Meat-Free Market Chain Launches in Switzerland

Last week, one of Switzerland’s largest wholesale and retail companies Coop Cooperative opened the first location of vegetarian and vegan supermarket chain Karma. The new store is positioned in the high-traffic Zug train station, just south Zurich. Karma sells a wide-range of privately-labeled items—the largest in the country of its kind—including fresh produce, vegan items from German brands Naturalplan and (Europe’s first vegan supermarket) Veganz, and meat alternatives, under Coop’s brand Délicorn.The supermarket concept also features an in-house café, vegan cosmetics, weekly in-store recipe demonstrations, prepared food items including vegan hot dogs, and 40 bulk items such as quinoa, nuts, and muesli. Karma joins a growing number of global retailers offering exclusively vegetarian and vegan products including Hong Kong’s vegan shop Green Common, Portland’s two-location grocery Food Fight!, London’s newly opened market GreenBay, and the world’s largest vegan supermarket, The Cruelty Free Shop in Australia.