“Migros equals misery”

Gottlieb Duttweiler would have preferred to conquer Canton Valais in a surprise attack with a couple of Migros sales vans. But he had been strongly forewarned about the temperament of the people of Valais, so he followed proper procedures and opened the first Migros shop in Sitten in 1951.

Gottlieb Duttweiler wrote a «highly confidential» exposé on how to expand into Valais in 1951. Always the old strategist, he proposed to send a few Migros vehicles into Valais «by surprise». The director of Migros Lausanne strongly discouraged this plan: «Valais, its people and its authorities are headstrong and their reaction could be fiercer because of their temperament, perhaps even more violent than would happen elsewhere if Migros and its representatives do not display tact and diplomacy in proceeding.» Duttweiler grudgingly accepted that the first thing should be to open a branch following proper procedures.
The somewhat hot-tempered «Valaisan character» was demonstrated in 1968: Farmwomen occupied the Migros shop in Martigny to protest against Migros’ low price for apricots while their angry men blocked Kantonstrasse with tractors. According to the police, the scene proceeded in a «dignified and disciplined» manner, and as the Blick reported the following day: «The torrential rain diluted the bottles of Fendant and cooled any potential hotheadedness».

Für französische übersetzung:

„Le Valais, sa population et ses autorité sont encore plus particularistes, et leurs réactions pourraient du fait de leur tempérament être encore plus vigoureuses, voire même violentes, qu’ailleurs, pour autant que Migros et ses représentants n’agiraient pas avec toute la psychologie et la diplomatie qui se justifient.“