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Please direct individual enquiries about the history of Migros to the Historical Company Archives of the Federation of Migros Cooperatives.
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Because Basel taxi operators feared that Migros would muddy the waters with cheap minicabs, they went on the offensive, forcing Gottlieb Duttweiler to renounce to his project by offering cheap taxi fares themselves.
Having stirred up the taxi industry in Zurich with discounted yellow minicabs, Gottlieb Duttweiler sought to bring his idea to Basel in 1951 by establishing the the «Basel Taxi Cooperative» and applying for twelve concessions. Startled, the local taxi operators reacted immediately: appearing before the Migros Basel directorate with fourteen bright purple Renaults, they stated that stating that these «Veyeletten» were mandated with under-cutting Migros taxi fares. Gottlieb Duttweiler is happy: he has achieved his goal of reducing fares. In an agreement with the taxi owners, he undertakes to refrain from owning taxis in Basel for a period of ten years, with the caveat that the opposing party operate twenty small taxis at low rates. The story naturally becomes a carnival motif, with a Schnitzelbank (a tradition of the Basel Carnival) featuring the following poem:
«You can’t fool around in a purple cab,
it’s simply too small – the walls will snap!
Dutti’s lowered fares for us even more,
but his belly won’t get him through the door.
Let’s honour him, he deserves more than scorn,
and squeeze him in with a shoehorn!»