supermarket chains | The Rambling Epicure

Swiss Supermarket Discoveries Part I: Snacks

Published by Jonell Galloway + Thursday, August 1, 2013 Permalink 0

Swiss Supermarket Discoveries Part I: Snacks

by Sonja Holverson

From the archives

I have found in my world travels that one of the highlights for revealing the secrets of the local culture when in a new destination is to go to the neighborhood supermarket. Even if you don’t need anything, this visit is a must everywhere. It’s fascinating.

Even if you don’t know what some things are, it’s amazing to observe the different presentation of goods as well as the packaging, transaction techniques and social behaviors in the store. Switzerland is particularly interesting because the country has four national languages (German, French, Italian and Romansch, which is an ancient Latin language). With various cultural backgrounds in different regions, you will find different food items available, but many products are, by law, labeled in at least 3 languages. The Swiss German supermarkets’ food items are quite different from those you find in the French speaking region (called “Suisse Romande” or “Romandie” in French), even if it’s the same store chain.

Swiss sweets: photo courtesy of Ivan Mlinaric

Feeling the need for a quick snack after walking around (or mostly up and down) in the clean Swiss Alpine air? Can’t wait for the later-than-you’re-used-to Swiss dinner hour? Then head for the nearest supermarket where you will find the locals snacking away. Sometimes there are benches inside and outside the supermarket door just for this purpose! This is not to say that there is not a wonderful choice of restaurants in Switzerland. Au contraire! But as a business traveler like me, you may find yourself hungry at odd times and lunch service is usually over at 2:00 p.m. Dinner does not usualy start until 7:00 p.m. in French-speaking Switzerland and 5 p.m. in German-speaking Switzerland, or later if your Swiss friends live on Lake Geneva and are très chic. There are exceptions. The reason behind this afternoon restaurant closure is that most waiters, chefs and owners work split shifts and need a break before dinner service.

Market Analysis: Organic Food from Supermarket vs. Straight from the Producer

Published by Jonell Galloway + Thursday, April 28, 2011 Permalink 0

by Eric Burkel

Don’t allow the wool to be pulled over your eyes by supermarket organic food!

While discussing the issue of sustainable agriculture and the virtuous model of direct-channel (straight from the producer) with a friend the other day, she told me proudly that she usually buys organic food at her supermarket.

It made me think that most of us do the same and therefore we are content in the knowledge that we have most duly earned some sacrosanct “organic” brownie points!

However, it is a pact with the devil for dupes, when you boil it down. In a direct-channel model, whereby middlemen are cut out, the producer/breeder/grower gets decent compensation for his or her efforts. In a supermarket chain, the same “squeeze-the-supplier-till-he-squeals (or dies!)” modus operandi applies. How else can you explain that the major chains in France are offering organic deals at 1 € a day, for instance?

Organic growing is inherently risky and mechanically more expensive than intensively grown food. Weeds? They have to be pulled out by hand, not sprayed with the latest and greatest herbicide. Bugs? You can’t just spray the nasty freeloaders with a new-fangled pesticide.

When I asked our favourite organic Bordeaux wine-grower if he had sold out of his 2007 production (there was none to be found on his price list), he responded matter-of-factly: “We had a fungus that year and lost our whole crop.” You can imagine that it would have been soooooo much easier to spray some fungicide and make it all go away.

After factoring in such vagaries of organic farm life (without forgetting that yields are invariably lower on organic farms), someone needs to explain how in an ideal world you can have the cut-price organic prices we see in commercials all the time. Unless of course, someone is still getting shrift in the loop, as is often par for the course in our zero-sum world.

Some supermarket chains have understood the nuance and are trumpeting their programs to promote “local” procurement. This is a step in the right direction, no doubt.

So great, the chains have brought organic food to forefront our collective conscious and that must be goodness. But we must keep them on their toes to ensure that they are not just surfing the latest fad and using it their sole advantage, to sucker us once again.

Or better yet, go out of our way and support the direct-channel by joining a CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture) or buying directly from local producers.