The Euro Effect

For some time now, the Swiss economy has been suffering from the crisis of the European currency, the euro. But what has the euro crisis effectively done for consumers ? How have the companies reacted ? Are there advantages for the bicycle consumers ?

by Rolf Fleckenstein

For months now, we have had to listen to and watch the worldwide debates in international and European politics about the "euro" problem. Practically not a day goes by at the moment when the bankruptcy of Greece, Italy, Spain or Portugal in an emergency scenario and the consequences for the common currency euro do not have to be discussed and dealt with, often even at the highest level of urgency, and all this accompanied by the media in front of the eyes of millions of people. Greece has already been on the verge of financial collapse umpteen times and could only be saved with the financial help of Europe. Starting with the American real estate crisis, which tore the global stock markets and the banking world to the depths in 2008-2009, through the global economic crisis that followed, to the euro crisis, which arose due to financially weak, over-indebted European states and has still not been overcome, the people and companies in Europe are led from crisis to crisis. It is clear that this massive economic change is not simply passing Switzerland by without leaving a trace. After the euro steadily weakened against the Swiss franc due to the European debt crisis and was worth almost only 1 franc in the summer of 2011, i.e. the same value, the Swiss central bank acted and set the euro exchange rate to a minimum limit of Fr. 1.20 in order to avert greater damage to the Swiss economy and to keep the existing one within limits.

The retail trade suffers
The consequences were also felt by retailers and importers. Importers had to pass on their currency gains from the summer to retailers and consumers - which quickly amounted to seven-figure sums - and retailers had to contend with sluggish business. In November 2011, the Association of Swiss Sports Retailers (ASMAS) almost desperately went public and launched the advertising campaign "hier-gekauft.ch" to appeal to consumers' sense of home. But in an age of globally networked markets, patriotism is not an effective recipe. You can't blame people if they can buy the same product a few kilometers away in a neighboring country for much less. In the wake of the euro crisis, these cross-border purchases have increased noticeably and the situation in the Swiss market has become increasingly aggravated.

Price reduction: The reaction of the Swiss market
Now the retail trade, together with importers and manufacturers, has begun to adjust prices to European conditions - actually the only effective means in the international price war with neighboring countries. This is not the case for all products, but it is certainly noticeable today when buying a car, and other markets have followed suit.

Market Bicycles: Prices aligned with Europe
Now, of course, we were interested to see what the situation would be with bicycles. For years, the walk over the Internet or abroad has been a topic among buyers of bicycles, which is used mainly for cost reasons. Now we wanted to know what happened to prices in 2012. And lo and behold, after extensive research (see table), we were able to determine that prices have largely been brought into line with European prices, especially for the better-known brands we looked at. Who would have thought that? And who among the customers actually knows this? Personally, I knew nothing about it, no one had told me about it, and we heard nothing about it in the media. And no advertising drum is being beaten for it either, although this would make sense....

 

You can find the whole article with price comparisons in the 01/2012 issue.
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