When you arrive in Switzerland and discover this for the first time, the reaction is usually the same: you look at the closed door of the Migros, glance at the opening hours posted on the window, then look back at the door. In Spain, there’s always a neighbourhood Chinese shop open, a petrol station with something in stock, or a supermarket that stays open until at least two o’clock. Not here. Sunday trading is regulated by the Labour Act (LTr): employing staff in a shop on a Sunday requires special authorisation. And that authorisation isn’t granted to your local Coop.
There are exceptions, but they are limited. Kiosks and petrol stations are allowed to open. Small pharmacies and bakeries may also open. Shops within large railway stations or airports are permitted, subject to one condition: if they sell food, their floor area must not exceed 120 square metres. That is why, at Geneva or Zurich stations, you will find shops open on Sundays, but these are not conventional supermarkets; they are smaller outlets designed for travellers. Some cantons, particularly Geneva, have been lobbying for years to allow shops to open on Sundays, without success so far. Migros recently opened a staff-free, automated shop on a Sunday, which technically complies with the law.
What ends up happening is that you reorganise yourself. On Friday, you’re already doing your shopping for the weekend. Before a long bank holiday, at Migros and Coop there’s something that, in German, they bluntly call *Hamsterkauf*: hoarding. People fill their trolleys as if it were going to snow for three weeks. In the end, you get used to it. Although every time you have a guest who’s just arrived from Spain and runs out of milk on a Sunday, you have to explain the whole thing all over again.