Hi,

Does any one know any shop in Zurich where groceries are pretty cheap. ? Coop looks lil expensive to me

Sort of contradicting yourself if you want special foods to eat. But Denner, Aldi, Lidl, Otto's and Radikal can all be cheaper than the two big Swiss names. Just depends on what you're going to be looking for.

Fruits and vegetables are my priority. Looking for organic ,chemical free ones. Does the cheap supermarket offers the same?

Chemical-free isn't what you think it is...

No, so say organic and chemical free will be expensive, without being rude is your employer paying an Indian salary or a Swiss salary ?


Yes it is expensive here, but so are salaries too, to compensate.

Be patient. This question will bring a lot of abuse.

Well, better get used to prices since 1st week in Switzerland: cheap groceries don't exist. Your only options are bad quality and good quality, both at high prices when compared to the rest of the world. So, focus your effort on good quality

Why? To begin with there's offer and demand. If someone offers a kilo of apples at 8 CHF and people pay for it, why sell it cheaper?

From the supply side there are also hard limits. Workers driving the delivery vehicles, lifting boxes and arranging the apples in a symmetrical manner in the shops...their salaries start at 3'500 CHF a month and up. So, those salaries must come from somewhere.Then, there's rent, if you think rent for your apartment is high, just stop to think for a minute how much supermarkets pay for their places. Also, there are regulations like driving bans to minimize noise during the night in city centers which forces to business to do delivery at high traffic hours which kills efficiency. After considering all above, maybe that kilo of apples is relatively cheap

PS. there are several kinds of COOP. Coop Pronto which is usually in train stations and gas stations and expensive even if you earn 20K a month if you want to buy groceries. It's a place to buy coffee, beer or maybe onions if there's nothing else opened on a Sunday. There's the Coop supermarket with much lower prices for food.

Depends where you live - out here in Aargau we have tons of farm shops. Whatever is in season is typically reasonably priced. Still high by international standards, but lower than other places and the quality is good. You can also get some tips often, and make a friend.


Otherwise, a short trip north (30 mins for me) gets me to Germany, where I can get more "reasonable" priced groceries.

Did you do any research before moving here?

Second most expensive country in the world according to list list https://www.gq.com.au/lifestyle/trav...fc7e563d8d91c9

https://www.globus.ch/wein-delicatessa/frische

For fruits and vdg, even meats and cheese, go to the local markets

1.Denner / Lidl / Aldi are the "cheapest"
2.There is also the option of Aligro ( you can create a membership card for free online ) and can go on Fridays and Sundays to get some price reductions --> never been , only read about this , maybe someone can confirm
3. Germany / Italy / France if you have a car or if you think it's worth the trouble
4. Download and install an app called To Good To Go

And yes, as most ppl wrote previously, Switzerland is expensive , but so are the wages , to compensate

PPS. the first month until getting a full Swiss Salary is the hardest, everyone knows that

I go to Aligro (no membership needed) occasionally for offers on fish or meat. Have looked around and don't find the other stuff particularly cheap, at least not for household quantities.

Thank you for saving 2 hours of my time, was curios about the prices ... but after reading, I can stick to the regular shops

ohh, it seems we all have a mini chuff whispering in our ear "every piece of info is already on the internet, google it"

It’s just bonkers to expect cheap quality fresh food in Switzerland.

Exactly how much fresh fruit and veg can you buy and consume in good condition ?


Lets say for 1 week, which is fairly doubtful, factor in the costs of going to France/Germany/Italy of your vehicle, Chf 0.50/km plus a realistic cost of your time, Chf 25.--/hour


You really saving anything or are you actually just pissing in the wind ?

My case: I am not a big fan of veg and they spoil pretty fast / but I do go twice a month to :
- enjoy a different country and the scenery
- eat some Turkish fast fast at a third of the regular price
- buy stuff for future use ( canned stuff /get my 2 kilos of meat / different products specific to other countries / products which maybe are found only in the EU / my wife is a clean freak and these products are considerable cheaper in DE, cosmetic products are also cheaper, medicine which you can find only in the EU , pharmaceutic cosmetics are often half priced there, child care products are half priced, dog food and other stuff are way cheaper)
- also Kaufland is open until 10 PM which is a nice change
For a shopping session of 300 Euros , I think I would have spent here around 500 CHF , thus going twice a month I think I save 400 euros /CHF and get to see other places.
So yeah, to sum all up I am pissing in the wind, but this is my case, the thread author's is a bit different

Lol, I think it's the other way around, actually no, you're just a bit unnecessarily aggressive, because lots of people do go shopping to Konstanz weekly (for instance), and yeah, I believe they buy fruits and vegs too, although they don't necessarily go (only) for that.
You can check out all those threads about shopping in Germany and France...

For me it has never been worth the trouble because I came back with more than I needed, hence spent more than usual, because "if I'm here let's take advantage of the trip and make it worthwhile" lol.
On the other hand, you do get to see something "different" and get to eat out at (much) lower prices.

Denner, Aldi, Lidl and Turkish shops. Not cheap, cheaper. Oh, and I forgot about Asian shops, do check them out too!!

About one weeks worth. But you also stock up on other things, some of which can be frozen, others just have a very long shelf life. Perhaps get a new pair of glasses, or pick up some cheap OTC medicine.

And 25 francs an hour for your time? That's just daft. It's not like if we don't go shopping, we're losing the opportunity to earn 25 francs. Anyway, Zürich to Germany - about one hour. You can easily save more than 100 francs on the shop. Some people quite enjoy the trip, make a day out of it and include a restaurant meal.

Of course, if you live close to the border matters are quite different.

Agreed. @Biro, tone it down a bit please.

You can even get some almost reasonably priced meats. Mind you, you can often find that at Coop if you go at the right time. I've occasionally picked up very good joints of meat at 25% the original value. Very handy if you have a big freezer!

__________________
Down with racism. Long live miscegenation!

I go twice a month and do a small tour: Kaufland, the Russian store, Swiss Paket, the butcher, and a restaurant. Of course also customs!



I tend to buy a week's worth of fruits and veg (sometimes a bit more). For example, greener bananas take a while to ripen, and most veg can be stored in a fridge. Frozen food is also good, but I tend to find Aligro better for this.



I'll also grab butter (salted), Swiss chocolate (much cheaper), beer, meat (1kg per person before you need to pay taxes on the way back), venison (doesn't count towards the 1kg limit) and generally things that I can't easily find in Switzerland (e.g. sturgeon caviar at reasonable prices, roasted buckweat (not the unroasted kind), british bacon (oddly available at kaufland)). On some occasions I'll also ask the butcher for "dog meat" (meat/bones specifically labeled as for animals, which means they don't count towards the 1kg limit) - that said, this is rarer nowadays as I don't have my dogs on a BARF diet anymore.



At Swiss Paket I'll grab my amazon shopping, ebay junk and other online shopping that I can't easily get delivered to CH. This also includes good quality 80:20:0 kibbles. Annoyingly, with brexit I can't get Millies Wolfheart anymore delivered in Germany; but I've found alternatives. Another thing I get delivered here is medicines (my dog needs 3 tablets a day - the cost is literally less than half in Germany. In CH I pay around 3CHF a day, in DE around a euro a day - and most online veterinary medicine suppliers will accept a Swiss vet's prescription).



Finally, a quick stop at a steakhouse for a proper steak. (or when the weather is nice- we will first go somewhere, like Titisee, Europapark, etc and do the shopping on the way back)



On the way back, I'll stop at customs - which gives me ~20% back on my shopping. Considering the prices are already substantially cheaper than CH, adding the further 20% makes them really quite cheap.



Regarding fuel, we tend to carpool actually with another couple. This serves two purposes; we split the cost of fuel (well, we alternate who drives), and we can bring back more meat/goods before hitting the thresholds to pay import taxes.