page_title: Migros
section_title: Migros today
hierarchical_section_title: Migros / Migros today
caption_attribution_description: Description: MM-Migros im Metalli in Zug Source: photo taken by me, October 2004 Photographer: Baikonur
context_page_description: Migros is Switzerland's largest retail company, its largest supermarket chain and largest employer. It is also one of the forty largest retailers in the world. It is structured in the form of a cooperative federation, with more than two million members.
  It co-founded Turkey's largest retailer, Migros Türk, which became independent of Migros Switzerland in 1975.
  The name comes from the French "mi" for half or mid-way and "gros", which means wholesale. Thus the word connotes prices that are halfway between retail and wholesale. The logo of the company is a large orange M. Migros is often referred to as "der orange Riese", i.e. "the orange giant", an expression presumably borrowed from Germany, where Deutsche Telekom is often referred to as "der rosa Riese", i.e. "the pink giant"
context_section_description: To this day, Migros keeps the cooperative society as its form of organisation. Nowadays, a large part of the Swiss population are members of the Migros cooperative – around 2 million of Switzerland's total population of 7.2 million, thus making Migros a supermarket chain that is owned by its customers. More than 90% of the assortment of goods is produced by ninety subsidiaries of Migros.
  Reflecting the altruism of its founder, Migros operates a number of evening schools for working adults, featuring classes in cooking, languages and other subjects. It has obligated itself to spend one percent of its annual turnover for financing cultural projects in a broad sense; the sub-organisation taking care of this is called Migros Kulturprozent ("cultural percent"). In 2011, an amount of 117 million Swiss francs was paid to finance this purpose. An example of the Kulturprozent's activity is its own record label Musiques Suisses often featuring little-known works from Swiss music history.
  The supermarkets are categorized in the three size classes of M, MM and MMM. The firm's loyalty card is the M-cumulus card (a play on the word accumulate and a type of cloud formation).
  Migros acquired some notoriety in 1977 when it fired its severest internal critic, Hans A. Pestalozzi.
caption: The front of a Migros store in the Metalli shopping center Zug, Switzerland
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