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Where can you shop on Sundays in Switzerland during December?

Every year, shoppers in Switzerland can benefit from special holiday opening hours (which include Sundays) in the run-up to Christmas.

Published: 1 December 2023 17:12 CET
Updated: 13 December 2023 10:40 CET
Where can you shop on Sundays in Switzerland during December?
Some shops in Switzerland open on Sundays during the Christmas period. Photo by Negative Space from Pexels.

If you’ve lived in Switzerland for a while, you will know that Sundays are known as rest days in the country.

This (sadly) means that most retailers across Switzerland – with the exception of convenience store avec, shops at petrol and train stations as well as ski resorts – shut on Sundays.

However, there is one festive time a year when Swiss shoppers have the unique opportunity to browse for gifts and decorations on a few select Sundays leading up to Christmas.

Here’s where and when you can shop on a Sunday this month.

Bern

The Old City (Altstadt) of Switzerland’s capital has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983 and its medieval architecture provides the perfect backdrop to get you in the Christmas spirit.

The Old Town’s Sunday sales will be followed by Bern’s official Sunday shopping on December 10th and December 17th from 10am to 6pm.

However, some shops – like LOEB (11am to 6pm) – may have different opening times.

Zurich

Each year, Zurich’s city centre and shopping malls draw shoppers from across Switzerland to indulge in Sunday shopping in a cosy Christmas atmosphere.

As in previous years, many of its shops will also open their doors to customers on two Sundays this month – though dates and opening times will vary.

Many shops in the city centre, however, will open their doors on December 17th from 11am to 6pm.

You can access a list of all the participating Zurich shops, such as department stores Grieder and Manor, here.

If you’re hoping to shop at Zurich’s popular Glatt shopping centre, then rest assured that the same dates apply. However, Glatt will open its door an hour earlier, at 10am (to 6pm).

You can also find a breakdown of the various Zurich municipalities and their Sunday opening times for December 2023 here.

Basel

In the Basel area (both Basel-City and Basel-Country), Sunday sales usually take place on the second and fourth Advent – but not this year.

Since the fourth Advent coincides with Christmas Eve – December 24th – most shops in the city have moved their Sunday openings to the third Advent instead.

This means that you’ll be able to hit Basel’s shops, including the St. Jakob-Park, on December 17th from 1pm to 6pm.

Sion

The canton of Valais’ largest city Sion is an underrated shopping address and has its fair share of Sunday shopping opportunities this month.

According to Sion, Commerces et Services, which lists some 150 stores and restaurants in the city, the various establishments will open doors on December 17th from 10am-6pm.

Coop City Sion and Manor will also be open on December 17th from 10am to 6pm.

Moreover, most shops in the city will also stay open on Immaculate Conception (10am-6pm), which is a public holiday in the canton.

Though not everywhere in French-speaking Switzerland will have open shops on Sundays in December, Lausanne has introduced Christmas evening hours.

For 6 evenings (from December 15th-22nd), shoppers are welcome to take advantage of late opening times (until 8pm) to work through their Christmas shopping list.

Ticino

If you just shop better under pressure, there is one shopping centre that will stay open on December 24th: FOXTOWN FACTORY STORES.

On Christmas Eve, the Mendrisio-based factory outlet with more than 160 stores and over 250 prestigious brands will be open from 11am to 5pm.

Thought this may come as a surprise to some, the shopping centre normally operates 7 days a week from 11am to 7pm.

The shopping centre is only a 30min-drive or 15-min train ride from Ticino’s largest city, Lugano.

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SHOPPING

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

Lidl, Aldi and Denner claim their prices beat those of large Swiss retailers. But is this really the case?

Published: 18 April 2024 11:40 CEST
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
 

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