There's a Manor in Thun, and if I'm not mistaken, one in the shopyland center in schoenbul. No Manor in downtown Bern.

Amazing isn't it that Manor is not in Bern downtown ? I anyway if wanting to start up in the Canton of Berne would rather try it with Biel and Langenthal.

One of the obstacles I face is that mainland European cheeses have many common roots and have similar flavours, textures or styles. British cheeses, coming from an island, have mostly developed independently (apart from Cheshire originally from Italy and Wensleydale originally from France).

The styles are very different, not better nor worse, just different. Many Swiss see this and celebrate the difference. A minority don't.

Thanks for the suggestion, not sure after this that we would like to send our customers and "fans" there.

Many foreigners and Swiss meet in this "Brasserie - Restaurant - Brauerei " next to the Bärengraben in Bern. I think the management there would be very open minded, http://www.altestramdepot.ch/htm/e_restaurant.htm

Bernese Ploughmans lunch anyone?

Um . . . did you not detect my irony? I am English and love the so called cheeses of the entire British Isles, including Grumpy's excellent selection.

François Loeb, former CEO and father of the Nicole Loeb (CEO) has worked for years in Canada and is a very open and interesting Person who lives in Germany now.

Peter Everts, Chairman of the board (former CEO of Migros) is also a very culturally interested and open person.

Marc Loeb, vice Chairman of the Board, has worked for different multinationals.


So I cannot really imagine that this bad behavior of one independent "shop in shop" manager does represent the position of Loeb Holding vis-à-vis English speaking people in any way. You should complain about this to the holding.

I was responding to another poster saying that the shop was likely reacting against EU competition and in favour of some putative Swiss relatives. That argument doesn't really work as France, Italy, the UK and Ireland are all EU.

Peter Everts at Loeb ? I am surprised !

But remember Mr Katz at Swissair ?

And that Mr Loeb "Jr" was at multinationals is no argument. Unless he served in those companies as lorry driver and commercial employee at the basis

We'd make the trip! (provided it's not in the next two weeks)

Well that's the Suisse Romande out as well as the expats and every other non-german speaking client they have...

I'd be inclined to go back to them for an explanation because the above phrase as we have interpreted it, doesn't make any sense, why would they say something like that? there must be some sort of a misunderstanding (I hope)... could it be that he meant that English speakers are not their target market, or something like that?

Sorry, but for you as an English speaker (OK, maybe a big, wrong presumption), which part of

didn't you understand?

We're all ears

I think we discussed this a year or three back. Ploughmans Lunch was a marketing creation (as was Beaujolais Nouveau).

Make the Bernese version as Bernese as possible and call it something appropriate in Bäärndüütsch. Use traditional Swiss cheeses if you must, to get brand acceptance.

Then tell the world it was invented by an Englishman

I missed that discussion, but it's not true.

The Milk Marketing Board in the UK used the phrase to market cheese in the 60s, but the basic form of the meal (bread, cheese, pickle) has been around for centuries and similar names for it with regional variations existed before the marketing campaign.

You know, Weejeem, after a response like this, I'm not surprised English speakers have such a bad reputation here.

I think you mean The English (=British in these parts), not all us Anglophones.

Sadly, there is more to this than meets the eye. It doesn't just affect cheese but the whole of UK agriculture. The UK had ans still has some pretty neat products that could be exported as high-end deli if properly marketed. Sadly, in contrast to France, successive British governments have refused to acknowledge that Britain has any high-class farming output and probably wished there weren't any farms at all. The way mad cow disease and foot and moth were handled was scandalous. Now just imagine how the French government would have handled similar events. This is probably why people look at you strangely if you try to mention English cheeses, English fruit etc.

I am bracing myself for some groans. Sure there are a lot of English speakers in Bern but not all of them are from the Western countries.

Lets' face it. In terms of being open to other cultures or shall I dare say race, the locals can be very wary....

I suppose this behaviour of theirs have been posted many a times in this forum...

I found the people in Bern very friendly and happy to speak to me in English. Of course, they must have presumed I was a tourist. I had been in Zurich 9 months at the time and found it refreshing.

This thread has become one of those general bashing thread like the days of old.

I don't know HB, but as apparently we have no right to wonder if there was a misunderstanding, we have to presume that the man meant that (all native) English speakers are not welcome... one therefore has to wonder why English speaking customers are not the type of customers that shop wants....

Maybe it's time for us to look at out image as foreigners in CH?