What is the role of a fruit buyer at Migros?

Whenever Michelle Schmid visits a market on holiday, she always haggles. But she didn’t used to. She has learned how to negotiate on price in her job: the 29-year-old works at Migros as a fruit and vegetable buyer. While the price of pans, pasta and yoghurt can sometimes remain the same for months, fruit and vegetable prices are constantly fluctuating. Sometimes she has to contend with events like severe flooding in Valencia engulfing an orange warehouse or a new disease afflicting tomatoes in Sicily. Every week is different for Michelle Schmid.

Her portfolio covers all citrus fruits, imported tomatoes, carrots and onions. These products come from around 60 different suppliers in total. Citrus fruit and tomatoes mainly come from Italy and Spain, while carrots and onions are sourced in Switzerland. After assessing the market situation on Monday, she gets down to business on Tuesday and Wednesday – each supplier quotes a price for their goods. Schmid then compares prices and works out what price she is willing and able to pay this week. Ultimately, the goal is to secure the best price possible for Migros customers. So she calls her suppliers and negotiates until a price is agreed for each item at which Migros will buy the product. That has to be done by 11 a.m. on Wednesdays at the latest. Schmid negotiates in English, French, German or Italian – depending on where her suppliers come from. “Negotiating the price is expected in some cultures. If I simply accepted the first price quoted, these suppliers would be disappointed!” Schmid really enjoys dealing directly with people from different cultures in her job. That’s partly why she opted to study international management.

Relationship management in Sicily

The vast majority of producers have been supplying Migros for many years. “This kind of longstanding collaboration undoubtedly strengthens our relationship and makes agreeing on a price easier,” says Schmid. However, it takes more than phone calls to successfully maintain relationships: Schmid visits a number of suppliers every year, as she did this January in Sicily. “We sometimes cover other issues as well as price,” she explains. For example, she discusses trends: are suppliers trying out new farming methods or growing a new variety of crop? Schmid can only reveal so much: “Hybrid varieties, such as a cross between oranges and mandarins, will be with us for a long time to come.”

As citrus trees take several years to bear fruit, Schmid must look well ahead into the future – everyone benefits from long-term relationships in this respect too. Suppliers know their innovations are welcome and Migros has time to adjust its range.

Schmid learns something new on every trip. She also realises that she can’t do her job solely from behind her desk in Zurich. It is a well-known fact that the reddish flesh of blood oranges is due to temperature differences between day and night, which exceed 10°C over a prolonged period. However, it was only during a visit to Sicily that she discovered why the skin of Sicilian blood oranges also turns a slightly reddish colour too: “A supplier told me that it’s because of Mount Etna.” This phenomenon is due to the cold winds blowing from the volcano. They produce an increase in the temperature differences, causing the side of the orange facing the volcano to also turn a slightly redder shade on the outside.

Michelle Schmid enjoys eating oranges outside of the office too. At home, she stores them in a cool, dry place and prefers to eat them naturally. She never gets fed up of them – in fact quite the opposite. "I didn’t used to eat that much citrus fruit. But I’m completely different now.” Something else has changed when Michelle Schmid goes on holiday: it takes her forever to shop at the supermarket. She inspects all "her" fruit very closely in other stores too.