Swiss Supermarket Discoveries Part II: Culture Shock

"Gourmet" Bread with Sunflower Seeds Outside and Inside along with Nuts

Discovering Swiss Grocery Stores was an eye-opening experience when I first moved here. On the surface, the supermarkets look very similar but once you get into the details, it’s another world.

My eating habits had to change drastically based on what was available in French Speaking Switzerland (which is different from German Speaking Switzerland) when I arrived to live here and I now eat far healthier than I ever did the in the USA as an adult. First of all, traditionally the Swiss shop every day for fresh food and it’s not prepared food. You have to do something with it yourself!

Fenouil Suisee (Fennel)

Since I arrived from San Francisco where as a working gal who never had time to cook, I lived on the excellent salad / food and sushi bars that are available there. The fact that there were hardly any (good) frozen foods when I arrived in Switzerland was alright as I never ate that way in any case, but the store hours here are limited due to a social concern for families being together at dinner time and being home for their children after school (something like America in the perhaps in the 1950s). Most stores including the supermarkets are emptied out by 6:45 PM, 7:00 PM latest. They even announce that the store is closing and it is a strong message. There are some radical exceptions now, but plan ahead and only in rare locations can you find a store open on Sunday (many train stations and gas stations now have food). I nearly starved at first, especially when I was not aware of local holidays when everything was closed for days. A couple frozen items in the (tiny) freezer could have helped during those emergencies.

In some Lake Geneva towns every store or any kind used to be closed also on Monday mornings although most, but not all stores, eventually changed that (recession obliged). Some visitors perceive the supermarket opening hours as strange here and this still exists in many parts of Switzerland, especially in rural areas where stores may close at 4:00 PM, so you must find out in advance.

Tete de Moine Fromage Suisse (Monk's Head Swiss Cheese)

Most of my cooking knowledge from the USA consisted of at least one ingredient like Campbell’s soup (you know what I mean) and there is none here or any canned soup of any kind. The other impossible ingredient to find at the store was baking soda! They just don’t use that and I found it at the pharmacy! Now they have it at the grocery store in small envelopes along side small envelopes of baking powder!

Rainbow Swiss Chard & Kohlrabi courtesy of Libookperson flickr

So right at the beginning I bought a Swiss cookbook (in French of course which I did not understand well at first) and even though I did not always know what the ingredients were, at least I knew that I could find them at the supermarket. The opening hours, however, are something to which I don’t think that I will ever adapt.

There have been many radical changes in the 21^st Century in Swiss grocery shopping habits compared to when I first arrived. This daily trekking of the Swiss to the supermarket is based on a culture where mothers stayed at home and prepared the 2-hour lunch at noon and the father and children came home for the traditional Swiss family lunch. As a consequence, there are few households (still) that have a freezer of any significant size in their (small) refrigerators and some have only enough freezing space for ice cubes and maybe a small carton of ice cream. However, even though the refrigerators have not changed much, a nine year recession in Switzerland in the 1990s changed the entire social structure and women found that gainful employment was no longer an option. But many women (and a few men) still do their food shopping daily and get home from their jobs in time to prepare lunch for the family. However, the 2 hours for lunch is getting shorter as more pressure is put on employees to keep their jobs during difficult times. More people are now eating out close to work and the children, many of which go to schools with no lunch facilities because of traditional lunching at home, and are out snacking in the fast food stands and yes, you guessed it; McDonalds.

Ever since the arrival of Pringles, for example, it’s been downhill ever since, with the Americanization of nutrition-free snacks and prepared preservative-loaded food products now found in the Swiss supermarkets. Unfortunately, these snacks are considered “trendy” by young and less-young Swiss and it’s a shame.

Yoghurt For Good Digestion

Nevertheless, Switzerland is still a country with 100s of brands of yoghurt and more than 300 types (not brands) of cheese. When I visit the USA I’m still shocked when I see a supermarket aisle of dry snacks (with nearly 1’000 different products) that is so long that one needs roller blades or a scooter to get down it. However, because of these changes in Swiss society and eating habits, the availability of fast food and snacks has sadly increased at least 300% in the cities since I arrived but it is not necessarily what you want to eat when you come to Switzerland. However, if you take the time to look around you will find that the Swiss supermarket is still your best bet for buying fresh picnic food and healthy snacks to carry while visiting the region.

Bon apetit!