<\/p>\n Read more: Why the farm shop works so well in Switzerland
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To replicate his approach, Morand \u2013 who is also politically active with the Green Liberals \u2013 has joined forces with the association Economie R\u00e9gion Lausanne (ERL). Together with the City of Lausanne, they have formed a working group. The challenge is significant: persuading property managers to rent out empty commercial premises at reduced prices. \u201cERL guarantees the rent, and then we sublet the space to start-ups with a sound business plan and a strong chance of success,\u201d H\u00e9l\u00e8na Druey, ERL\u2019s general secretary, told Swiss public broadcaster, RTS.<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cIdeally, for a fashion retailer to succeed, rent should not exceed CHF300 per square metre. But we are talking about between CHF700 and CHF1,500 in central Lausanne. Persuading management companies to lower rents is not easy. Many agencies prefer to keep premises empty, but here we found one that understands the approach. It also realised that it shares our interest in keeping the city attractive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Contrasting vacancy rates and rents<\/p>\n
In 2025, W\u00fcest Partner, a Swiss property consultancy and analysis firm, published a study on retail space. The results show that after rising during the Covid years, the percentage of empty shop windows in Switzerland fell back to 3.4% in 2024, returning to pre-pandemic levels.<\/p>\n
Average rents are also falling. \u201cWe expect a decline of 1.5% in 2026,\u201d explains Corinne Dubois, economist at W\u00fcest Partner. However, she stresses the need to distinguish between peripheral locations and \u201cprime\u201d areas, where prices per square metre reached CHF11,300 in Zurich and CHF7,700 in Geneva in the first quarter of 2025.<\/p>\n
Sion launches a plan to revitalise local commerce<\/p>\n
Sion\u2019s rate of vacant shopfronts is in line with the national average. In autumn 2025, however, the town launched a plan to revitalise local commerce and appointed a city manager. \u201cA city manager is like the manager of all the shops in a shopping centre, but at city level,\u201d explains Silvia Esteves. Her role is to stay close to the ground, speak with retailers\u2019 associations and event organisers, and facilitate appropriate measures.<\/p>\n
One measure included in the \u201cC\u0153ur de ville\u201d project is dressing up empty shop windows. A striking example is a closed butcher\u2019s shop in the town centre: instead of a simple tarpaulin, an attractive visual has been created \u201cto make it more appealing and show what we are looking for \u2013 namely a new butcher\u201d, Esteves explains.<\/p>\n
In another initiative, the town commissioned a communications agency to help Sion retailers use social media to promote their businesses. \u201cI\u2019m not sure we can win against Shein or Temu. But the aim is to make ourselves known in the Sion area, raise the profile of retailers and give them the tools to have a shop window in the digital world,\u201d says trainer Marie-Christine Eggs.<\/p>\n
As digital shop windows increasingly compete with physical ones, various initiatives are being launched. Only time will tell whether they help preserve the appeal of Swiss town centres.<\/p>\n
Translated from French using AI\/amva\/ac<\/p>\n
How we translate with AI<\/p>\n
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Learn more\u00a0here\u00a0<\/a>about how we work with AI.\u00a0<\/p>\n Articles in this story <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The trend for refrigerated shop windows is gaining ground in town centres. An example from Lucerne Keystone \/…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[101,3931,1210,114,5395,334,3381,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-41436","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-switzerland","8":"tag-article","9":"tag-beat-best-of-srg-content","10":"tag-beat-swiss-abroad","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-dialogue","13":"tag-production-type-adaptation","14":"tag-society","15":"tag-switzerland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116317484861442407","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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