[1] Migros was founded in 1925 in Zurich as a private enterprise by Gottlieb Duttweiler, who had the idea of selling just six basic foodstuffs at low prices to householders who, in those days, did not have ready access to markets of any kind.

[2] At first he sold only coffee, rice, sugar, pasta, coconut oil and soap from five lorries that went from one village or hamlet to another.

[2] The strategy to cut the intermediate trade and their margins led to the broad resistance of his competitors who goaded the producers to boycott him.

As a reaction to this threat, Migros started creating its own line of goods beginning with meat, milk and chocolate.

Other ventures were restaurants in 1952, filling stations (Migrol) in 1954, language schools (Eurocentres) in 1956, the Migros Bank in 1957 and an insurance company in 1959.

In 1948, the economist Elsa Gasser convinced Duttweiler to introduce the self-service approach in Migros stores, paving the way for the development of Switzerland's most successful supermarket chain.

[6] In 2013, however, the company announced the sale to the REWE retail group of its four Migros-branded stores in Germany, the first of which had established in 1995 in Lörrach, near Basel.

[13] The company attracted controversy, however, when in 1977 it fired its most outspoken internal critic, Hans A. Pestalozzi, who was then working for the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute, a think tank whose goal was to investigate the shortcomings of capitalism in modern society.

A June 2022 vote was held and the sale of alcohol was rejected by each of the ten regional cooperatives by an overwhelming majority of their members.

Now it has grown to 330 products including mountain bikes, snowboards, mp3 players, milk chocolate, jeans, shoes and lighters.

M-Budget products have a standardized packaging color scheme, consisting of a grass green background with the Migros logo in small white text repeated over it.

To promote the range in the early 2000s Migros developed M-Budget Party tickets costing 9.90 CHF including free non-alcoholic drinks (cola, lemonade and orange juice) and snacks (crisps, chocolate and cakes).

[25] Smaller competitors include the Manor department-store chain, and more recently German hard discounter Aldi.

[26] In January 2007 Migros acquired 70 per cent Denner's shares, effectively merging the largest and third-largest food retail chains in Switzerland.