Migros

Yeah, that is a really good tip.

We went to Coop, Migros, and Aldi's.

All of them are grocery stores.

All of them were very affordable.

So the call to action is basically to think about what these things actually do to our days and to our lives and to really, you know, turn away from them if they're not going to provide you with the time and energy that you really want to have.

It is delightful to say that I was recently in Switzerland and I know that one of the main chains, I think is it Migros, has gone to a lot more self-checkout.

And you can palpably feel the change in atmosphere in the supermarket as obviously the Swiss for a very long time have decided that actually they like people to deal with.

Yes, exactly.

But it's taken time to evolve and various beta processes to get the technology right.

When they first launched it in Switzerland, in Migros, and it launched in Germany, there was a few teething problems, as you get with any new tech.

Nespresso had the same problems when they launched getting it right.

Of course, that causes automatic negativity and people want to jump on the fact that, or it doesn't work or something's wrong with it.

Welcome back to another episode of the Allocators Playbook.

My guest today is Stefan Bereter, the Chief Investment Officer of Migros Pension Plan, Switzerland's largest retail sector pension fund, managing close to 30 billion Swiss franc on behalf of Migros employees.

Stefan took over the CIO seat in 2022 after leading fixed income at the fund.

And under his watch, MPK has been known for something unusual in the pension world, managing roughly 90% of its assets in-house and using that internal flexibility to make contrarian bets other funds won't touch.

Uh, but, but the interesting piece there is Aldi just, uh, made the move to Switzerland, yeah.

So when I joined them, they had five stores, and it was really this entrepreneurial spirit about conquering the Swiss market because there's this duopoly in Switzerland between Coop and, and, and Migros.

Uh, and, you know, l- uh, very little competition and a, a really fantastic opportunity to be part of that team that conquered Switzerland.

And, uh, when I joined, they had five stores.

Absolutely, and I, I think you have that in Zurich as well.

You still have Globus and, and, and even, you know, it's not the great example, but, um, the great massive Migros department store or kind of an, a coming together of different Migros-affiliated stores, uh, by Löwenstrasse.

They do have a restaurant on, on, on the last floor, uh, and it is a way to kind of feel the hustle and bustle of the city.

Uh, but I, I, I think Globus also has changed their strategy a little bit into the store in a store, um, style in recent years.