usually means a trip to an organic farm, but 0.5 kg is surprisingly low, and the Swiss prices of meat is unbelievably high, even compared to what I pay for organic from a farm in England. So hopefully I'll be able to find some ethical meat at a lower price than Switzerland... I guess that bacon rashers will class as 'processed' and not be in the 0.5kg .... A real bacon sandwich would be nice for a change instead of 'wurst' with everything....
Also, not that I would contemplate this, but do the customs search everything just in case I 'accidentally' bring back the odd few kilos by mistake ( not that I would even consider doing this, ho hum... )... and what are the penalties ? do they have sniffer dogs or is that just for the old 'roll your own' tobacco alternatives ?
cheers.
Yes they do check. On the train, your shopping bags kinda give you away - declare everything. BTW you can bring more than 500g of meat, import duty is CHF 20/kg, may still be worth it. REWE in Waldshut currently sells very nice dry aged Irish Black Angus rib-eye for EUR 29 / kg.
... could always buy a big bag of something cheap like oven chips... empty out the contents into a German bin ... fill it with steak.... seal it up... no no no... I have to stop thinking like this...
Borrow some small children to increase your limits .. preferably still small enough to fit in a buggy for (1) ease of handling (2) stashing shopping in tray under seat.
I have 2 you could have on loan for a very reasonable price
Hmm... if each kinder can bring back 0.5kg ... a friend of mine is a teacher near Zurich... I wonder if her class would like to go on a day out to see the shops at Waldshut ...
You see. Now you're getting the hang of it
@Codermark....Did you go to Waldshut to shop? I'm thinking about going tomorrow sometime. It's just under an hour for me and CHF13.20 return by train. I was just wandering how you found it.
We went there last week, did our groceries at Kaufmart. I have to say I was a little bit disappointed...
First, it is CROWDED. If you can go early by the morning, I think it is the best... or prepare to spend 2h30 wandering in the supermarket !
I was disappointed by the limited choice... but I guess it is because I am not used to german supermarket yet (i am used to French ones, lot of choices...).
But the prices are definitely worth the trip.
Good luck with that !
The place to go is the REWE supermarket just down the road from Kaufmarkt (next to Burger King and Lidl).
Someone who goes semi-regularly suggested Edeka but I don't know much about it. I'll probably make this more of a reconnaissance trip and do some site-seeing (and dining) as well.
Great ! I'll try this one next time ! Thanks
I find Edeka to be more expensive than Kaufland, it is larger and even more crowded.
I just thought I should alert you all about a proposal:
I hope it won't be effective....
I tried searching for it in googlemaps and it says it will take 5 hours to get there?