Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

COST OF LIVING

Swiss cost-of-living demo draws thousands

A Swiss cost-of-living demonstration called by unions and leftist parties, seeking wage rises and pension hikes, drew thousands to central Bern on Saturday a month out from parliamentary polls.

Published: 16 September 2023 19:42 CEST

A hand moves 100 Swiss francs notes with 1000 Swiss francs notes as background.

A hand moves 100 Swiss francs notes with 1000 Swiss francs notes as background. Thousands of people took to the streets of Bern on Saturday to call for wage increases and pension hikes amid the soaring cost of living. Photo: FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP

Organisers put the turnout at some 20,000, as ralliers marched on parliament to press popular demands for “better salaries and better pensions.”

“Today’s large demonstration sends a clear message — in a rich country such as Switzerland there is enough money for everybody to live well,” the organisers said in a statement, also urging government to reduce recently soaring national insurance contributions.

READ ALSO: What you should know about Switzerland’s upcoming federal elections

“To save the banks they easily find billions. And during that time the people have to tighten their belts? Things can’t go on like that,” the USS main union federation said.

READ ALSO: A foreigner’s guide to understanding Swiss politics in five minutes

The soaring cost of living is a major topic along with immigration and climate change ahead of the October 21 polls with an 187 percent rise in electricity prices a particular gripe.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.

Become a Member to leave a comment.

REVEALED : Are ‘discount’ supermarkets in Switzerland really cheaper?

Common consumer goods (except one) are typically more expensive in Switzerland than in neighbour countries — sometimes by much.

This includes food.

READ ALSO: Why Switzerland is the most expensive country in Europe

That is especially the case of largest Swiss chains, Migros and Coop, while Denner, Lidl, and Aldi say their food prices are significantly lower.

To find out whether this claim is actually true, journalists from RTS public broadcaster’s consumer programme went shopping in each of these supermarkets.

They purchased the same 30 products in each of the five supermarkets on the same day, to ensure that the price comparison is as accurate as possible.

Not what you’d expect

In each of the stores, the investigators purchased only the lowest priced items from the supermarkets’ budget lines.

It turned out that most money was spent at Denner, widely considered to be one of the lowest-priced supermarkets.

The total for the 30 items came to 181.67 francs — more than was spent at the country’s more expensive stores, Migros and Coop, where identical basket of goods cost 170.37 and 167.82 francs, respectively.

(That, in itself, is surprising as well, because Migros typically has lower prices than Coop).

As for the other two supermarkets, these purchases cost 166.59 francs at Aldi and 162.05 at Lidl.

So the difference in price between Migros and Coop versus Aldi and Lidl is minimal. But what is even more surprising is that the cost of groceries at ‘cheap’ Denner is actually highest of the lot, by between 11 and nearly 20 francs.

Migros and Coop performed quite well in the comparison survey because most of the items purchased in those stores came from their budget lines, M-Budget and Prix-Garantie, respectively, both of which were introduced to compete with Aldi and Lidl.

But how important is price? Patrick Krauskopf, a professor of anti-trust law, told RTS: “German, French, English, Spanish and American consumers pay a lot of attention to price. In Switzerland, consumers place more emphasis on quality of service. Price is almost secondary.

“Distributors have realised this and have stopped competing fiercely on price.”

Big versus small

While this particular analysis focused on supermarket chains, another survey, conducted at the end of 2023, looked at prices in small grocery shops.

Common logic has it that it is cheaper to shop in supermarkets than a local corner store, because big retailers purchase products in large quantities, which means lower prices for consumers.

However, prices in some local shops were found to be “up to 30 percent cheaper than Migros and Coop.”

The reason is that in order to cut costs, small grocers may buy their products from the most cost-effective suppliers, a tactic which includes importing some items.

Another reason for lower prices is that unlike major supermarkets, which ‘pretty up’ their stores for better presentation of products, these small retailers are ‘no-frill’ shops. This means little money is invested in décor, so there are no extra costs to pass on to consumers.

READ ALSO: Why it might be cheaper to avoid the big supermarkets in Switzerland

Url copied to clipboard!