Holidays to Switzerland Travel Podcast Episode 199 Transcript
Swiss Supermarket Tips Every First-Time Visitor Should Know
You can see the full show notes and listen to this episode > here.
Carolyn Schönafinger: Most of us find ourselves needing to visit a supermarket or grocery store at some point when we’re on vacation. But this simple task can be daunting when you’re in a foreign country. There are different brands, a checkout system you’re not familiar with, and labels you’ve never seen before. So in this episode, we’re heading to Wengen in the Jungfrau region, where Kristin Fleming is taking us inside a Swiss supermarket. Kristin will point out the local favourites and the things worth bringing home, and she’ll share a few handy tips that will have you shopping just like a local.
Welcome to the Holidays to Switzerland podcast. I’m Carolyn Schönafinger, your Switzerland destination expert and the founder of holidaystoswitzerland.com. Each week, together with my expert guests, I introduce you to the Switzerland that I know and love, and share inspiration and practical tips to help you plan your dream Swiss vacation.
Before we dive in, a quick thank you to our podcast sponsors, Switzerland Tourism and Echo Rails. If you’re planning a trip to Switzerland, you’ll know just how much there is to consider. With so many incredible places to visit, figuring out your itinerary, booking accommodation, and choosing the right rail pass can quickly start to feel overwhelming. So that’s where Echo Rails comes in.
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If travelling through Switzerland with a small group tour sounds like your ideal way to explore, you’ll find more details via the link in the show notes, along with an exclusive 5% discount code. Now let’s get into this week’s episode.
Carolyn Schönafinger: Hi there and welcome to another of our live on location video podcasts. Today we’re coming to you live from Wengen in the Jungfrau region, and my guest Kristin Fleming is gonna take us on a very exciting tour of the local supermarket.
Shopping is one of the things that often brings up a few issues for people when they’re visiting Switzerland for the first time. So Kristin is gonna take us through the supermarket in Wengen and point out some really important and useful information. Now, if you are listening to this episode on one of the audio podcast players and you’re not sure what we’re talking about, or if we’re pointing out a type of food or anything at all, you can also, of course, jump onto YouTube and have a look at the video edition.
So let’s get into it now. And a warm welcome to you, Kristin!
Christen Fleming: Good morning, Carolyn. Well, morning here in Wengen. How are you doing?
Carolyn Schönafinger: I’m doing very well. Thank you for taking time out of your vacation to show us around the local supermarket.
Christen Fleming: Absolutely. I think it’s a really important way to kind of not only save some money, but also connect a little bit more to Swiss culture. So I would love to show you around and, and I preface this by saying I did not grow up in Switzerland, but I grew up with a Swiss family and travel here often. So. These are my personal favourites and my family’s personal favourites. So if anybody else has any favourites, definitely, you know, let us know and I would love to hear it. But, uh, just to give you a little bit of a glimpse as to the differences that there may be in the grocery stores from where you live and in Switzerland, um, that’s kind of the goal for today.
Carolyn Schönafinger: Perfect. Okay. Now, uh, you have, um, just, uh, done a short walk there towards the supermarket and we should point out that Where you were standing is quite close to the train station in Wengen. So, uh, basically when you get off the train, you can see the supermarket. That’s how convenient it is.
Christen Fleming: Yep, absolutely. This is the Coop. This is one of the two grocery stores that you find most everywhere in Switzerland. The other one being Migros. You’ll see the big orange M. Um, they’re, they’re quite similar. The differences I know, I know Migros does not sell alcohol or tobacco. So if you’re looking to pick up a bottle of wine, you’re gonna go to Coop or obviously somewhere, somewhere local as well.
Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay. Well, let’s, let’s go and have a look inside and learn about some of the important things to know when you are grocery shopping in Switzerland.
Christen Fleming: Absolutely. It’s, uh, it’s just opened at 8 o’clock and it’s already a little bit busy actually. But the first thing that you’ll notice is the smell of fresh bread. And that’s one of my top things to pick out. And they make the bread daily here. I can show you the, the rack of everything and even this big rack here as well. So definitely feel free to, to grab that if you don’t have a bakery nearby because it truly is delicious. So, uh, well, highly recommend. It looks like they’re still putting some stuff out today. But yeah, and in, and in busier towns it gets pretty cleared out pretty quickly.
Carolyn Schönafinger: Lots of different varieties there too.
Christen Fleming: Yes, absolutely. And what I would say is if you’re going to go grocery shopping, you’re probably doing one of two things. You either have an apartment that you need to kind of pick up supplies for as long as you’re here, or typically what we do is we do more, um, shopping for hiking to do picnics and to do You know, uh, food on the go, on the train. And I would say that all of your supplies— oh, I ended up in the chocolate aisle.
Carolyn Schönafinger: Well, that’s a great place to start whenever you’re grocery shopping.
Christen Fleming: Yep, absolutely. Um, but I would say instead go for, get some bread, either some sort of meat, like a salami or prosciutto, um, to make sandwiches on then go, depending on how long you’re going to be out, maybe get some cheese as well, which I’ll show you the cheese. I just wanna get, let the crowd clear out just a little bit, the early shoppers. And then also, ooh, these are a favourite of ours. These Darvita crackers. We like these. These are like a chocolate kind of, um, wheat cracker. They’re very good on the go. But of course, careful with chocolate and cheeses if we’re gonna be out somewhere really warm for a long period of time, cuz You know, obvious reasons. And then while we’re in the chocolate aisle, might as well show you a little bit of the different brands. We have the Lindt, of course. And then Calle is a chocolate that if you are in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, you can easily visit and learn about that. But this is typically what I like to bring home because we can’t get it back home. Um, and then also there’s other, some, some store brands, which really are delicious as well.
Christen Fleming: You kind of can’t go wrong. Would you agree with that? Or do you have any favourites?
Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, absolutely. I think it’s a Coop brand, Halba, H-A-L-B-A. I always buy some of that. It’s super cheap and it’s absolutely delicious.
Christen Fleming: Yeah. Yeah. Those are those right there. Ooh, some strawberry ones too. Yeah, absolutely. All right. Well, I will take you back over to the fruit as well.
Carolyn Schönafinger: While you’re walking over there, what are the typical opening hours? You mentioned there that it’s 8 AM and then the grocery store’s just opened. Do they usually close over lunchtime or are they open late at night? What’s the usual opening hours?
Christen Fleming: Always double check, but this one is, I feel like it’s pretty standard, it opens at 8 o’clock and I think it closes at 5:30 or 6:30, but they do, they do close, you know, 5 or 6 o’clock. Um, and a lot of them are closed on Sundays. Your exception will be the grocery stores at train stations, anywhere that is maybe a, a higher tourist, like this one is definitely open on Sundays as well. But always double check and don’t assume that you’re gonna have something open on a Sunday. So if you’re at a train station and you’re travelling in, just grab it there. The airport has a huge Migros that we always stop at as soon as we land to fight off that hunger. And as well as when we, when we come back and load up our suitcases, that’s how I use all of my Swiss francs, the cash at the end, just buy all the chocolate. But yeah, something important to note here, we have a scale to weigh all of your produce. Definitely make sure that you do that. They don’t like it if you feed it to the food register and you haven’t weighed it yet.
Carolyn Schönafinger: And everything is weighed or priced per 100 grammes. Is that correct?
Christen Fleming: Yes, I believe so. Here’s some garlic. Yeah, per gramme. Right. So just, just double-check what it says. And I will say, I noticed that the scales, I do not believe are in English or you don’t have the ability to change. Which you don’t really need, I think, as much. But when you go to the cash register, that is definitely, you can, you can change that to a, to a different language.
Carolyn Schönafinger: Do you need to bring your own shopping bags to a Swiss grocery store?
Christen Fleming: Yep. Got my shopping bag here. They have ones that you can purchase and sometimes they’re actually a nice print. So sometimes I like doing that as a souvenir, but definitely bring your own bags or be prepared to pay for 4 bags. Gonna share. We have yoghurt over here, which is another, another big favourite for us. But yeah, so yoghurt’s another great one to bring. Maybe not on a hike, but for the train, something I will note, a lot of them come in packs of 2, but you can split them. So you can have these 2. But just snap one off instead. That took me a little bit to learn.
Carolyn Schönafinger: You don’t have to buy both of them.
Christen Fleming: Yes, exactly. They’re, they’re busy setting up, they’re busy restocking everything right now. So I’m trying to dodge people just a little bit and be respectful of that. Ooh, but I did come to one of our other favourite things. That is, that is, um, the paprika chips. This is not something that I feel like most people know about, and I actually helped somebody with this yesterday as well, but that is one of the number one things that my family asks me to bring back are the Zwiebel paprika chips.
Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, they’re, they’re a real Swiss favourite, aren’t they?
Christen Fleming: Absolutely.
Carolyn Schönafinger: What about ready meals? If people are staying in an apartment or as you said, they’re going out for a picnic for the day and they just want to grab a sandwich that’s already prepared for them, is there a good selection of ready meals available.
Christen Fleming: Absolutely. And that was one of the first things when you walk in and it was crowded, so I kind of hightailed it out of all that. Let me see if I can sneak back. There’s great salads, there’s great sandwiches, a lot of grab-and-go options for sure. There’s even sushi and fruit bowls, yoghurts, a lot of, I mean, you can, I don’t know if you can see the different salad types. Caesar salad, pasta salads, and a tonne. They’re fully stocked here with all the sandwiches today. And then again, right when you walk in and then you have some, some drinks over here as well, which they look like they’re restocking. A note that you can bring beer and wine onto trains. So if you wanna have your own little picnic on the train, you can certainly do that as well.
Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay. How’s that cheese?
Christen Fleming: So there’s actually multiple. We have one fully refrigerated cheese section, which I would just recommend, just pick, pick something that, you know, maybe you’ve never tried or looks good or interesting. These are cute, the little têtes de moine, the little roses of cheese. And then there’s of course, obviously the whole other section in the refrigerated aisle next to the yoghurts as well. So then I’ll show you the meat section as well. These are good. Yeah. The Landjäger. Those are good for picnics and, and snacks on the go. And then yeah, if you’re, if you have an apartment and you wanna get any sort of Frozen foods. They’ve got a great selection of pizzas, even chicken nuggets for the little ones. And then now we’re even over to the wine section. Very large wine section.
Carolyn Schönafinger: I guess that’s a good place to grab a bottle of Swiss wine, to try with your meal too.
Christen Fleming: Because very likely you will, very likely you will not find that at home. So another good thing to have. We always pick up a bag of trail mix or, or nuts or something to have a little bit of protein in our hiking backpacks. Let’s see what else I would say. Trying to think of my recommendations on a picnic packing list. Yeah, some sort of bread, do a meat, cheese if you’re not gonna be out too, too long. Some sort of fruit would be good. And then drinks. Ooh, let’s find the drinks. So there’s two in particular that I wanna point out if they’re not in dizzy aisles. Okay. One is Rivella, which, mm-hmm, Carolyn, I’m sure you, you’ve had before and it’s kind of the, uh, I don’t know, the unofficial national drink of Switzerland. I highly recommend trying it at least once. I won’t tell you what’s in it yet. You can try it first and, and, and let me know. I would say it kind of tastes like a ginger ale type drink, maybe.
Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, absolutely. I must say it, it definitely tastes better than what the ingredients hint at, I would say.
Christen Fleming: Yep, absolutely. And then we have iced tea, which is always a really good one. I always have to bring back the iced tea packets. Although I just heard recently Zurich Airport changed their rules for security and you can now bring liquids through. So I plan on bringing lots of Rivella back home because we, you know, there’s no, there’s no issue with security on that now, which is, that was a good one. And then of course, all of the different local beers that you can get as well. Uh, there’s a, there’s a huge selection of these as well.
Carolyn Schönafinger: Hmm. Okay. That’s great. So there’s plenty of options. There’s no, no reason anyone needs to go hungry, whatever their tastes when they’re visiting Switzerland.
Christen Fleming: Absolutely. And even the juices are delicious too.
Carolyn Schönafinger: What about, I believe that closer to, or as it gets nearer to closing time each day, that some of the fresh produce is, is reduced in price. Is that something that you’ve found happens?
Christen Fleming: I’ve definitely seen the grab-and-go options, the sandwiches, the salads, sushi, all of that. You know, they want to get rid of it by the end of the day. So if you want to grab a quick dinner instead of sitting down at a restaurant, I think that’s an excellent option. And then go find a nice little viewpoint and enjoy your dinner there as well.
Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah. Fantastic. Okay. So any other important things that we should know about the supermarket? I’m not going to ask you to go through the cash register, but maybe can you perhaps, when you’re finished showing us all the delicious products there, maybe show us a self-serve cash register?
Christen Fleming: Yes. Maybe what I’ll do is, like I said, it is a little bit busy, so I’m trying to dodge and be respectful. What I might just do is, kind of get it in the background as I walk out and then we can chat a little bit more outside. But yeah, you can see the registers behind me now. And then you have some self-service options, which again, you can choose your language. The other thing that I would say always, and as a general rule for Switzerland, always choose the local currency of Switzerland. So use the CHF, Swiss franc. You will get a better exchange rate for sure. Yeah. And the, and like you said before, bring your own bags. Oh, and then also for those grab and go options, utensils. So if you don’t have a travel set of utensils, you can buy utensils, you can buy little disposable ones, or sometimes it’s better to also just have a little, a little, you know, stainless steel set that you can travel with.
Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah. And you can actually buy those sets at Co-op. I’ve got one that I always bring with me to Switzerland with a knife, fork, and spoon in its own little container. But as you said, you can buy the— I mean, they’re not really single-use. In many cases, they’re the bamboo knives and forks and spoons that you can purchase individually at the cash register.
Christen Fleming: Yep. Definitely have those, have those on hand for sure. Hmm.
Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay. So you’re heading out for a picnic today or on a hike, if you were, what would you absolutely have in your backpack?
Christen Fleming: Absolutely would have, let’s see, bread, number one, any, any picnic, any train ride, always bread. Number two, some sort of meat, whether it’s a prosciutto or salami, like I said, depending on if we’re gonna be long for the day or, or not so much a yoghurt or a cheese. Definitely something sweet, either a cookie or a cracker, or I love the Cambly. I tried to show them a little bit in the background, but like I said, it was a little, a little crowded. The Cambly crackers. And then let’s see what else. Or the Haribo gummy, gummy bears or something are always good as well. So I think if you just add on some, some chips at the end of that, some of those paprika chips, you’ll be We’ll be good to go. And then if, yeah, if you’re gonna be on the train for a while, if you wanna grab some Rivella or an iced tea, I think those would be, those would be a well-rounded list of snacks. Are there any favourites of yours that I missed at all?
Carolyn Schönafinger: I think you pretty much covered it. I do love Swiss yoghurt. It is so much better than the yoghurt I’m used to at home. Obviously it’s those Alpine cows, so the yoghurt is amazing. I love getting some bread and cheese and maybe some tomatoes and just cutting it up and making my own little sandwich with a magical view. Um, there’s, there’s nothing better, is there?
Christen Fleming: Absolutely. No, I think that’s, that’s perfect. And then things, some things to bring home too. Like I said, lots of chocolate. You really can’t, can’t go wrong.
Carolyn Schönafinger: And get your, as you said, get your, your chocolate at the supermarket. Don’t wait till you get to the duty-free shop at the airport. The supermarket is definitely the place to buy it.
Christen Fleming: And like we said, there’s the big Migros store at the airport, which is a great option.
Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah. Fantastic. Well, thanks so much, Kristen, for sharing all that very useful information. I’m sure everyone who’s visiting Switzerland for the first time will find that very, very helpful. And it’s always good to be a bit familiar with a place before you get there. So hopefully when people walk into the grocery store, they won’t be so overwhelmed. They’ll know what they should be buying and how it all works. So thanks again.
Christen Fleming: And maybe have a little insight that right when the store opens, you’re probably going to have a little bit of a crowd here. I was thinking that it might be a little bit quieter, but nope, everybody is ready to go. It’s summertime. Everybody wants to get on those lifts as early as possible, which that’s the way to do it.
Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, absolutely. And of course, just prior to closing time, the supermarket is usually very busy as well. So yes, So do keep that in mind. Thank you so much for those amazing tips.
Christen Fleming: My pleasure, Carolyn. Thank you as always.
Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay. And for everyone watching, if you want to see any of our other Live On Location videos, we’ve got some great destinations that we’ve covered, including Zurich train station and lots of amazing scenic views from places like Zermatt, Zurich, another one from Wengen. So there’s lots and lots of great Live On Location videos for you to watch. They’re all on our YouTube channel and of course the podcast is also available on all the podcast players. We’re nearly at 200 episodes, so there’s plenty of useful info there for everyone to learn from. Thank you so much for watching this today, and we’ll see you next time. If you’re heading to Switzerland soon, hopefully you now feel a bit more confident about walking into a Swiss supermarket, weighing your own produce, and picking out a picnic worthy of the view. And if you want to see more of these live on location episodes from Zurich to Zermatt and everywhere in between, they’re all on our YouTube channel, which I’ll link to in the show notes. Let me know if you found this episode helpful. I always love to receive your feedback, which you can send via email to podcast@holidaystoswitzerland.com or leave a 5-star review and rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Carolyn Schönafinger: I would really appreciate it. Thank you so much. Until next week when I’ll be back with more Swiss travel tips and inspiration. Tschüss!
You can see the full show notes and listen to this episode > here.
