Hullo Gogs,
Welcome to you from another Brit expat living in Suisse. Good 'ere innit?
I'm just outside Basel, so I'm on the other side of the "roestigraben" from you, German not French speaking, sorry.
Apart from Coop DIY, Migros Haus & Garten, and Jumbo you'll have to search around locally for suppliers I'm afraid. After some 20+ years here I do now have a very good tool supplier locally (Meier Handwerker Centrum in Liestal - also a big Festool dealer if your wallet is that deep) and a small local timber yard in Rheinfelden. But both of these are at least three hours drive from you, so hardly local!
I think you'll have to do the same as I did when I first got here and start off with the above DIY Emporia and when they haven't got something just ask - at least sometimes you'll get a helpful assistant there who knows the locality and can put you on to a more "professional" supplier. Note however that at least up this end of the country, such specialist dealers (catering mainly to tradesmen) only tend to be open Mon to Fri, about 07.30 to 17.00 (16.00 on Fridays) and are often closed for an hour or so over lunch.
But personally I find the above DIY places pretty good for mainstream tools and there are often special offers which compare well with UK prices, but I must admit that these places do vary quite a lot from branch to branch - for example the local Migros in Liestal is useless but another Migros Do-It about 30 mins drive away in Basel is much better. I also have 2 Coops nearby too, both of which are good. But one "strange" thing to remember about Switzerland is that there are quite wide differences between Kantons in all sorts of aspects (school holidays and taxes to name but two off the top of my head), and as both Migros and Coop are a form of Kanton-based "Genossenschaften" you'll find quite big differences in special offer prices and ranges of tools on offer between 2 branches of the "same" shop - i.e. although they may be quite close to each other geographically they're both "based" in different Kantons.
Another thing to look out for are big German DIY chains such as Obi (there are a couple of others whose names escape me for now) some of which have branches in Switzerland (I think Migros has a financial interest in Obi, at least in part of Switzerland) . For example in Basel (useless to you I know) there's a very big Obi with a good range of tools at good prices. Also look out for a German company called Wurth (with an umlaut over the U) who seem to have several branches in Switzerland and who cater very much for the tradesman and even have reps on the road calling on businesses - I've bought from them as a private individual quite OK - but the same opening hours caveat as above though.
And finally don't forget your local Aldi and Lidl. You'll often find notices posted on this Forum advising members that Aldi or Lidl in UK have a special offer on various tools items. It doesn't always work but sometimes I've found my local Aldi or Lidl have exactly the same item on offer, and funnily enough the UK£ price quoted on this Forum is often the same number in CHF - i.e. a saving of approx 25% compared to UK pricing.
But you're right, apart from buying ply and MDF in the DIY places, I have only bought "real timber" (the little I have needed to buy so far) from a local specialist timber yard (which took me about 5 years to get on to by the way!).
Finally don't forget it's easy for you to go over the border into France for your shopping (same as for me going into Germany) and as someone has already said, there are members here based in France who should at least be able to give you a steer as far as the big French chains are concerned.
And last of all, I too have bought from Axminster (excellent service - usual disclaimers)) and of course we have the advantage of not paying their UK 20% VAT. BUT there are a couple of points here - if your Axi package weighs more than 2 KGs then the UK Post Office won't accept it and it has to go by Courier (usually TNT). In the past with Axi parcels coming by post (before this daft rule) sometimes I've paid the Swiss 8% VAT plus Swiss import duty, sometimes not. It seemed to be just "the luck of the draw". But now bloody TNT makes a charge (additional to the Swiss VAT and import duty if applicable) for "handling" the packge through Customs, and they seem to do that whether they've actually put the package through Customs or not. This is not Axi's fault, just the bloody rip-off Couriers. But for example, on a recent order to Axi totalling UK£ 106 (which included £32 for carriage) I then got a bill from TNT for another CHF 29 odd for "handling" which did NOT include Swiss VAT and import duty - it wasn't charged! So you need to be careful with all the UK suppliers when it comes to these hidden charges. Sometimes you're better off doing mail order from Germany (if you can handle the language).
Thats about all I can say re buying in Switzerland. I hope it helps you a bit.
Any other Qs send me a PM by all means, I'll help if I can.
BTW I "faddle" with both wood and metal, neither of which I'm very good at, and I'm also rather a slow worker (partly because I am slow anyway and partly because I sometimes spend quite long periods away from home). I'm definitely NOT of the standard of so many of the members you see on here but my time here has been very pleasant and useful and the vast majority do seem to be very knowledgeable and very very helpful, so I hope you enjoy your time here as much as I have.
It's great to have another Swiss UKW Forum member.
Cheers
AES
