Public Holiday Grocery Shopping in Switzerland: The Complete 2026 Calendar

A Coop in Zurich can be closed on a day when a Coop in Geneva is open, and a Migros in Lausanne keeps hours that a Migros in Lugano does not. Switzerland has exactly one federally mandated public holiday, 1 August (Bundesfeier / Fête nationale / Festa nazionale), and every other holiday is set by the canton. So if you don't want to find a closed door, check two things: the calendar and your canton. Then there is the Thursday when the Aktion week changes: with a holiday in the way, the right day to shop moves too.

Note for readers in Ticino: Ticino has 15 official public holidays, 1 August included, which puts it among the cantons with the most. Under the Labour Act, though, only nine of them are equated with Sundays, as in most cantons, and Good Friday is a working day; on the other official holidays except 1 May, shops may open (details below).

Sources checked regularly. Holiday calendar based on the SECO list of holidays equated with Sundays (as of 12 December 2024) and on cantonal law (Lucerne, Valais, Ticino); station hours from SBB's 2026 holiday table for the ShopVille. Opening hours verified at Migros Bahnhofplatz Zürich and Coop store-finder. Current offers are in the Rappn app, updated daily.

Rappn is an independent grocery price comparison app in Switzerland, with no commercial agreements with any retailer.

How Swiss public holidays actually work

Under the federal Labour Act (ArG), public holidays count as Sundays for retail trading, so standard supermarket operations are prohibited. Federal law mandates only one day, 1 August. The other holidays, roughly 7-14 per canton, come from cantonal law, and each canton can also add half-day holidays, regional traditions and city-level observances. A few points to keep in mind:

• When a holiday applies in your canton, the regular stores of Migros, Coop, Aldi, Lidl, Denner, Aligro and Otto's are closed. Cantonal labour inspectors enforce this, and unauthorised opening risks five-figure fines.
• The canton sets the calendar, not the country. Easter Monday, for example, counts as a Sunday in 17 cantons and not in the other 9. Catholic cantons (Lucerne, Fribourg, Valais, Ticino, Schwyz) observe more religious holidays, while Protestant and bicantonal regions observe fewer.
• Cross-border workers add another layer. Over 340,000 cross-border workers, mostly in Geneva, Basel and Ticino, often work to a different holiday calendar than the country they live in.
• Sundays are closed too. The same five exception categories apply on Sundays all year round as on holidays. So Easter Sunday and Whit Sunday are ordinary Sundays, while Easter Monday and Whit Monday make a "double Sunday" only in the cantons where they count as a Sunday (17 and 15 cantons).
• A Saturday holiday stays on the Saturday. When 1 August or 26 December falls on a Saturday (as 1 August does in 2026), the holiday simply happens that day. Substitute days off are not legally required.

The 2026 public holiday calendar (with closure scope)

On the "high closure" days ordinary shops are shut almost nationwide: New Year's Day, Ascension, 1 August and Christmas Day in all 26 cantons, and Good Friday in 24 (not in Ticino or Valais). On the "watch the canton" days it depends on where you live: Easter Monday (17 cantons), Whit Monday (15), St. Stephen's Day (16), Berchtoldstag, Labour Day and all the holidays specific to Catholic cantons.

The third column follows the SECO list of holidays that cantons equate with Sundays under the Labour Act (as of 12 December 2024), the days on which ordinary shops are closed. A canton can add rest days or let shops open on some holidays: Lucerne lets shops open from 8:00 to 18:30 on 8 December (SRL 855), and Ticino lets shops open on five official holidays that are not equated with Sundays (cantonal shop law, art. 13), but not on 1 May. An asterisk marks holidays that apply only in some districts or communes (AG, FR, NE, SO).

Shops open on 1 August 2026: what stays open

1 August 2026 falls on a Saturday and is observed in all 26 cantons, so the regular supermarkets are closed nationwide that day. According to SECO it is the only federal holiday; all the others are set by the cantons. The five exception categories described below may open: SBB station shops (Zurich HB, Geneva Cornavin, Lausanne, Lucerne, Lugano), most convenience shops at petrol stations, the landside supermarkets at the airports, 24-hour self-service farm shops and shops in tourist zones. Stock up on Aktionen on the Thursday or Friday before.

The five places that may open on holidays

SBB station shops. Migros and Coop run station outlets at major train stations. Zürich HB ShopVille has over 190 shops, restaurants and services; SBB's centre-wide minimum opening hours are 09:00-21:00 Mon-Fri and 09:00-20:00 Sat-Sun, and the supermarkets trade longer than that minimum. SBB's own 2026 holiday table for ShopVille gives 09:00-20:00 on Easter Sunday, 09:00-18:00 on 24 and 31 December and on Christmas Day, and 10:00-20:00 on New Year's Day. Station outlets are also found at Bern HB, Geneva Cornavin, Basel SBB, Lausanne, Lucerne and Lugano. Station shops are open 365 days a year, often 06:00-22:00 on weekdays. They carry a smaller assortment than a full supermarket.

Coop Pronto and Migrolino. Convenience shops, most of them at petrol stations. Nearly all also open on Sundays and public holidays: in October 2026 the two chains' store finders listed Sunday hours for 313 of 330 and 370 of 381 shops respectively, and some shops close on certain holidays. The fresh selection is limited; both sell their parent chain's own brands at supermarket prices (company statements, 2026), while other items can cost more.

Airport shopping. Zürich Kloten, Geneva Airport and Basel-Mulhouse have full-assortment Migros and Coop branches in the publicly accessible (landside) areas. They are open every day of the year, typically 06:00-21:00.

Hofläden (24-hour farm shops). Many rural farm shops run unmanned 24-hour self-service systems. Look for "24h Selbstbedienung" or "Hofladen / Magasin à la ferme" signs. You will find eggs, dairy, vegetables and sometimes meat, paid for on the honour system.

Tourism-zone resort shops. Cantons can grant tourism-zone exemptions for ski resorts, lake resorts and tourist towns. Wengen, Zermatt, St. Moritz, Verbier, Saas-Fee and similar destinations typically have a Coop or Migros open on most holidays during peak season.

Cantonal holiday differences that change shopping plans

Ticino observes Catholic-canton holidays (Epiphany, St. Joseph's, Corpus Christi, Assumption, All Saints', Immaculate Conception) but skips Karfreitag as a high holiday. Valais is the only other canton without a Good Friday holiday, and in Ticino most Migros and Coop branches plus the Foxtown shopping centre stay open that day. On Ostersonntag and Ostermontag the regular stores are closed as normal, but shops under 400 m² in the tourist localities named by the canton may open, because Easter falls in the summer tourist season. Not every Ticino holiday closes the shops: St. Joseph's, Whit Monday, Corpus Christi, Saints Peter and Paul (29 June) and Immaculate Conception are official holidays that the SECO list does not equate with Sundays, so shops may open on them (cantonal shop law, art. 13), while on 1 May they stay closed.

Geneva observes the Jeûne Genevois on the Thursday following the first Sunday in September (10 September in 2026), which is unique to the canton. It is also the only canton where 31 December (Restoration of the Republic, "Restauration") is observed. Geneva does not observe Berchtoldstag or several Catholic-canton holidays.

Catholic vs Protestant cantons. Lucerne, Fribourg, Valais, Ticino, Schwyz, Uri, Nidwalden, Obwalden, Zug, Appenzell Innerrhoden and (variably) Aargau, Solothurn, Jura observe additional Catholic feast days. Protestant-majority cantons (Zurich, Bern, Basel-City, Basel-Land, Vaud, Neuchâtel, Schaffhausen, Glarus, Thurgau) observe fewer. If you move between cantons or work in a different one, this can catch you out.

Knowing what's open is half the planning. Knowing what's on Aktion is the other half.
Rappn shows current Aktion at all 7 Swiss retailers, updated daily and filtered to your canton, even when stores are closed for the holiday weekend ahead.

How public holidays interact with the Aktion calendar

Migros and Denner Aktionen have run Thursday to Wednesday since 5 February 2026, and Coop since January 2025. The discounters keep a different rhythm: Aldi Suisse runs two rounds a week, from Monday and from Thursday, while stocks last, and Lidl Schweiz also starts twice a week, on Thursday and on Monday. Each public holiday interacts with this calendar in its own way:

Holiday on a Friday (Good Friday, sometimes Labour Day). The new Aktion week starts the day before. Thursday morning is when the weekly Aktion stock is freshest, Friday is closed, and Saturday has the remaining Aktion stock plus the weekend Knaller. The smart play is one bulk shop on Thursday for the whole long weekend.

Holiday on a Monday (Easter Monday, Whit Monday). The Friday and Saturday before are normal Aktion days; Sunday is closed everywhere, and Monday where the canton counts the holiday as a Sunday (Easter Monday in 17 cantons, Whit Monday in 15). Elsewhere shops can usually open on Monday. The current Aktion week extends through Monday-Tuesday into Wednesday, so any leftover Aktion stock is still there on the Tuesday and Wednesday after the long weekend, often heavily discounted further to clear it.

Holiday on a Thursday (Ascension, Corpus Christi). This is the awkward one. The new Aktion week can still be dated from Thursday: Denner's own flyers ran Thursday 14 to Wednesday 20 May 2026 over Ascension and Thursday 4 to Wednesday 10 June 2026 over Corpus Christi. No chain publishes a holiday rule, so check the dates in that week's flyer. In practice, the Wednesday before is the last day of the old Aktion, and where the holiday closes the shops (Ascension everywhere, Corpus Christi only in some cantons), Friday is the first day you can actually buy at the new prices.

Holiday on a Saturday (1 August 2026, and 26 December 2026 in the cantons that observe it). In calendar terms Saturday is a normal Aktion day, but with the holiday closure that single day of Aktion is lost. Knaller windows (Thursday to Sunday) lose one of their four days.

Holiday on a Tuesday or Wednesday (Epiphany, Immaculate Conception). A mid-week closure splits the Aktion week, but stock gets restocked normally for the rest of the week.

A rhythm that works for most households around Swiss holidays: shop on the Tuesday or Wednesday before, again on the Saturday of the long weekend if needed, and treat the SBB station shop only as an emergency fallback.

Holiday-specific shopping tactics

1 August (Bundesfeier). This is the only federally mandated holiday, and in 2026 it falls on a Saturday. Ordinary supermarkets are closed everywhere; only the places listed above stay open. BBQ supplies, cervelat, beer and fireworks all go on heavy Aktion the Thursday-Friday before, and Knaller items typically run 30-50% off.

Christmas (24-26 December). On Heiligabend many stores close early. Christmas Day is closed nationwide, and St. Stephen's Day in most cantons. The Aktion calendar typically extends through 31 December with a lighter assortment, because suppliers are closed too.

Ascension long weekend. Auffahrts-Brücke is a 4-day weekend (Thursday-Sunday) for many companies. Thursday is closed, Friday and Saturday are normal, Sunday is closed. Friday is the day you actually shop, and the new Aktion has just started.

Whit Monday weekend. This is a 3-day weekend (Saturday-Monday) in the 15 cantons where Whit Monday counts as a Sunday (not, for example, Lucerne or Ticino). Sunday and Monday are closed there, so Saturday is the only shopping day.

Catholic-canton-only holidays. If you live in a Catholic canton with extra closed days and can drive 20-30 minutes to a Protestant canton, the Protestant-canton supermarkets are open. This works very well for Lucerne residents driving to the Aargau districts of Zofingen or Kulm.

What if you forget? The four station-shop fallbacks ranked

ShopVille at Zürich HB (over 190 shops; the 09:00-21:00 window is SBB's centre-wide weekday minimum, and holidays follow SBB's own table: Easter Sunday 09:00-20:00, 24 and 31 December and Christmas Day 09:00-18:00, New Year's Day 10:00-20:00). It is the most comprehensive emergency option in German-speaking Switzerland.

Geneva Cornavin and Lausanne stations. Both have a full Migros or Coop station branch, which makes them the most comprehensive option in Romandie.

Lugano station and other large stations (Bern, Basel, Lucerne, Winterthur, Zug, Olten). These are smaller than ShopVille but still Migros/Coop, and sufficient for an emergency.

Coop Pronto and Migrolino at petrol stations. Often pricier and with a smaller assortment, but found everywhere. Best for last-minute bread, milk, eggs and butter.

Anything that won't fit into 5 minutes at a station shop needs planning ahead.