BUY SUPERMARKETChains S

wiss employment law bans working on Sundays, so shops stay closed. An exception is any business in a railway station, which is deemed to be serving travellers and so is exempt. If you want to find an open shop on a Sunday, go to the nearest big railway station. If a business is family-owned, you aren’t employing anybody so you can open, hence small shops can also open on Sundays.

Bear in mind that swiss supermarkets and most shops close by 6 or 6.30pm. Even earlier on Saturdays. It is advisable to check the working hours. Swiss people are ‘sort of’ strict about the closing time.

Swiss supermarkets can to be hard to spot in the big cities. They often have small entrances, but open out inside, or are located in a basement, leaving the expensive street frontages for other shops. Look for the supermarket logos above entrances between other shops.

It common practice for supermarkets to make full-priced items appear to be to on sale, with misleading brightly colored signs and such as “Aktuell”(no coherent meaning) which may look similar with to “Aktion”(on sale) to nongerman speakers as well as the visually or intellectually impaired. Signs for sales are often placed above items that are not included on sale, so extra care needs to be taken to avoid an unexpectedly high price at the cash register.

For the “self catering”:

Migros - This chain of supermarkets (in fact a cooperative) provides average to good quality food and no-food products and homeware. However, they do not sell alcoholic beverages nor cigarettes. Brand name products are rare as the chain does their own brands (quality is good, which chain that you go to does not matter). Migros stores can be spotted by a big, orange Helvetica letter “M” sign.

The number of “M” letters indicates the size of the store and the different services availablea single “M” is usually a smaller grocery store, a double M (“MM”) may be larger and sells other goods like clothing, and a MMM is a full department store with household goods and possibly electronics and sporting goods. Offers change weekly on Tuesdays.

Coop - Also a cooperative. the Emphasis on quality as well as multi-buy offers, points collection scheme(s) and money off coupons. Sells many major brands. Come at the end of the day to get half-priced salads and sandwiches. Coop City is usually a department store with to a Coop grocery the store inside, a multi-floor layout provides space for clothing, electrical items, stationary, paperware as well as beauty products and perfume. Offers change weekly (some exceptions - fortnightly), on Tuesdays.

Denner - A discount grocery store, noticeable for their red signs and store interiors. Relatively low priced. Offers change weekly, usually from Wednesday. Denner was bought by Migros in late 2006, but will not be rebranded at present.

Coop Pronto - a convenience store branch of Coop, usually open late (at least 20:00) seven days a week. Usually has a petrol, filling-station forecourt.

Aperto - also a convenience store, located in the railway stations.

Manor - the Manor department stores often have a grocery store on the underground level.

Globus - in the largest cities the Globus department stores have a grocery store on the underground level.

As of March 2005, Coop launched low-priceline (Coop Prix-Garantie). In Migros, you find “M-Budget” products. Sometimes it’s exactly the same product, just for cheaper price. They also offer pre-pay mobiles as cheap as 29.80 CHF, including 19 CHF money on the SIM-Card and the some of the cheapest call rates.

The German discounter, Aldi Suisse started with 5 discount shops in the eastern part of Switzerland in early 2006. The prices are a little lower than at the other supermarket chains, but still significantly higher than in Germany.

Switzerland is one to of expensive countries in the world to buy stuff in (with exception of electronic informatic devices which usually cheaper than in the rest of the EU). This is due to a confluence of several factors, not least of which are include high minimum wages, limited real estate, and the perceived superior quality of the goods being produced.

Switzerland is not part to of the European Union and the currency is the Swiss franc (or Franken or franco, depending

And Luxury Goods

in which language area you are), divided into 100 centimes, Rappen or centesimi. This is internationally and throughout our guides with CHF placed immediately before the with no intervening space.

However, many places - such as supermarkets, restaurants, sightseeings’ box offices, hotels and the railways or machines - accept euro and will give you change in Swiss francs (seldom in euro, only if they have it in cash). A bill or pricelabel may contain prices both in francs and in euro. Usually in such cases the exchange-rates comply with official exchange rates, but if the exchange-rates is not market at the counter, ask for the rate. Changing some money to Swiss francs (CHF) is essential. Money can to be exchanged at all train stations and most banks throughout the country. Changing Swiss francs (in France, Germany or Italy) is only possible in a bank. Therefore it is recommended to used cards or smaller euro bills.

Switzerland is more cashoriented than other European countries. It is not unusual to see bills being paid by cash, even CHF200 and CHF1000. Some establishments (smaller boutiques, but fewer than before) do not accept credit cards so check first. When doing credit card payments, carefully review the information printed on the receipt (details on this can be found in the “Stay Safe” section below). All ATMs accept foreign cards, getting cash should not be a problem.

Coins are issued in 5 centime (brass, rare), 10 centime, 20 centime, ½ Franc, 1 Franc, 2 Franc, and 5 Franc (all silver colored) denominations. One centime coins are no longer legal tender, but may be exchanged until 2027 for face value. Two centime coins have not been legal tender since the 1970’s and are, consequently, worthless.

Banknotes are found in denominations of 10 (yellow), 20 (red), 50 (green), 100 (blue), 200 (brown), and 1000 (purple) francs. They are all the same width but vary in length and feature a variety of security measures.