“Property of Migros”

The Migros yoghurt packaging has had a colourful history. The containers evolved steadily over their first thirty years: from the first jars that required customers to pay a deposit, through free jars labelled «Property of Migros», to automatically filled disposable tubs made of polystyrene.

In 1931, Migros AG installs the first filling plant for yoghurt. Previously, yoghurt has been a luxury product. Thanks to Migros, it now costs just 25 centimes per jar – plus 25 centimes deposit. The success is so great as to cause logistic problems. Migros advertises: “please bring yoghurt jars back immediately” - due to an “extreme lack of jars, we are not able to deliver enough yoghurt”.
Twenty-five years later, the Zurich and Schaffhausen Cooperatives do away with the deposit charge. This helps to further rationalise the distribution of the goods by eliminating the need to collect and return the deposits. It is, however, a large risk, as Migros has invested CHF100,000 francs in the jars. But luckily, “we here in Switzerland” have a “very well developed” concept of ownership, exactly like the “mutual trust within the Familie M”. The cooperatives, however, do not trust their customers completely: the jars are manufactured marked: property of Migros.
At the end of the year, Migros reports that the experiment has been “very positive” and is “pioneering similar measures in other sectors”. On the other hand, it is “very depressing when the rubbish collection department of the city of Zurich tell us that unbroken yoghurt jars can be found in the rubbish bins of certain people. One can imagine what the nice men collecting the rubbish think about such households...”
However, the days of the yoghurt jar are numbered. In 1958, the Aargau Cooperative is the first to change over to disposable pots. These are not cheap: 7.5 centimes each. The supplier, the Milk and Butter Central Suhr, does not have an automatic machine to put lids on the pots, so they have to be “lidded by hand”. This accounts for the expense. These teething troubles are soon overcome, and two years later the Migros yoghurt jar is already history.