Dear Caroline, aka Dorothy, I hope I can close this thread, which has been beaten to death, with the following recommendaton:

Do your shopping at the Migros online shop where they have English.

Problem solved. And the competition will follow your purse.

But what about my months supply of Coca Cola Lite ?? Migros only sell Pepsi

And the alcohol!!!
All too heavy to carry 2 KM from my local railway station.

Anyway, I have also sent the Coop @ Home folk a mail - in English of course! I have promised to try out their service as soon as I see "EN" on the the top of their website.

My only issue is having to be in the house when they deliver. Does anyone know if they deliver at nights or weekends? If the site was in English I would not have to ask this I suppose.

I feel so sorry for all those people who can't go out there and give it a go. Of course in the computer age why should the educated newcomers bother their arse's learning the basics.

I wonder how the companies and the SVP would react if the requested language was Croatian or Serbian.

Email sent. Also a request for Marroni Brot.

Actually, you can get your coke, alcohol and tobacco from Migros online

Yes, they deliver nights and weekends.

Except for the T&C (which can be google translated), I"d think anyone who had been in the country a few months would understand enough to place an order in the local language.

Well, if (s)he lives in Ticino I suggest (s)he learns Italian instead.

That artificial sweetener ain't good for you anyway.

Actually I do understand German and have just booked a last minute holiday to Lisbon today on a German only website - in Germany - I leave on Friday.

However, as mentioned before, there is always an element of worry when you are making payments and accepting terms and conditions in a language that you are not totally fluent. (even translate tools can give totally the wrong inflection of a sentence)

If you get it wrong and click on something which means the exact opposite of what you think and the payment goes through, it can be a real pain back tracking and chasing down your mistake (and money) - especially if you need to communicate in German to do this.

I am all for having the English option where pennies are involved.

I have also emailed a request.

I've used the site in German a couple of times and had no problem but I can understand that it would be easier for some people to have it in English.

I recently made an expensive mistake with Migros Klubschule. I am all for learning the local lingo (that's what I'm doing at Klubschule) but I have to admit that I just didn't have enough patience to wade through the terms and conditions with a dictionary.

Yes, we should learn the local language. No, we shouldn't expect that the Swiss accommodate us english-speakers. But if a significant proportion of their client base would benefit significantly from having an english version of a website, then why not?

Most of us look for that little "en" button on a website - it certainly makes life easier.

It is, ultimately, Coops decision as to whether they actually do provide an english service, but you've gotta admit it'd be handy if they did.

In my opinion, once you have gone above one language, there should be no technical reason for not providing any number of lingos on a website, unless the people who wrote these sites were a little bit stupid and actually hard coded the German, French, Italian into 3 copies of their code. (or a lot of IF and case statements embedded all over the place)

Normally you would allocate every bit of text a "number" and stick it into a language database table called by your application and reference this when you build up your "screen output" or other text based user info. (based on the language code/number being used at the time)

To add another language would probably just entail paying one competent bi-lingual person to add a new column of the new language into this one table and should not take more than a day or two and maybe cost the Coop 1 or 2,000CHF before it could be live and delivering yummy food to new EF'ers.

Anyway, this is what I did on the the few web sites and applications my friends and I designed and deveolped over the years. Standard practice, as well as common sense.

There must be a strategic, corporate or cultural reason why the COOP did not include English I reckon.

Cultural, of course. Strategic or corporate, nay. It's just somehing they didn't feel necessary at the time they made the site, and now they are realising there is a demand for it.

It is the terms & conditions I'm having a hard time translating. A misinterpretation could be expensive.

I do enjoy going to the market, comparing items and mingling with the masses. However, carrying groceries for my family up a steep hill from the bus stop in the winter doesn't carry much appeal.

Having the information in English would be very helpful to me and I'm sure from this thread, others as well.

But people are still responding to this post by emailing Co-op, so why should the thread be closed?
Do you work for Migros? ;-)

If a significant proportion of their customers were Croatian then they'd be foolish not to. Cultural differences have no place in a business if they're interfering with delivering shareholder value. Were it otherwise!

Oh look, Polish goods appearing in most Coops over the last few months. I wonder who would consider Polish chocolate when there's far superior Swiss chocolate... oh wait, the market gets what the market wants.

I like going to the supermarket because that is also a way of learning the language, you could also do it by browsing through the site in German (or Italian or French...) PLUS I am sure about the quality and state of the product. But I also understand that this could be stressing and some people might just not have time to do this, opening times are quite different for people comming from abroad (most anyway). I agree that if you are going to stay long here, you should try to learn the language and adapt. If not, hey wouldn't the supermarkets also increase their sales by putting the webpage in English? I really don't see why people got so upset, no everybody has the same priorities/options/choice/way of thinking etc...
I wish you good luck on this quest!

I'm learning german but would like the option to into the "english" version to check what I have ordered - kind of like having subtiles to help me with german films. When I buy products that have german & english on them I like reading both so it kind of helps my learning (having all 4 languages on products would be great - I sometimes don't "get" all the small print in german... )

I've emailed the Coop before - in english - and they also reply in english so I think they know there is demand - or at least a customer base that has english as their primary language

From what I understand from the Migros site, they use Die Post to deliver, therefore only during working hours. Coop delivers up to 8pm so is more conveniant if you work or don't want your shopping left on your doorstop.

I started using Coop home delivery when I first arrived in Zurich 3 years ago. I was aware that Migros offered English on its website, but for various reasons, I wanted to order from Coop.

At the time, I had almost no knowledge of German. But with the help of a dictionary and Google translater, and the awareness that I had to learn German sooner or later (or risk starving), I had no problems at all navigating their website in German. As someone else pointed out, there are pictures everywhere on their website.

At no time did it ever occur to me that I should write to Coop and request that they provide an English option on their website.

I can understand the need for English for more complex transactions like banking, but if a simple task, such as doing the grocery shopping, can't be done in the local language, what motivation is there for a foreigner/expat to learn the local language??

I can appreciate that an English option on the Coop website will be beneficial for many people, and that perhaps Switzerland is an unusual country where such a request can be made, but honestly, if you are living in a foreign country, you have to at some point accept that they use a foreign language here.

Who on earth said they had trouble accepting another language was spoken here? I don't think anyone said or implied that at all. Making the sweeping assumption and rather tenuous connection that just because someone unfamiliar with a language wants to be able to order their shopping in their home language without a dictionary in hand and google translate open, somehow automatically means they care nothing for learning a language is somewhat unfair. Grocery shopping may be a "simple" task, but it's crucial to everyday life, especially if you have a family, and it's something that should not be struggled with in your first months of entering a country.

Well, the fact that there is sort of petition to persuade Coop to offer services in English means that there are people who indeed have problems using the local language in Switzerland, or that they can't or won't learn the local language.

Of course, upon arriving in a foreign country, the first few months will always be difficult. But with time, one will slowly learn the language and find it easier to adjust.

But you can't say that this English option is just for the first few months of your time in Switzerland; so long as there is an English option, you will probably always select the English option and you may never be persuaded to use one of the local languages in the future.

The fact that Migros already offers an English service is a bonus for the expat community. And Coop should probably do the same just for the sake of competition. My point is that, once Coop provides an English service, there will be less motivation for some people to learn the local language. And just don't be surprised if some Swiss take this petition the wrong way.