Coop, and others, often still have things on the shelves already after the use by date. Also onions that are already rotten, avocados that are already rotten.

Unfortunately true. Got both from Migros and Coop rotten items. Even from farmy which claims to be fresher...

Weird. I often see things with a discount in Coop later in the day, particularly on Saturdays. The thing that sticks out most in my mind is cake

Same here. There are discounted items (particularly meat) in all stores here at certain times but particularly on saturdays.
I was in Lidl yesterday morning and there was lots of fresh stuff with 25 or 50% off.
On the odd occasions I’ve been to the large Migros here late ⏰ on a Saturday afternoon there have been people milling around a certain fridge in the meat/fish area waiting for the discounted stuff to be put in. It looked almost like a social occasion.

Coop is by far the worst for this in my experience. Maybe the store here is just particularly bad but their stock control is severely lacking.

It's already been mentioned, but you need to look no further than Aldi and Lidl for cheap organic (bio) fruit and vegetables. Often cheaper and better quality than non organic fruit and veg in the main Swiss supermarkets!

Besides it's always advisable to check out if the discount on the shelf is reflected on your receipt... I'm usually not obsessed with such things (not everyone is out there to get me) but with Coop....I don't know, it's their system or....it happened quite a few times and it's rather disappointing. It's rather difficult to avoid them in my area because they are predominant here (split their territory with Migros, I guess) and we spend a lot there and we deserve better. Seriously.

In my local coop, if I turn up 15-30 minutes before the closing time, they won't even be happy to let me in

It's improved a lot in the last couple of years.

Schweizer Tafel is an organisation that goes round the supermarkets collecting recently out-of-date produce and distributing it to the needy.

On a personal level - what can you say to a person here who throws out a yogurt because it is nearly at its use-by-date?

I know that the U.K. has, or is thinking about scrapping Best-Before dates as they are totally unnecessary and lead to a lot of food waste.

I buy bread at the local bakery, meat at the local butcher, fresh fruit and eggs at a nearby farm. Prices are not better than elsewhere, but also no worse. What is better is quality - I get exactly what I want, truly fresh, in just the amount I need. Thus less waste than buying things packaged in the grocery store.

Cutting down on waste has been my steepest learning curve in Switzerland - and ultimately largest money saver.

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For my grocery store shopping I go to a nearby MegaCoop, largely for location. When I factor in my time and gas (especially now!) one stop shopping is a savings.

But even with Coop prices there are bargains to be had. I'm big on collecting Superpunkt, which reglarly saves me well over a thousand a year. That a lot of groceries for free!

FYI their Hello Family club is quite generous with extra points offers.

That’s pretty much exactly what we do too.

Just returned from a huge shop at Aligro. Big purchases included a couple of cases of imported IPA, at 10% off the usual Aligro price, which is cheaper than any supermarket and the local beer store. What is generally CHF 4 a bottle came out to CHF 2, so buying several cases (24 per case) was a no brainer.

Fresh fish was also excellent quality and price. Some meats and cheeses and some spices - along with some Pimm’s and champagne, as well as dish soaps and fire starters - and it was quickly CHF 500, but with over CHF 60 of discounts, on prices that were already generally cheaper than COOP and Migros.

Individual cucumbers for sale today too, so those Pimm’s cups will be excellent tomorrow.

I only go every six weeks or so, but if I lived closer, I’d go more frequently for the fish department.

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“one of the good guys”

Try to explain this to a Japanese spouse. Although mine has gotten much better over the years, she is still rather paranoid. On the other hand, the Japanese will leave a curry or stew on the stove for three days, in summer. And explaining that wet food stays wet, and dry food stays dry is necessary. It’s really a culture that relies fully on sell by dates. That said, the half price and seventy five percent off prices every evening from 6PM on are terrific. Even though many won’t buy it with the discount label on it.

My god, the Japanese trash a criminal amount of food. I’m glad my kid has learned that people have a sense of smell for a reason (if it smells wrong, it probably is wrong, if it smells good, it is).

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“one of the good guys”

Important exception for your last statement. Botulin toxin is not detectable by taste or smell, but it is deadly.

With lots of cases of food poisoning, the bacteria is tasteless and the food can be fresh.

I've had food poisoning and this is something you want to avoid. It's not just sell by dates, but proper storage of food and correct preparation. For example, I never thaw frozen items on the counter. If they need to be thawed before cooking, I put them in the fridge first or use cold water.

I've had it a lot of times. As far as I can recall, it has only been from eating in restaurants - where you have no control over food hygiene.

So, in my experience, people are more likely to get ill when eating out than when eating at home.


I always defrost in cold water - fast and efficient.

Worst food poisoning I ever had was in Japan, from a restaurant, miserable for days... on the plus side, not only did they refund the fellow who had bought dinner for us, the chef came to our homes, apologised reimbursed doctor visits, and gave us each the equivalent of a few hundred francs in apology money.
I actually almost felt bad for him after all of that.

Almost.

In the case of our local Coop, you want to check before you get to the till. Sometimes the person attaching the stickers (orange on top, white with barcode on bottom) is in a hurry and doesn't fully cover the original barcode. When that happens, the original price rings up.

At least Coop gives 50% off even if it's a sale price. The Migros around here will only give 50% off the original price most of the time. Denner's extra 20% weekend deals are nice because they give an extra 20% off even on items that are on sale. It's a good way to get a deal on wine.
Coop specifically excludes sale items.