Swiss
When organic outshines cheap products, customers complain
Customers complain that Migros is expanding its organic range at the expense of cheaper items. The retailer replies that he cannot offer everything twice for reasons of space.
Posted May 28, 2023 9:51pm
According to Migros, offering everything in organic and conventional variants would take up too much space.
Tamedia Nicola Pitaro
A jar of banana quark disappears from the shelves and only the organic version, which is 46% more expensive, is available. According to the Sunday newspaper, Migros customers suspect the retailer of wanting to increase its prices by giving preference to items with the green bud. The comments merge on Facebook and Migipedia, Migros’ social network. “Why only organic, is that the new trend? People who have to be careful with money can no longer afford it,” says one surfer, for example.
The retailer admits that Quark’s case is not unique and justifies the disappearance of certain products due to lack of space. “The space available on the shelves does not allow us to offer each item twice,” writes a Migros manager on Migipedia. “That’s why we have to decide every time which products to remove from the range to make room.”
The same Quark at Coop
There are currently around 5,000 organic products on the Migros shelves, but Migros doesn’t want to stop there because it wants to expand its range further in the future. Organic food accounts for around 12% of wholesalers’ sales in Switzerland. In 2020, the 10 percent threshold was exceeded and the curve has been rising steadily for years, said a Migros spokesman.
However, compared to Coop, Migros lags behind. Coop has increased the proportion of organic products in food from 3.8% in 2002 to over 14% today. Here, too, non-organic items have fallen by the wayside, but Coop offers “conventional alternatives in principle in every product area”. Ironically, the customer was unhappy about his banana quark disappearing at Migros and found it at Coop for the same price.
In Switzerland, organic products are often 50 to 100 percent more expensive than conventional products. The price monitor and the German-speaking consumer protection organization criticize Migros and Coop. The Price Monitor suspects that the two wholesalers are charging excessive premiums. They deny this claim. The consumer protection organization considers the price increase for organic products to be too high and calls on retailers to give their customers the choice.
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