Sweden's New Circulation Coins

And all new coins are now being dispensed at my local supermarket. Looks like I'm up for a treat when I'm going shopping next couple times

I now have a basic amount but I'm waiting to get more

LIDL and Aldi are two different discount supermarket chains. They are bitter rivals here in Germany.
https://aldi.de/

http://www.lidl.de/
http://www.lidl.se/sv/index.htm


Interesting theory about the dispersal of the new coins.
Keep the updates coming!

Next time I'm in Sweden I'll just take out some cash and try to do some shopping around to get some coins from circulation. I might do a trip of 'Harry shopping' soon.

Driving all the way from Norway to Stockholm for grocery shopping is a bit much...

At the border there is a bunch of other supermarkets, like MaxiMat and Eurocash and I do believe they have been started especially to cater the Norwegian invasion. The nearest ICA would be another half an hour drive. We also have ICA here in Norway, but it's the most expensive of the already ridiculously expensive supermarkets in this country: it's the kind of shop where you go if you want to go bankrupt deliberately. And it's really no use: Norway has a monopoly or duopoly on almost all products, so it doesn't matter where you buy something. Not sure if it's different in Sweden with ICA.

I'll see what Nordbysenter and Svinesund have to offer.

Of course, no worries.

As you know, Norway is not part of the EU. One of the reasons is that Norway wants to overly protect its internal market, especially their own produce. This is why most products are either banned from being imported (to protect Norwegian farmers), like eggs and cheese, imported in tiny quantities (if production in Norway is insufficient) or only imported at the cost of huge import taxes and fees (for example: alcohol and so). The Norwegian government has a huge grip on the market and the regulation. Even worse, most things are regulated by monopolies or duopolies. There has been just one producer of dairy products for decades and now it finally got a bit of competition. A result of having monopolies and duopolies is that quality is often appalling and the price you have to pay for it is huge. Add to that the even supermarket employees are paid relatively huge salaries compared to similar jobs in other countries, and you end up paying 2.5 euro / $3 for a half a liter bottle (17 OZ) of Coca Cola, for example, or 50 euro per kilogram ($60 for 35OZ) for bad quality steak. Takeaway food is even worse. A medium Big Mac menu costs about 12 euro now that the kroner dropped (it was 15 euro about 2 years ago), or about $13.5. Preparing a hot meal here costs me about 10 euro per person per day and then I have nothing special: pasta or chicken with rice or so.

Anyway, Norway is a long and thin country with a huge border with Sweden. Sweden is part of the EU and has opened its market for all those 'dangerous' foods which Norway is banning. So most Norwegians live relatively close to the border: I do live just over 1,5 hours of driving away from Svinesund, where the E6 highway crosses the border. A lot of Norwegians take advantage of this and do grocery shopping just across the border. The amount of Norwegians doing so is so big that dedicated shopping centers have been opened over the years at the busiest border crossings. The biggest ones can be found at this E6 crossing near Nordby / Svinesund. And a lot of shops, like the aforementioned Eurocash and MaxiMat, only have outlets in those shopping centers.

Usually, prices are significantly lower than what we pay in Norway, especially when it comes to non-food. To given an example: I can get a 4 liter bottle of laundry detergent for the same price as I get 1,5 liter in Norway, when talking about the same brand. also because 4 liter bottles aren't available in Norway, by the way. For food products, we can get a lot more stuff at better quality and better prices, even though we know that the prices in those outlets just over the border aren't the cheapest around compared to the rest of Sweden. We can get a kilo tasty Irish Angus minced meat for the same price as 500 gram of bad quality Norwegian minced meat of unknown source, for example. Of course, there are limits to quantities one may import and there are quite regular border controls upon re-entering Norway.

Once a Norwegian minister tried to defend the Norwegian market and tried to sell Norwegian products as superior and safer compared to all the 'weird' stuff people get out of Sweden. This minister called the people who did this 'Harry'. Harry is a Norwegian word for 'strange' or 'weird' in a usually not so positive sense. However, it was instantly turned into the popular expression 'Harry shopping' and everyone here does it.




This requires a bit of understanding about Norwegian culture. In Norway, it is sort of 'not done' to talk about money or to show any wealth. Wealth is distributed quite equally, too. You start with a relatively high salary compared to similar jobs in other countries and you end with a relatively low salary compared to similar jobs in other countries. People here are used to high prices for basic items as food and Norwegians are too lazy nowadays to stand up against it and demand action. Harry shopping isn't something we do every week, and is still regarded as something extra. As at least 90% of all the products in all supermarkets are equal, no matter which brand you choose, the more expensive supermarkets have to find a way to distinguish themselves. Usually, the only difference is how food is being presented: the cheaper ones like REMA and KIWI usually just present you with boxes right out of the factory, where expensive ones like ICA have it stacked in a more attractive way. Usually ICA and the likes also have a salad bar and a ready-made hot food counter, something the cheaper ones lack. So, what's the difference? ICA and the like managed to sell that they have 'better quality' than the others. And a lot of Norwegians are buying it. I have one colleague who really only buys at ICA because he believes he only tolerates the best of the best. As if you get better Coca Cola at those supermarkets...

Now, for the idea, we actually had LIDL here for a short while and they really tried to make a difference with their assortment and distribution principles. They had, for example, direct contracts with farmers instead of going via the monopoly. And their prices were much lower. But Norwegians ignored them because they weren't Norwegian enough and other companies warned against them. And with those cheap prices and unknown foreign products, it could only be dangerous, right? So at the end of the day, only immigrants ended up shopping there, which gave them a bad reputation as 'foreigner market', so they left again. Sometimes I really want to take the average Ole Hansen and bang his head on a wall to wake him up...




I have lived many years in The Netherlands and this exactly what's happening there. I could easily buy a week's worth of groceries for the price of two days in Norway and end up with lots of fresh and surprising food from all over Europe. Even the trend of ecological and 'environmentally friendly' food settled in there. We also had Aldi and Lidl there. Lidl is considered a decent and cheap store, but lacking a lot of the typical Dutch stuff, where Aldi (not sure if Sud or Nord) has a bit of a shabby reputation. We had a few 'price wars' between the big ''normal'' chains like Albert Heijn, Dirk, C1000 and Jumbo in the last decades.

I should add, for consistency, that Norwegians tend to be scared by foreign foods, but that Swedish food is generally considered safe, but not as safe as Norwegian food. What propaganda can do, it's amazing. Every time I do a trip of harry-shopping, my mother in law warns me only to buy Swedish minced meat and not the scary Irish stuff, as it is dangerous. Strange enough, she enjoys dining out at small local eateries in the Mediterranean when she's on vacation, though... Neither does she advise me to bring seven packed dinners and lunches with me when I go on a work trip somewhere on this world, though... apparently I am allowed to eat local stuff when abroad.
Also, with 'cheaper' ones I actually should say 'less expensive ones'.

Usually when I get to a country with new coins (new to me) and I happen to harvest a pile and decide to spend some, I usually sort out the 'ugly' ones first and spend them first, while taking good care of my best finds.

Just talked to my wife, we might go for a tour in a week or two. Looking forward to seeing the results!

Apart from salmon, Norway doesn't export much food. No one wants it.