I wonder what’s your view on grocery shopping in Switzerland and if there’s anything new I could learn.
First, if we sort places to do groceries quality wise:
Aldi OR Lidl $
Migros $$
Coop $$$
Niche less known quality food stores $$$$
Manor $$$$
Wed/Sat Local Market OR buying from a farm $$$$ (if available)
Savings can be achieved by,
Buying long-term essentials in bulk on-line when cross checking prices, looking up promo codes etc. (shampoos, coffee beans, canned food etc.), also from abroad within the customs free threshold
Participation in loyalty programs (Supercard, Cumulus etc.)
Use of credit cards with paybacks (not everyone likes that though)
Use of corporate discount portals like Swibeco for buying vocuhers (if available)
Quality can be achieved by,
Buying certain common products in dedicated stores (ie. meat, bread, fish)
Buying BIO labeled products
Is there anything original you are doing? My biggest disappointment is that when even when going for $$$+ options in my list, products are sometimes tasteless or just rotten/spoiled.
For me biggest disappointment are rotten fruits which happen in pretty often to me. Do you know where are the best fruits, not rotten very often already in shops? I could understand that they are naturally grown without pesticides but it’s strange to see fruits going rotten overnight
Can’t say I’ve had any problems with food bought from Aldi/Lidl which is where we do our main shopping. I also get a few things from Migros now and then, but that’s it.
Other options if any are near to you are Otto’s/Radikal and also Aligro which is more a bulk buy type of place.
Aligro is great for meat and fish, but nothing else unless you buy restaurant quantities.
We probably buy 50% from discounters and 50% from Coop. The most expensive supermarket seems to be Spar. They have the best and very regional veggie and fruit section though, at least around here.
That’s pretty much what we do as well.
We don’t have Spar around here but the Volg is pretty expensive.
The Aldi around here has the best regional fruit and veg section followed by Migros, coop is dreadful for fresh fruit and veg.
I would not agree with your sorting on “quality” - it feels more like a price sorting?
We do most of our shopping at Lidl and then one online shop at Coop a month for stuff we cannot get at Lidl.
We are relatively happy with the quality of stuff at Lidl and they tend to have Swiss products (which we strive to buy to try and buy as much local as possible).
Their assortment is limited though so if we want something special we will go to Migros or Coop.
By shopping at Lidl we save several hundreds each month and works for us.
If you want superior quality, it’s either Coop or Migros.
Or Volg, which sometimes has super-local and super fresh stuff.
Ideally, there is dedicated cooling for easily perishable fruits like strawberries etc.
If that does not exist locally where you shop, the only alternative is coming in on Monday morning when they stock the shelves and move it directly to the fridge at home or at work.
Unfortunately, in my opinion coop has the worst fruits. I see there many times fruits with mold at the counter. In Migros and Lidl it doesn’t happen so much. I use Migros for meat and dairy, Lidl for anything else. I don’t have anything else except from denner where I don’t shop at all
I agree, Coop is by far the worst around here you have to look very carefully at what you’re buying. Aldi and Migros are about the same.
Lidl is mostly ok too.
I think it’s very regional as to which store has the “best” quality for a certain item. A number of folks have mentioned good fruit and veg at Migros. The Migros by us is awful - sometimes still with products that have clearly gone off still being offered for sale! The produce at Denner and Coop shops by us is far better. We aren’t near a Lidl or Aldi.
The two things that help us most:
We have a small freezer in the cellar. This allows us to buy some larger packs of food that we wouldn’t normally buy if we only used the tiny freezer that is part of our fridge.
We’re flexible. We don’t menu-plan in advance. We look at what’s on sale and buy accordingly. We also try to shop later in the day, when items might be marked down 25 or 50% off.
We also appreciate the “Unique” line of veg at Coop. These are veggies that don’t quite meet perfection standards, so maybe they’re shaped funny or a bit small, etc. They taste the same as the “not Unique” veg and cost a fraction. Two examples from this week: 300 grams of potatoes cost us 35 Rappen and two small bell peppers cost 85 Rappen.
Aligro is the reason I eat fish and meat without going broke
Fish and meat packages are between 3 and 6 kilos. Packages with squid, octopus, shellfish and other things from the sea which are not fish start at 1 kilo.
Not sure if it’s “restaurant size”, but I did buy once a 5.5 kg of 1 piece of fresh tuna on discount. We almost ate all of it raw. One week later, sadly I had to cook the last portions because the texture was changing a lot…and fast. Anyway, zero complains about quality if you eat it within 1 week of buying.
For green stuff, I just walk or ride the bike to a nearby farm. Automated milk dispensers (Milchautomat) are great too, ride the bike to the other farm.
In the bugdet is under serious pressure, there’s Migros Outlet. It is just what the name says: Migros with big discount Migros Filialen
Thanks for your replies. I wanted to see more responses, as all of them seemed useful even if we disagree.
I would reply with a single message in no particular order.
I have missed out Denner, I would personally put it into the same bucket as Migros.
I have not heard of Aligro before and it does seem to exist on outskirts of Lausanne, since we are buying a car I’d check it out for meat & fish as suggested, thanks! I am intrugued
Volg, Otto’s and Radikal also seem to have just a few locations in the Geneva Lake area, never heard of them before, thanks for bringing them up; I am especially curious about Volg
As for quality vs price sorting it does match my experience but it’s a bit subjective. I agree that some products match exactly and only the price is different but some do not. Also, cheaper stores tend to have less of diversity at least where I live. Ie. I like Pink Lady apples from Lidl, but I don’t want to be buying this specific kind of apples every time I shop… Yoghurts from Lidl are so-so both in terms of diversity and quality etc. But I agree some basic stuff there is fine (ie. if you don’t go to a bakery it probably doesn’t matter if you buy a bread from Lidl or Coop, it’s going to be stiff the next day anyways). Also, Lidl has some specific Central Europe oriented stuff that is not as easy to find elsewhere. SO I stand by my sorting order but I understand that’s very subjective and I respect your view on it.
In general, I’ve got an impression that most of you all live in the German-speaking part, is it correct? Your experience seems to be quite different and the geo location seems to play a role indeed.
Did you try buying from a farm directly, how does it look like in your area (not via an aggregator on-line service like Farmy)?
Probably a fair number are, but I’m in the middle in Fribourg canton in a French speaking part of the canton.
Volg is similar to Denner, in fact has taken over a far number of the stores where Denner used to be around here. Never been in one though so can’t say what it’s like for quality/price.
