trueblu

I don't drink so didn't look at beer prices. But meat and other daily stuff seemed a lot more expensive than UK or US.

tb

Splendiz

There are always a variety of different food in different price ranges. Groceries sure are less expensive in Switzerland than in New Zealand.

GUWonder

Switzerland is the most expensive country of reasonable size in Europe for food. Even Norway tends to be cheaper. And Sweden is generally substantially cheaper when compared to Switzerland and Norway; and yet the perception of many is that Sweden is expensive.

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statis...es_and_tobacco

I don’t find the grocery bills in New Zealand to be much more expensive than the grocery bills in Australia.

And I just had a look at my relatives’ recent grocery bills in New Zealand and in Switzerland,, and New Zealand was cheaper by a lot. And my own food costs too have been lower in Auckland than in Zurich.

Beaucoup bucks in cash or on plastic more needed in Switzerland than NZ.

Splendiz

Well, I live in Switzerland and have been in NZ and Australia recently. Groceries definitely are more expensive over there. But of course I don't buy my groceries in the extravagant places here, just regular Coop, Migros, Aldi/Lidl, ...

:D!

The Revolut exchange rate is usually around 2-5 pips higher than a live interbank rate (I compared to XE), except for THB and UAH where it is a few pips + 1%. This only applies between 0001 Monday to 2359 Friday, UK time. At other times 0.5-1% is added to this rate. Note that the live rates on various sites may differ quite a bit, and Google's quick quotes may be out by quite a lot.

GUWonder

I have to wonder what you’re buying. . Most every index used to compare grocery basket prices have NZ cheaper than Switzerland.

Even comparing McDonald prices have NZ substantially cheaper than Switzerland.

FlyingJoy

Just a random experience to add to this thread: I travel to Switzerland once a year, and I have found one specific situation in which I need cash. I do a few hikes there every year. Those of you who are familiar with hiking in Switzerland will know of those little "Hofladen" (farm shops) dotted through the countryside, where you can buy locally produced farm goods. These are almost always cash-only, especially the self-service ones where you just write in the logbook what you are taking and then put some cash in a tin.

Therefore, because I love hiking in Switzerland and buying local produce along the way, I've learned to always bring cash when I come over.

catandmouse

Sure Switzerland is expensive for groceries, but maybe not quite as much as its reputation. There are ways of keeping grocery bills down such as buying the products that locals buy, rather than the products you're used to buying at home.
I visited New Zealand just over a year ago and was shocked by how expensive it was, particularly as I'd been there a few years previously and found it rather good value. The Swiss group I was with felt that NZ was at least as, if not more, expensive than Switzerland, with a surprising number of products of mediocre quality (bread for example).

Splendiz

That is exactly my experience as well.

GUWonder

https://ceoworld.biz/2020/02/03/most...-live-in-2020/

Sort from the above list based on groceries, and it too shows grocery costs in Switzerland (and Norway) as substantially higher than in New Zealand.

YuropFlyer

I think the main problem is that those magazines tend to compare branded products, which are indeed very expensive in Switzerland.

say, Heinz Tomato Ketchup, Heineken „beer“, Mars candy bar, Coca Cola etc

those products indeed are quite a bit more than what you pay for the exactly same products in Germany, or other countries

if we compare non-brand products (M-Budget, Prix Garantie, OK.-, Aldi/Lidl non-Brands ) it’s still quite a bit more expensive, but the difference is somewhat smaller. And I don’t remember countries like AUS/NZ having that many non-branded products (outside of Aldi, maybe..)

so for branded products and eating meats, Switzerland is expensive

non branded products and non meat products (frozen seafood is mostly imported and not much more than Germany) Switzerland isn’t that expensive. Add a beer or a bottle of wine and throw countries like Norway in and we are cheap cheap.

comparisons ALWAYS can go in one way or another. Even for housing..

Compare rent in Munich with rent in Biel (medium sized Swiss city) and Switzerland will almost look cheap. Compare food in Ticino with food in Frankfurt, hardly a difference.

KLouis

What you write reminds me of stats that I was reading half a century ago while a student in Germany. Comparing the cost of living of World capitals based on "daily expenses" they were listing Athens as more expensive than Washington and others: For example, they were listing the price of the same American cigarette brand (twice as expensive in Athens as the most expensive Greek one) and that of a US-styled cheeseburger, which back then could only be found at a couple of fancy American bars (no "chain burger places" till decades later in Greece) while a souvlaki w. pitta could be bought for a tenth of the price!

GUWonder

Given that tax-adjusted median personal income in NZ is much lower (c. 40+% lower) than in Switzerland, that NZ seems to have higher taxes on food than Switzerland and that Kiwis aren’t suffering massively more malnutrition problems across all comparable socio-economic demographic groups as to the Swiss, it’s a pretty safe bet that the Kiwis are able to get their calories on the relative cheap from NZ grocery purchases and do so for no more than the Swiss at Swiss grocery stores.

Just compare the cost of a McDonald’s hamburger in NZ to one in Switzerland. Switzerland is more expensive.

KayVeeBee

My economy teacher gave me the example of two rival supermarket chains each claiming they were cheaper than the other. They did that by having one of their regular shoppers repeat their purchases at the rival. And both proved this way that the rival was more expensive...

This was because what the shoppers bought was influenced by what was cheap in the store they shopped in.

The contents of the basket used to price the costs of a typical grocery basket matters. And what people put in their basket depends on the prices of goods. In Switzerland the cheapest meat is chicken. The most expensive are beef and lamb. I would assume that the lamb would be cheaper in NZ...

If you take a typical US, AUS or NZ grocery basket to CH and try to buy it there you will probably be shocked. But if you adapt, and no longer have big steaks for breakfast :-) then you will find out that food costs are quite reasonable.

GUWonder

NZ exports lamb meat, so it’s not so uncommon for me to find NZ lamb being sold for cheaper prices far from NZ than lamb is sold for in NZ or in the UK, regardless of origin. And given NZ taxes food so much higher than some of its export markets tax food, it’s not uncommon for NZ media to harp on how lamb meat is cheaper abroad where it exports than in NZ itself.

https://i.stuff.co.nz/life-style/foo...w-zealand-lamb

But given how much lower incomes are in NZ than in Switzerland or Norway, there really shouldn’t be much doubt that NZ grocery bills tend to be lower than Swiss or Norwegian grocery bills.