Global brands inflating their prices on swiss versions of their websites
Global brands inflating their prices on swiss versions of their websites
Another reason why we need to buy locally
I've noticed the same thing with British versions of websites. Often the number is the same just with a different currency.
As long as I have to pay €7 for a bottle of water at Geneva Airport as a tourist despite me not earning a Swiss wage, I find it hard to feel sorry for a country that prides itself on its luxury.
When contacted, many of the brands said the price differences were justified. H&M cited differences in salaries (the products are produced and warehoused outside Switzerland), delivery costs (these were not included in the comparison), taxes (VAT is lower in Switzerland), sales costs (goods were bought online) and general costs and local external variables (blah blah blah).
What a joke! Add to that the Swiss customs where almost 100% of packages are intercepted and you have to pay a fee (VAT + administrative fee, something like that).
The same goes with books because of some law that does not put a maximum margin on books. French FNAC sells a book 25€, Swiss FNAC sells it 45€ (it is the same French multinational and the author gets the same low income in both cases).
I'm Swiss and I often joke by saying "I'm Swiss so I'm used to paying too much" but I never say it seriously. As a Swiss, just buy from Galaxus/Digitec/brack/etc or even better, second hand from Ricardo/Anibis for almost anything, second hand from your cantonal recuperation centre for clothes (ateapic.ch comes to mind for french-swiss, from Vaud, the service and quality is amazing. Why even bother buying new stuff from across the world?)
Somewhat positive note but sadly coming from an american megacorp, Twitch. A tiers 1 sub in France is like 5€ but the same tiers 1 sub in Switzerland is around 15chf. But at least the streamer gets its share (70%) on 15chf, not on 5€.