Does Migros Sell Alcohol? The 1928 Ban and What the Migros Group Still Sells

No: Migros stores sell no alcohol, and that was still true in September 2026. The sales ban goes back to founder Gottlieb Duttweiler and the year 1928, and since 1983 it has been written, according to Migros, into the statutes of the regional cooperatives, with the exception of Geneva. In June 2022 the cooperative members voted on whether beer, wine and spirits should join the range: not one of the ten cooperatives reached the required two-thirds majority. The Migros group does sell alcohol, just not under the orange M: at Denner, in many migrolino shops, and online through a separate Denner area.

Last updated: September 2026. Sources: corporate.migros.ch, "Mit oder ohne Alkohol: Migros lanciert Abstimmungs-Bier" (ban since 1928, statutes since 1983) and the press release of 16 June 2022 carrying the ballot results, with voting closing on 4 June 2022; corporate.migros.ch, "Die Migros-Gruppe" and "Ausbau des NON-Sortiments" of 18 March 2026; foodaktuell.ch of 18 March 2026; denner.ch and migrolino.ch, retrieved 6 September 2026; 20 Minuten of 15 November 2021 on the Denner area inside migros.ch. This guide deliberately quotes no weekly prices for beer, wine or spirits: they change every Thursday.

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Does Migros sell alcohol? The short answer

In the shop, no. Migros lists neither beer nor wine nor spirits in its supermarkets, and according to the 2022 ballot text the same applies to Migros restaurants and Migros take-aways. What you find in the drinks aisle instead is an alcohol-free range that has grown noticeably in recent years.

At group level the answer is yes. The discounter Denner belongs to the Migros group and offers, per denner.ch, "a range of more than 300 wines from a wide variety of origins". The migrolino convenience shops sell alcohol at many locations. And in the online shop, buying alcohol runs through a Denner area. So the correct answer depends on whether you read "Migros" as the sign above the shop or as the corporate group, and that distinction is exactly what most answers online leave out.

Why does Migros not sell alcohol? 1928, then 1983

The origin is older than any store trading today. According to corporate.migros.ch, founder Gottlieb Duttweiler introduced the sales ban in 1928 to promote public health and to fight what he called the all-powerful alcohol capital. It was never an assortment decision, then, but a founding principle, and it is still named in the same breath as the company's refusal to sell tobacco.

Only much later did that principle become an article in the statutes: "Since 1983 the ban has been anchored in the statutes of the regional Migros cooperatives (with the exception of Geneva)", the company writes. That is why the question ended up in front of the members at all. A statute is not changed in a boardroom, only by the cooperative members, and separately in each of the ten regional cooperatives.

The June 2022 member ballot: the result, cooperative by cooperative

In spring 2022 all ten Migros cooperatives voted on lifting the ban that had been in force since 1928. A two-thirds majority was required. Voting closed on 4 June 2022 and Migros published the results on 16 June 2022: more than 630'000 members took part, a turnout of 29 percent, and the two-thirds threshold was missed everywhere. The spread between regions is the interesting part.

Twenty-five percentage points separate Zurich from Ticino. The No did not follow a city-versus-countryside pattern but roughly the language border: every German-speaking cooperative came in above 74 percent, while French-speaking Switzerland and Ticino stayed below. Migros summed the ballot up like this: Migros remains Migros ("Migros bleibt Migros"), and said the members had recognised themselves in a traditional feature of the company. In any cooperative that had reached two thirds, alcohol could have entered the range from 2023. None got there.

Where the Migros group does sell alcohol: Denner, migrolino, Migros Online

The ban applies to the Migros shop sign, not to the group. To see where wine sits on a shelf inside the same house, look at the subsidiaries. Denner is present across Switzerland with "more than 800 branches and partner stores" per corporate.migros.ch; denner.ch itself gives around 872 sales outlets and a wine range of more than 300 listings. migrolino runs, per the same group page, "more than 370 shops under the migrolino and mio by migrolino brands".

That last row is the most practical point and the one least often made: a migrolino is not a guarantee. The chain itself states that the offer can vary from shop to shop and provides an alcohol-sales filter in its shopfinder, so it is worth checking before you walk over in the evening. On how a petrol-station or station shop compares with a supermarket on price, see our comparison of migrolino and Coop Pronto.

What Migros puts on the shelf instead: the NON range

Migros did not leave the gap empty, it turned it into a category. The own brand NON was created in 2022 around the ballot, and the members chose the name. On 18 March 2026 the company announced an expansion: the NON beer, by now the second best-selling beer in the Migros supermarket, gains the Mango and Grapefruit varieties (in the German original, "das zweitmeistverkaufte Bier im Migros Supermarkt"). Sales of the brand rose by 80 percent over the past year per the same release. Panaché and Elderflower move into 33 cl cans, and an alcohol-free NON sparkling wine in 25 cl cans was announced for the following weeks.

foodaktuell.ch reported the same facts independently on the same day: alcohol-free beer now ranks among the best-selling beers in the Migros supermarket, with sales up around 80 percent. For a shopper that means Migros has become a serious option for alcohol-free beer while selling no alcoholic drink at all. Which chain stocks which alcohol-free beer, and how the Swiss consumer tests rated them, is in our guide to alcohol-free beer in Switzerland.

Where do you buy alcohol in Switzerland, and when is it discounted?

Of the seven chains Rappn compares, Migros is the only one that carries no alcohol: what Coop, Denner, Aldi Suisse, Lidl Schweiz, Aligro and Otto's have on offer in beer and wine right now is quickest to see in the search. On timing, the usual Swiss weekly rhythm applies: Migros, Coop and Denner start their weekly Aktionen on Thursday, Coop since the week of 21 January 2025, Migros and Denner since 5 February 2026. Aldi Suisse and Lidl Schweiz run two rounds a week, Monday and Thursday. For wine that means the whole field moves on Thursday morning, with a second window at the discounters on Monday. Legal minimum ages and how the age check works at a self-checkout are covered in our guide to buying alcohol in Swiss supermarkets. For how deep the Denner cellar actually goes, see the Denner wine range.

Could this still change? It depends on the cooperatives

It depends, and not on a head office but on ten member bases. Because the ban sits in the statutes, every regional cooperative would need a two-thirds majority again. In 2022 a lot was missing even in Ticino, where the No was narrowest at 55.3 percent. Since then Migros has expanded its alcohol-free range rather than reopening the question. When you read that "Migros now sells alcohol", it almost always confuses the online shop with the store, or Denner with Migros.

For your shopping the consequence is simple: beer, wine and spirits are compared across six chains rather than seven, and their prices change weekly. That is exactly why this guide carries no price table. Rappn gathers all current offers from the seven chains, in four languages and across all 26 cantons, shows the unit price per litre next to the bottle or crate price, and is free even without an account. For the whole-basket picture, see the cheapest supermarket comparison.

Next step: open the current offers, search for "wine" or "beer" and filter to your canton. Then set a price alert on the bottle you buy anyway: Rappn tells you on Thursday instead of you leafing through five flyers. Rappn is free and is paid by no retailer.