Swiss get fired up over pan promotion
Swiss shoppers have gone stir crazy, thanks to a cooking pot promotion organised by the country’s second-largest supermarket chain, Coop.
More than three million pans have been bought at knockdown prices by customers across the country, who have to collect points to get a reduction.
To get one pan at a reduced price, the customer has to collect 30 points – with one point for each SFr10 ($8) he or she spends in Coop.
This piece of marketing genius – which has customers spending at least SFr300 to buy one pot – started last September and is due to draw to a close at the end of January.
The cooking pans are made by the Swiss company SIGG and shoppers can choose from a variety of designs and sizes.
Made in China
At first glance, customers could be forgiven for thinking that they are collecting towards a product made in Switzerland – not true. On closer inspection, one sees that, while the pans are made to Swiss standards, they are actually manufactured in China.
This fact has not dampened the average Coop customer’s enthusiasm.
“If the Chinese can send a man to the moon, then they can also produce a good pan,” said a customer in Solothurn.
Coop spokesman Jörg Birnstiel told swissinfo that up to four million pans were likely to have been bought by the time the promotion wrapped up.
“The promotion has gone better than expected,” he added.
In fact, it has done so well that demand has outstripped supply and some people may be left waiting until April to get their saucepans.
While the action has kept tills ringing in Coop branches across the country, Birnstiel is coy about revealing exactly how much the company has made.
“When you consider how many pots we have sold, then we have definitely made some money,” he said.
Saturation
What cannot be denied is that the Swiss market will be saturated now with SIGG saucepans, a phenomenon that leaves the manufacturer cold.
“We are not that enthusiastic about this promotion,” said Wolfgang Auwärter of Kuhn Rikon, which took over SIGG cookware in 1998.
Auwärter is not sure whether it will be possible to produce enough pots to meet demand.
“At the beginning, there was talk of a short-term promotion. We didn’t even have enough raw material to make the 100,000 pots.”
The promotion continues to fire up the Swiss. For those lacking the final few points, logging on to the internet auction website ebay could fill the gap – there, collectors can bid for cards with the 30 tokens, with a starting price of SFr1.
The saucepans may even feature in February’s carnival celebrations in Basel.
“We have customers who want to parade as saucepans through the city,” said Birnstiel.
swissinfo
Coop customers have collected enough points to buy over three million saucepans at a reduction.
To buy one reduced pan, 30 points have to be collected – for each SFr10 ($8) spent in Coop, the customer gets one point.
Demand has outstripped supply – some customers will have to wait until April to get their pans.
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