What does the same grocery basket cost at different Swiss supermarkets?

The same shopping list does not cost the same in every Swiss supermarket, but how big the gap is depends mostly on how the test was done. In the dated basket tests of 2024 and 2025, the highest total was 8.6% to 23% above the lowest: in K-Tipp’s August 2025 test of 100 everyday items the totals ran from CHF 230.94 to CHF 250.70. This page brings together the tests of the Swiss consumer magazines K-Tipp and Bon à Savoir, the French-language broadcaster RTS and the comparison site bonus.ch, each of which priced one list of products at several Swiss supermarkets; what a household spends on average each week is in the guide to weekly grocery costs in Switzerland.

Updated October 2026. Sources: K-Tipp 14/2025 (28 August 2025), K-Tipp 7/2024 (9 April 2024) with its correction in 8/2024 (24 April 2024), K-Tipp 1/2021 (12 January 2021); Blick (14 April 2024); RTS “A bon entendeur” (16 April 2024); Bon à Savoir 03-2025 (12 March 2025); bonus.ch (4 September 2024 and 3 September 2025); Federal Statistical Office (FSO), Swiss consumer price index for September 2026 (press release of 1 October 2026) (viewed on 9 October 2026).

What does the same basket cost at different Swiss supermarkets?

Our calculation: gap = (highest total − lowest total) ÷ lowest total, so 10.80 ÷ 108.50 = 9.95%, about 10%, and 19.62 ÷ 162.05 = 12.1%. Compare the gap in percent, not the francs: the baskets hold 30, 40 or 100 products and differ from test to test, so totals from different tests do not belong in one line. Each test is also a snapshot: in September 2026, food and non-alcoholic drinks cost 1.0% less than a year earlier on the FSO consumer price index, so the 2024 and 2025 totals show the prices of that time, not today’s.

Why do grocery basket tests come to different results?

Because they do not measure the same thing. A basket comparison is a test that prices one fixed list of products at several supermarkets in the same period, with a stated rule for which product counts for each item. Change any of these and the gap changes:

• How many products, and which. 30 basic foods (RTS) give a different picture from 100 everyday items ranging from potatoes to soap (K-Tipp 2025).
• Which product counts. Basket tests take the cheapest product in each store, so they measure budget lines and own brands; a comparison of identical branded items measures something else (see below).
• Shelf or online. Bon à Savoir ordered online, with delivery in the final bill, and compared the online shops of three chains: two big supermarkets and one discounter.
• One day, one branch. If a low-price product is missing, the test takes the next one. According to RTS, the store with the highest total had no minced-beef patties from its lowest price tier that day, so a pricier option went into the basket; the retailer told RTS that it does stock them and that the testers may not have found the right item. Without that store, the other four totals lay within about 8 francs of each other, from CHF 162.05 to CHF 170.37 (RTS, 17 April 2024).
• With or without promotions. Bon à Savoir and bonus.ch left promotions out; a basket bought in a promotion week can give a different result.

Do branded products cost the same everywhere?

Mostly, but not always. On 12 August 2025 bonus.ch priced 20 branded products online at four chains, two big supermarkets and two discounters, leaving promotions out: for 19 of them the largest difference was one centime or nothing, and the only visible gap was CHF 0.30, or 4.5%, on a pack of sparkling mineral water (published on 3 September 2025). The 2024 edition of the same comparison found 17 of 20 products within one centime and one roll-on deodorant 23.8% apart (bonus.ch, 4 September 2024). In K-Tipp’s January 2021 comparison, 20 of 30 branded items cost the same at five big retailers; the largest gap was about 12%, on a hand cream (K-Tipp 1/2021).

So the difference between supermarkets lies more in own brands and budget lines than in the well-known brands, although a single branded item can still differ clearly. K-Tipp’s August 2025 report also notes that the two biggest Swiss supermarkets brought the prices of their budget lines into line with those of the discounters. When it makes sense to switch from a brand to an own brand is covered in the own-brand versus brand comparison.

What does a basket comparison not tell you?

It does not tell you what you spend. A test prices a fixed list on one day; your spending depends on how many people eat, what you buy and how often you shop. What households really spend is measured by the household budget survey of the Federal Statistical Office (FSO), and the weekly grocery cost guide converts it into weekly figures. Your local branch is not necessarily in the test either: a test visits a few stores on one day, not every branch.

If you want to see what two of these tests, K-Tipp (August 2025) and RTS (April 2024), showed for each chain, the overview of Swiss supermarkets compared goes through them chain by chain.

How do you compare the price of your own basket?

With the same rule as the tests, applied to your own list. Five steps are enough:

1. Write the list with quantities and sizes (1 kg of flour, 6 eggs, 1 litre of milk): without the pack size, two prices cannot be compared.
2. Pick the rule and keep it: the same branded product everywhere, or the cheapest comparable product in each store.
3. Compare the price per kilo or litre, not the pack price; the guide to unit prices per kilo and litre explains how to read it.
4. Collect all prices in the same week and note promotions separately, as they usually change every week.
5. Add up and compare the gap in percent, as the tests do: a few francs of difference weigh little on a large basket.

To put a price on your list before you leave, with three methods and a five-step calculation, see the guide to a grocery list with prices.

How to do it now with Rappn

Your first step today: write your usual list in the app, with quantities, before your next shop. Rappn is a free Swiss app (iOS and Android) that compares the current promotions of seven Swiss retailers and turns receipts into a spending overview. In the list it shows an estimated price and, for each item, products with prices by store; a filter keeps only those on offer. Prices are indicative; for a whole basket the dated tests above remain the reference. The promotions are updated daily as the chains publish them and can be filtered by canton (Swiss state), and for a product you follow you get an alert when it goes on offer (this week’s offers).