Lausanne Switzerland

There are grocery stores in European cities, just as there are in North American ones. In city centers, they tend to be smaller than the large suburban ones, but they will have everything you need. I have never been to Switzerland, but happen to have Rick Steves Switzerland out from the library. The main supermarket chains in the country are Co-op and Migros. Rick says there's a Migros in Ouchy, the lakeside district of Lausanne (Lausanne's other "center" is up the hill, away from the lake). It's right next to the Metro station. I'm sure there's others too - try Googling, for instance, "Co-op Lausanne" or "Migros Lausanne" and see what comes up. In Germany, there are many supermarket chains, at various price levels: Aldi, Lidl, Pennymarkt, Rewe, etc. Just ask at your hotel for the nearest one(s). Supermarket in French is supermarché (pronounced, roughly, sou-PARE mar-SHAY), and in German is supermarkt (pronounced, roughly, ZOO-per-MAHRKT).

Head over to http://maps.goolge.com in the search box simply type in "grocery stores near {name of the hotel you are staying in}" and you will get a complete listing.

Even if you don't need to go to a supermarket while on your trip, you should go visit one anyway if you're in the neighborhood and have a little extra time just to see all of the different brands and different foods we might not have here. You'll see a lot of the same brands, too, but it can be sort of a fun way to kill 15 minutes or so. Even going to the local equivalent of Walgreen's can be kind of fun. In the end, Aldi is Aldi both here and there I suppose, but somehow that cheap six pack of rotten beer and decent bag of pretzels from that tiny little Co-op store in Mürren brings back some happy memories of playing cards, drinking bad beer, and eating pretzels back at the guesthouse. The last note I'll make is that most people in Europe actually do shop in large supermarkets, just like we do here. Those tiny street markets are interesting, fun, and can have some really good eats, but most people don't really shop in places like Rue Cler for weekly groceries. And just like we might go to Wal-Mart or Target, they go to ASDA or wherever.

One more thing: In Germany and Switzerland, grocery stores in (or in the case of Dresden, next to) train stations are open longer hours than the other ones. Rick Steves Switzerland lists one in the Lausanne train station, Aperto, open 7 days a week from 6 AM to 10 PM midnight. If you need groceries and find that the ones near your hotel are closed, head to the train station. Of course, these stores may be more expensive in exchange for the longer hours.

"...but most people don't really shop in places like Rue Cler..." There are no less than four supermarkets in and around the infamous Rue Cler neighborhood. I'd say quite a number of locals do their shopping there. Those other specialty shops don't stay in business from the tourist trade. Two of the three largest Supermarket chains in the world are based in Europe: Careffour and Tesco.

Right...I meant the actual street Rue Cler, not the area around Rue Cler. Maybe we're saying the same thing...maybe not...that most people shop in supermarkets and don't actually go from shop to shop to shop every week like Rick does in his Paris video on Rue Cler. People might do that for a special occasion meal or for a certain item(s) they need each week and can only get in a specialty store, but they're not doing the bulk of their entire weekly shopping that way. I'd say they're at the supermarkets you mentioned (either right on Rue Cler or in the area). Edit: NY Michael: Right, and again, I think we're saying the same thing. I will only purchase fresh fish and meat from two specialty stores in Des Moines, however, the bulk of my weekly shopping is done at a supermarket. In this case, I am doing the same thing that you are suggesting the locals do around Rue Cler. That's a common thing everywhere. The point is that there is a common misperception among some first-time tourists that all Europeans actually do all of their shopping at specialty shops, skipping along on a street like Rue Cler...just like in the old days....shopping on the cobble stoned streets for weekly groceries. Why do they believe this? They've seen it on Rick's show, but it's not realistic.

One of the four supermarkets is right on Rue Cler, the rest are literally right around the corner. I'm saying the locals shop at both. How many tourists buy a quarter kilo of boneless chicken breast from that specialty butcher shop down the street? Both stay in business on trade from the locals not tourists.

The two big supermarket chains in Switzerland are Migros and Coop. Both of their online sites have maps with locations. Each Migros store has a designation from 1 to 4 M's. One M are smaller local stores that in most cases only have groceries. The 4 M's are analogous to a small shopping mall with just about everything you can imagine. They (as well as some of the 3 M's have cafeterias in them that serve cheap and very good food as well.

Thank you for the information on food stores in Lausanne and Germany
I just want to be sure there are some out there incase it is needed right away out of necessity. Thank you again