Free Day!

Migros invented «Free Day» in 1959 to encourage customers to shop during the week and ease the squeeze on weekends. Customers who presented a receipt from the day with the lowest turnover of the previous month received money back on their purchases.

In the second half of the 1950s, the busy Migros branches face a particular problem: although the turnover during the week is average, the shops are bursting at the seams on the peak days of Friday and Saturday. There is barely enough room for shoppers to move, the queues are long, the goods logistics are complicated and Migros has to employ extra staff on these days in order to cope.
This is why in 1959, the Migros Cooperatives Zurich, Winterthur and Ticino introduce the ‘Free Day’. The goal of this campaign is to transfer part of the turnover from Friday and Saturday to other days of the week, and thus save on costs and wages. Each month, the day with the lowest turnover is identified and published. Customers who present a checkout receipt for this date receive money back on their purchases – up to a maximum of CHF10, and later CHF15.
The results are astounding: after six months, 10 percent of the turnover has shifted from Friday and Saturday to the rest of the week. To achieve this result, Migros has had to pay back CHF5.2 million to customers. Many cooperative members ask whether the outlays exceed the savings. They are told: “Since the campaign is restricted to the cooperative members, the money paid out remains within the ‹Familie M›. The payments are therefore, in the view of the Cooperative, not ‘expenses’ in the real sense of the word, but rather donations to the members.”
Despite this, the Free Day is stopped after five years as it is not certain whether it is profitable for Migros. In its place, the ‘red dot’ campaign is announced as a “real Migros pioneer service”. A red dot in advertisements and branches draws customers’ attention to “lowest price offers” that apply only in the first half of the week.