Three-quarters of the discounted items are from the food sector and the rest are other consumer items.

Their prices will be reduced before the end of the year.

“The new price discounts should convince people to think of Migros when they are planning their purchases”, the company spokesperson told Swiss media outlet 20 Minuten. 

Migros, which has over 1,000 stores in Switzerland, owns not just grocery shops, but also sports, electronics, and hardware stores, as well as a bank and adult education centres.

The behavioural economist Tilman Slembeck from the Zurich University of Applied Sciences said Migros is “under pressure to act” in order to compete with cheaper supermarkets like Aldi and Lidl.

“There is constant pressure from the discounters”, he said.

READ MORE: Switzerland ‘the most expensive in Europe’ for bread and meat 

In the end, consumers might be the winners in the price war.

For instance, red peppers now cost 3.30 francs per kilo instead of 3.80, the price of M-Classic butter waffles went down from 2.70 francs to 2.20, and the six-pack of 1.5-litre bottles of Aproz mineral water are 2.85 instead of 5.70.

You can see other price reductions here. 

The range of cheaper M-Budget products, aimed at those with low incomes, is being extended. But its price will not be lowered as it is already at hard-discount level.

Food and many other products sold in Switzerland are more expensive than comparable goods in the EU. 

A recent study from Eurostat database shows that there’s nowhere on the continent where bread is more expensive than in Switzerland, where its cost is 1.64 times higher than the European average. 

Milk, cheese and eggs cost around 1.4 times more than they do elsewhere in Europe.