“A vacuum cleaner pays off”

After Migros cooperative members had agreed to extend the range to include consumer goods, Migros entered the business of electrical household appliances in 1950 with its most successful product, the MigroMax vacuum cleaner, followed by its big brother, the SuperMax.

In the summer of 1950, under the headline «A valuable vacuum cleaner for every household», the Brückenbauer magazine introduced the MigroMax , an energy-efficient vacuum cleaner that offered «strong suction and maximum manageability». At 125 francs, it cost just half of a standard vacuum cleaner, but unlike the competition’s household appliances, it could not be paid for in instalments.
Migros suggested instead that customers put 3 francs aside per week, reminding them that a vacuum cleaner can save a «tremendous» number of work hours and therefore money – especially for the housewife, «who works part-time». The MigroMax flew off the shelf, confirming Migros’ reasoning: «The economic boom shows that a woman knows the value of her time much more accurately than she once did».
It had little to do with a 68-year-old fellow cooperative member’s view that «cleaning takes great effort». In a letter to Gottlieb Duttweiler, she wrote that «A decade-long dream has come true» as thanks to her affordable MigroMax «I can sit here now, with joy in my heart, knowing that everything has been easily cleaned».