A Migros branch near Bern (archive photo)
Photo: REUTERS
Gottlieb Duttweiler was remarkably modern for his time.
The Zurich businessman was an early advocate of women's suffrage in Switzerland and, as early as 1925, developed what would be called a discouter today: a retail chain that prevailed on the market primarily through inexpensive mass products.
In at least one point, however, Duttweiler was old-fashioned: although he had just bought a sweet cider press, he declared war on the "almighty alcohol capital" and issued a ban on the sale of alcohol in his company.
The ban is still in place today, although Duttweiler's business has now developed into one of the largest retail groups in Switzerland: the Migros supermarket chain, the country's largest employer with around 100,000 employees and around CHF 30 billion in annual sales - but still without beer, wine and Spirits.
You won't find any tobacco products either.
At least the alcohol ban could soon be history.
As the "Neue Zürcher Zeitung" and the "Lebensmittelzeitung" report, the delegates of the Association of Cooperatives voted to lift the sales ban.
Alcohol at subsidiaries
However, this does not mean that the shelves are filling up.
Due to the cooperative structure of the group, only the way was cleared for a ballot of the ten regional cooperatives, which is expected to take place next June.
Only when there is a two-thirds majority among the 2.3 million comrades will the ban actually be lifted from 2023 at the earliest.
Is the fight against the alcohol capital of the founder, who died in 1962, then lost?
Probably yes, but there are already Migros subsidiaries to which the old ban does not apply.
The company is under high competitive pressure, for example from the German competitors Aldi and Lidl, but also from the Swiss Koop, which has no such gaps in its range.
mamk