They definitely are. Yet Switzerland has impoved a lot over the past years, I think. If you're willing to shop at different places, that is.

Turkish shops now offer me loads of veggies and herbs I either can't get at Migros or only in tiny little, expensive portions, LOL.
I have bought things at Lidl I had to take a foto of the price tag to google at home whether it was fruit or vegetable and what to do with it. Which is fun.

All in all though I want my fruit and vegetables to be fresh. Which means I can not buy them in bulks and it makes absolutely no sense at all to drive to Germany once a week. Unless of course one lives in Basel or Schaffhausen. Plus there is the point of eating regional food - not only re pollution caused at transport but mainly how nutritious the food still is by the time it gets on the plate.

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It's all a matter or perspective.
So move your butt and look at it from the other side

Might depend on the area as well as the traffic through the shop. The Coop near my office has super fresh produce but most days it also has a gazillion people in there clearing the produce as fast as they can restock it. Supermarkets out in the sticks might have produce lying around longer.

Absolutely but if you didn't want to shop daily, unless vastly improved in the past few years, local fruit and veg just didn't last. Very frustrating. Basel does indeed have an advantage.

With that type of attitude we’d be avoiding international trade wherever possible, not producing goods where they made to the highest standards and lowest price, world productivity and living standards would fall accordingly.

Swiss companies hired us because we were the best candidates available at the price. People shop at German supermarkets because they offer the best quality per unit currency. I don’t really think it’s in any way contradictory behaviour.

Did you just graduate from college?

Edit: (I know that came across patronizing and I apologize for that).

Welcome to the forum.

Not quality, quantity. Or do you expect that 1 kilo chicken for 1 EUR to be of quality?

You do realise it comes from the same wholesalers, irrespective of the final selling country, be it France, Germany, the UK or Switzerland !


I cannot imagine anybody would try and sort "good stuff" for some countries and shit for Switzerland, the competition between wholesalers is fierce to say the least.


The buyers for the retailers are not necessarily Swiss ether, quite a lot of Europeans work in this industry.

I’m a lifelong vegetarian! But seriously, I’d imagine that considering the same priced chicken in Germany and Switzerland, the German product would be superior.

Dream on.....

No offence taken - and thank you for your welcome

Sadly I’m married (for the second time!) with a child and in my thirties 😢

It is not a contradiction. But I think this debate is not native to here, which is interesting. Imported by what standards/priorities people were used to before they came here.

I believe that people who shop here for whatever reasons and those who save cash shopping elsewhere for whatever reasons should be given the benefit of the doubt that they certainly know what they are doing. Pushing on them either via ethical judgment or trying to inspire them, will not work.

Prices inspire, choice. Improving services here...etc. I think any competition is improving things. But I don't believe in dumping prices the way it is done in the EU, it destroys the local market. People here opt to pay more not to keep Migroop alive nor because they'd worship monopoly but I think because by sometimes paying more in Migros it keeps the small shops relatively present and the choice is there. If they paid dumping prices in Migroop it would shut the small local producers/importers faster. The prices are centrally controlled and I think Migroop gets them dictated by a gov institution in order to preserve the local small scene. Not go too low (EU fashion).

Migroop is the compromise between expensive local produce and dumping prices behind the border.

Now. About the choice abroad...whatever. It makes a little difference if your palate is not spoiled. Or I mean it is relative. Subjective. Gruyere abroad isn't the best.

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"L'homme ne peut pas remplacer son coeur avec sa tete, ni sa tete avec ses mains." J.H. Pestalozzi

“The only difference between a rut and a grave is a matter of depth.” S.P. Cadman

"Imagination is more important than knowledge." A. Einstein

Thanks, oly.

Do you mean "Swiss fruit and vegetables" or do you mean "Fruit and vegetables in Swiss supermarkets"?

I find the Swiss produce excellent - especially in season (which is when, and only when you should be buying it. The imported stuff not so much so. Probably because it's been sitting around Migros and Coop store rooms and distribution centers for a week or two.

Some of the stuff in Migros though is shameful - beans of all sorts and other vegetables imported from Africa or Spain. No wonder it's rotten.
At least Lidl seems to buy mostly Swiss in the first instance, then Italian, and then Spanish if all else fails.

I like British supermarkets too but generally I find fruit and vegetables superior in Swiss supermarkets.

British (and yank, sure) supermaket makes me feel like one is not expected to cook. The cheapest stuff and biggest choice is "modern" pre-cooked and processed food.

Which here is the most expensive stuff.

Here one has to cook, buying processed food costs too much. I don't have a problem with it but I love cooking.

These child marriages. Thought they happened only in India

1st marriage at 22, divorced at 28, remarried at 31.

Wife A unfortunately ended up on anti-psychotics and the relationship could not survive her increasingly delusional and out of control behaviour (I say that without any malice - it was a result of being unwell).

I actually don’t regret anything- which I think is healthy.

Yes, dear.

Careful of oversharing on this forum. Some people have memories like elephants and tusks that will stab you if they can.

Or they can't reasonably afford to. Where we live in CH it makes zero sense to travel weekly or even monthly to DE or FR or IT to save a few Francs on food or toilet paper. The petrol and our time cost more, especially as there's a Migroop right next door to OH's work and he can walk there before coming home.

I think they could do even more without that much work. All the Aldi and Lidl shops I have been to in our area are disorganized and rather dirty. They could spruce it up a bit by not leaving rotten produce on the shelves and by mopping the floors. It also wouldn't hurt to check the aisles occasionally and take the refrigerated items from the shelves with the pasta or makeup and put it back in the fridge section.

Same reason that people eat at McDonalds's, then.

Tom