Developing the world by teaching domestic consumption

Swiss supermarkets and the emergence of development aid policies in the early postwar period
Publication date
2024-01-02
Document type
Forschungsartikel
Author
Organisational unit
DOI
URI
Publisher
Cambridge Univ. Press
Series or journal
Enterprise and society
ISSN
Periodical volume
26
Periodical issue
1
First page
24
Last page
56
Peer-reviewed
✅
Part of the university bibliography
✅
Language
English
Keyword
Switzerland
Turkey
Economic development
Consumption
Abstract
In the early post-Second World War period, Migros of Switzerland was the first European retail business to adopt the American supermarket model. Its success, however, has not only been a matter of technological and logistical innovation. Migros’ founder, Gottlieb Duttweiler, was convinced that consumer education was part and parcel of a new style of selling consumption. This conviction was at the basis of a strategy entering foreign markets and of exporting the Migros model abroad. Similar to post-World War II economic rehabilitation programs, Duttweiler pursued an indigenous modernization agenda, based on a new principle of “rational consumption”—he did not hesitate to label this as a genuine version of entrepreneurial development aid. Against the backdrop of the establishment of Migros’ activities in Turkey, this article discusses the participation of entrepreneurs in the international development policies after the Second World War. The history of Migros Türk sheds light not only on the entrepreneurial approach to modernization policy, which was often different to that adopted in government programs, but also on how this influenced critical consumerism inside and outside Switzerland over the long term.
Description
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original article is properly cited.
Cite as
Hartmann H. Developing The World By Teaching Domestic Consumption: Swiss Supermarkets And The Emergence Of Development Aid Policies In The Early Postwar Period. Enterprise & Society. 2025;26(1):24-56. doi:10.1017/eso.2023.50
Version
Published version
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