Swiss Supermarket Stamp Campaigns: How the Stamps Work and When They Pay Off

A Swiss stamp campaign, a Sammelaktion, is not a discount. It is a trade with a condition attached: the till gives you one stamp per fixed amount of spending, you stick it or book it onto a collection card, and a full card buys you an item, either free or against a top-up payment. The number that decides everything is therefore not the value of the reward but the spending a full card demands. In the Migros campaign Playmobil Mania, one set took 20 stamps at one stamp per CHF 20, so CHF 400 of shopping for a single set and CHF 2'000 for all five (20 Minuten, 14 August 2025).

Last updated: September 2026. Sources: Coop, its collection campaign page sammelspass.coop.ch, read on 6 September 2026; Migros, Story Mania, storymania.migros.ch, blocked to automated requests and therefore documented by 20 Minuten of 5 August 2026; 20 Minuten of 14 August 2025 for the stamp mechanics and the spending totals of the 2025 campaign; Nau.ch of 4 November 2023 for the criticism of comparison prices in a Coop Trophy campaign; Blick of 4 August 2025 for unredeemed loyalty points. This guide deliberately quotes no weekly prices: they change every Thursday.

Rappn is the only neutral grocery price comparison app in Switzerland, with no commercial agreements with any retailer.

Stamp campaign or loyalty programme: what is the difference?

They look alike and work differently. Cumulus points and Superpunkte run permanently, carry a fixed franc value and can be redeemed whenever you like. A stamp campaign is a campaign with a start and an end: the stamps count only for that one campaign, only for the matching card, and only up to a cut-off date. They are not a second currency you can keep for later.

Two things follow. First, the campaign runs alongside the loyalty programme, so one trip to the till usually earns you both. Second, the deadline creates pressure, and that pressure is part of the mechanism rather than a side effect. How the points side works is covered in our guide to Cumulus and Supercard points.

How many stamps do you get per franc spent?

Each campaign sets its own rate, and the figure sits in the terms of participation rather than on the poster. At Migros it was one stamp per CHF 20 of spending in two consecutive summers: in 2025 with Playmobil Mania (20 Minuten, 14 August 2025) and in 2026 with Story Mania, where a full card takes 15 stamps instead of the 20 of previous years (20 Minuten, 5 August 2026). For the current Coop campaign the campaign page states no rate at all: it sits in the conditions displayed in store and in the app.

The column that matters is the last one. One stamp per CHF 20 sounds harmless, and so does 15 stamps: only the product of the two numbers tells you what you are signing up for.

Paper stamps or digital collecting: two separate pots

Both big chains now offer either route. The Coop campaign page sammelspass.coop.ch shows collecting stamps and collecting digitally side by side. At Migros the digital route runs through the app: activate the collection card, scan your Cumulus card at the till, and the stamps are credited. Paper stamps are handed out at the till and at self-checkout on presentation of the receipt, and the collection booklet at the till is free (storymania.migros.ch).

The one question to settle before your first stamp: can paper and digital stamps be combined on the same card? The answer is in the terms of participation, and it decides whether you end up with one full card or two half-empty ones. If you carry several retailer cards, our guide to the Swiss loyalty card wallet shows how to keep them in one place.

The calculation: what a full card really costs

It runs to four lines, and only the third one hurts: what remains once you subtract the spending you would have done at that chain anyway is the detour, and the detour plus the top-up payment is the real price of the reward.

With the verified 2025 figures this gets concrete. Playmobil Mania ran from 12 August to 22 September 2025, a little over six weeks. A household already spending around CHF 400 at Migros in that window got a set genuinely for nothing. Wanting all five meant CHF 2'000 at a single chain, and two further sets were on sale at CHF 39.90 each (20 Minuten, 14 August 2025). What separates those two households is not discipline, it is the starting position.

The top-up payment: when the reward is cheap, and when only the price beside it looks low

Many campaigns hand the reward over against a full card plus an amount, next to which there is often a crossed-out comparison price set by the campaign organiser rather than by the market. That is where criticism has landed: Nau.ch reported on 4 November 2023 that a Coop Trophy campaign offered a Bosch Atino line laser at CHF 39.95 instead of CHF 59.95, advertised as 33 percent off, while the same device cost CHF 47 at the online retailer Galaxus, leaving roughly 15 percent measured against the market price. Coop replied that the sets contained different components, among them a wheel adapter and batteries. According to the report, consumer advocates find such campaigns hard to judge because there is no fixed comparison price.

The conclusion is not a verdict but a habit: before you fill the card, check today's price of the same item somewhere else, not the price printed next to it in the flyer. How to read crossed-out prices in general is covered in our guide to spotting fake discounts.

Collection cut-off and redemption deadline: two dates, not one

Almost every campaign has two dates. The first is the day the till stops handing out stamps. The second is the day a full card can still be redeemed, and it falls later. For both campaigns now running, the redemption deadline sits in the terms of participation, not on the poster.

Collected value sitting unused is not a fringe case. Blick reported on 4 August 2025 that Coop had CHF 160 million of unredeemed Superpunkte outstanding at the end of 2024, after CHF 247 million in 2009. Migros gave no figure for Cumulus points, citing confidentiality, and Manor put its redemption rate at 95 percent. A lot gets collected, less gets redeemed.

Which stamp campaigns are running in September 2026

Two, and both end this month. Since 13 August 2026 Coop has been running its collection campaign with six rewards to choose from: a llama plush of about 25 cm, three pairs of children's socks in sizes 31 to 36, a 500 ml drinking bottle, a blanket of 120 by 180 cm, a music box with a USB-C cable, and a set of two storage containers with lids. The campaign ends on 30 September 2026, and a competition for Hello Family club members runs alongside it (sammelspass.coop.ch, read on 6 September 2026).

Migros has been running Story Mania from 6 August to 16 September 2026: 15 stamps buy one of six Mimigs audio stories from Tonies (20 Minuten, 5 August 2026). Because the two campaigns overlap, they compete for the same weekly basket, and that is exactly where the cost of collecting is decided.

Is a stamp campaign worth it? It depends

It depends on where you shop anyway. If your normal weekly basket at that chain already covers the spending required within the campaign window, the reward is a gift and the calculation ends there. If you have to move shopping you would otherwise have done elsewhere, you pay for the reward with the price gap between the two chains, and you only see that gap if you look at it. Deals change every Thursday, Rappn shows the current ones.

Rappn compares the running offers of seven chains, namely Migros, Coop, Aldi Suisse, Lidl Schweiz, Denner, Aligro and Otto's, in four languages and across all 26 cantons, with no account and no commercial agreement with any retailer. The receipt scan also shows how much you spend each month and at which chain: the one number that fills line 2 of the calculation honestly. How coupons and vouchers work alongside all this is covered in our guide to Swiss supermarket coupons and vouchers.

Next step: work out your spending required first, then check what the same weekly basket costs at the other chains. Open the current offers and filter to your canton. Rappn is free and is paid by no retailer.