This is the thing that sucks the most about Norway. A trip to the store is just depressing af
yeah definitely 😂😂😂
Aldri si aldi, unfortunately.
Well we have Spar and Coop!
Afaik, and I could be mistaken, but it’s less of an allergy and more that Rema and Meny have an effective duopoly, pushing anyone else out of the market
We have three players who basically have a monopoly. Selection and prices suffer.
Protectionism
please give us Aldi and Carrefour
A Swedish guy told me the reason for this. According to him Norwegians need smaller shops with smaller selection close to their homes because they have smaller than average brains and might be confused with a bigger selection of goods. I don’t know if its a joke or true!
One of the things that took the longest to get used to here when I moved in 1998 was the lack of diversity in supermarkets – even different ones have the same product selection more or less. Lidl tried to get market share and failed iirc and I think there was a Swedish chain that failed too – I forget, so I could be mistaken.
Having said that, the selection in shops is way better now than it was 25 years ago.
Edit: as someone with coeliac disease, one of the positives in Norway has always been the selection of gluten free products here and the support in restaurants. The first pizza I ever had was a Peppes gluten free New Orleans pizza back in 1992. In my opinion, the best Peppes pizza ever made. It was discontinued for a while and then brought back before disappearing again for good. :/
Sweden and Finland aswell (except for lidl)
And that is why our food is super overpriced.
we used to have Lidl in Norway, maybe 15 years ago, and at that time it just wasn’t interesting at all. they struggled, customers frowned at the wares they were selling, it all looked too cheap and unfamiliar.
if Lidl had come back now, I think they would thrive because every grocery store here now is super expensive.
We have extremely high barrier to entry as well as tarrifs. Your shitty selection grocery store with exuberant prices is WILLED POLICY DECISION.
As an American immigrant in Norway, I assumed that most northern European countries would have similar prices at the store. Then I went to Amsterdam lol. Why are even bananas twice as expensive, and lower quality, when neighboring countries don’t have that issue? The local grocery stores in my area seriously struggle to have a decent stock of fresh fruits and vegetables, and usually have a lot of it already going bad on the shelf. Don’t get me started on the price and selection of meat >_<
Lidel tried out, but didn’t last long. Its not easy going up again the 3 big food “oligarchs” in this country!
When Lidl started in Norway, their locations were awful. At least around where I live. AFAIK one of the big issues with the Norwegian super market chains is they’ve built out so many locations just to monopolise them, leaving no decent locations available to foreign chains.
Lidl only entered Finland a few years ago as well. We basically had two monopolies (S-group and K-group) primarily
Lidl tried..
NorgesGruppen mafia er ikke til å spøke med
Aldi is no longer in Denmark!
metro is not a supermarket chain
Damn I’ve never seen maxima or metro in Poland.
Also Tesco ran away for some reason so you won’t find it anymore
Carrefour and Tesco might have a shot, if they do it right, that is they get enough deals with familiar brands, while bringing something new to the table, either in the premium segment or super budget segment. The Germans tried it without any familiar brands, and that really didn’t work.
I’ll happily harp on Norwegian supermarkets and protectionism all day. But to be fair, even according to this post, there’s only one of those brands established in any of the Nordic countries at all.
Edit: oh wait, Denmark had two.
Surprised that Salling Group doesn’t have any stores in Norway.
Also to sports retailers that are not overpriced (where’s my Decathlon, please?)
Spar is the only one, but expensive…
We’re not allergic, just stupid.
We’ve had Ahold (second largest in the world, owns among other chains ICA), Lidl and Carrefour establish themselves in Norway.
We didn’t want to shop there, and even boikotted Lidl. Then when they close and pull out of the market we complain.
Now we pretend it’s the remaining 3 groups that remains fault for us being in this situation… It isn’t.
We shop where we always shop and we don’t like new chains. The we complain. It’s very Norwegian to not understand basic marked economy.
Norway truly has shot itself in the foot with how bad the selection, prices and quality on things are nowadays.
I truly loved the time when lidl was here, sadly it didnt last long.
I miss lidl so much :c it almost seems like ur in some communistic utopia in here. All stores are the same.
Aldi shut down in Denmark a few years ago
“Rimi” left the the building
Lidl tried and it felt like shopping at a first price nille store ( aka not fresht at all and tacky). In Norway we have a love for Norwegian goods and produce, animal well fare ( how our steak har it before its a steak). That’s the reason. At least that’s my reason.
But one thing Norway loves is “oh you allready had a coop extra well guess what here is a brand new coop extra just 2 minutes of driving away from the old coop extra”
Like we could have had an obs or smth but nah we were given an extra
F%$k Auchan! Still active in Russia. I’d do anything to boycott them.
Jeg har hørt om Lidl fordi de prøvde seg i Norge, og jeg har hørt om Tesco fordi jeg har bodd maaaaange år i England. Men aldri hørt om resten.
Det er vel mest fordi running costs er høyere i Norge. Og kanskje også det å transportere varer hit blir langt og koster penger.
Men sikkert mest fordi Norske arbeidere vil ha mer betalt enn i noe annet land.
Norwegians are so stubborn and if it’s too foreign they’ll be afraid of it.
The variety is utterly horrible and the meat ☠️, everyone seems to like their red grill spices on their meats.and do not know anything about spicing it up at home….
I loved Lidl when it was here, my husband loved Freeway COLA.
Not everything was great but you could get decent food and variety.
Sick and tired of the food choices.
in Oslo you r having Smak Italia. Crazy expensive, but much much better food then in Rema … I am not sure about other cities, most probably Rema Kiwi …
Lidl failed because their items all had very tacky jalla looking items. Where solid established Norwegian brands might have a warm true red color, the Lidl thought neon pink was better.
Also they had no end station connected to the register where you could pack your items , which made it very stressful and just different to shop there. Also they needed more time to establish.
The problem in Norway is that the big 3 have a monopoly and instead of using their huge profits to broaden their selection they prefer to build shops on seemingly every piece of land. It’s just stupid.
For example, in my small town of 10000 people the list of grocery shops in a 5 min radius is as follows:
As a Polish person living in Norway for 3 years now ,going to Poland once every few months and entering grocery store feels like an amusement park. The diversity of products and brands that is lacking in Norway makes shopping there way more enjoyable. Same with Danish Netto/Lidl. The makeup/drugstore assortment also leaves much to be desired compared to Germany/Polish stores like Rossmann or DM
Rema is my go to store when i spend my vacation in norway! Prices still hurt
Yep. We are.
Lidl tried but they sold their locations to Rema shortly after. (Which made it so some locations had two Remas right next to each other for a while)
45 comments
This is the thing that sucks the most about Norway. A trip to the store is just depressing af
yeah definitely 😂😂😂
Aldri si aldi, unfortunately.
Well we have Spar and Coop!
Afaik, and I could be mistaken, but it’s less of an allergy and more that Rema and Meny have an effective duopoly, pushing anyone else out of the market
We have three players who basically have a monopoly. Selection and prices suffer.
Protectionism
please give us Aldi and Carrefour
A Swedish guy told me the reason for this. According to him Norwegians need smaller shops with smaller selection close to their homes because they have smaller than average brains and might be confused with a bigger selection of goods. I don’t know if its a joke or true!
One of the things that took the longest to get used to here when I moved in 1998 was the lack of diversity in supermarkets – even different ones have the same product selection more or less. Lidl tried to get market share and failed iirc and I think there was a Swedish chain that failed too – I forget, so I could be mistaken.
Having said that, the selection in shops is way better now than it was 25 years ago.
Edit: as someone with coeliac disease, one of the positives in Norway has always been the selection of gluten free products here and the support in restaurants. The first pizza I ever had was a Peppes gluten free New Orleans pizza back in 1992. In my opinion, the best Peppes pizza ever made. It was discontinued for a while and then brought back before disappearing again for good. :/
Sweden and Finland aswell (except for lidl)
And that is why our food is super overpriced.
we used to have Lidl in Norway, maybe 15 years ago, and at that time it just wasn’t interesting at all. they struggled, customers frowned at the wares they were selling, it all looked too cheap and unfamiliar.
if Lidl had come back now, I think they would thrive because every grocery store here now is super expensive.
We have extremely high barrier to entry as well as tarrifs. Your shitty selection grocery store with exuberant prices is WILLED POLICY DECISION.
As an American immigrant in Norway, I assumed that most northern European countries would have similar prices at the store. Then I went to Amsterdam lol. Why are even bananas twice as expensive, and lower quality, when neighboring countries don’t have that issue? The local grocery stores in my area seriously struggle to have a decent stock of fresh fruits and vegetables, and usually have a lot of it already going bad on the shelf. Don’t get me started on the price and selection of meat >_<
Lidel tried out, but didn’t last long. Its not easy going up again the 3 big food “oligarchs” in this country!
When Lidl started in Norway, their locations were awful. At least around where I live. AFAIK one of the big issues with the Norwegian super market chains is they’ve built out so many locations just to monopolise them, leaving no decent locations available to foreign chains.
Lidl only entered Finland a few years ago as well. We basically had two monopolies (S-group and K-group) primarily
Lidl tried..
NorgesGruppen mafia er ikke til å spøke med
Aldi is no longer in Denmark!
metro is not a supermarket chain
Damn I’ve never seen maxima or metro in Poland.
Also Tesco ran away for some reason so you won’t find it anymore
Carrefour and Tesco might have a shot, if they do it right, that is they get enough deals with familiar brands, while bringing something new to the table, either in the premium segment or super budget segment. The Germans tried it without any familiar brands, and that really didn’t work.
I’ll happily harp on Norwegian supermarkets and protectionism all day. But to be fair, even according to this post, there’s only one of those brands established in any of the Nordic countries at all.
Edit: oh wait, Denmark had two.
Surprised that Salling Group doesn’t have any stores in Norway.
Also to sports retailers that are not overpriced (where’s my Decathlon, please?)
Spar is the only one, but expensive…
We’re not allergic, just stupid.
We’ve had Ahold (second largest in the world, owns among other chains ICA), Lidl and Carrefour establish themselves in Norway.
We didn’t want to shop there, and even boikotted Lidl. Then when they close and pull out of the market we complain.
Now we pretend it’s the remaining 3 groups that remains fault for us being in this situation… It isn’t.
We shop where we always shop and we don’t like new chains. The we complain. It’s very Norwegian to not understand basic marked economy.
Norway truly has shot itself in the foot with how bad the selection, prices and quality on things are nowadays.
I truly loved the time when lidl was here, sadly it didnt last long.
I miss lidl so much :c it almost seems like ur in some communistic utopia in here. All stores are the same.
Aldi shut down in Denmark a few years ago
“Rimi” left the the building
Lidl tried and it felt like shopping at a first price nille store ( aka not fresht at all and tacky). In Norway we have a love for Norwegian goods and produce, animal well fare ( how our steak har it before its a steak). That’s the reason. At least that’s my reason.
But one thing Norway loves is “oh you allready had a coop extra well guess what here is a brand new coop extra just 2 minutes of driving away from the old coop extra”
Like we could have had an obs or smth but nah we were given an extra
F%$k Auchan! Still active in Russia. I’d do anything to boycott them.
Jeg har hørt om Lidl fordi de prøvde seg i Norge, og jeg har hørt om Tesco fordi jeg har bodd maaaaange år i England. Men aldri hørt om resten.
Det er vel mest fordi running costs er høyere i Norge. Og kanskje også det å transportere varer hit blir langt og koster penger.
Men sikkert mest fordi Norske arbeidere vil ha mer betalt enn i noe annet land.
Norwegians are so stubborn and if it’s too foreign they’ll be afraid of it.
The variety is utterly horrible and the meat ☠️, everyone seems to like their red grill spices on their meats.and do not know anything about spicing it up at home….
I loved Lidl when it was here, my husband loved Freeway COLA.
Not everything was great but you could get decent food and variety.
Sick and tired of the food choices.
in Oslo you r having Smak Italia. Crazy expensive, but much much better food then in Rema … I am not sure about other cities, most probably Rema Kiwi …
Lidl failed because their items all had very tacky jalla looking items. Where solid established Norwegian brands might have a warm true red color, the Lidl thought neon pink was better.
Also they had no end station connected to the register where you could pack your items , which made it very stressful and just different to shop there. Also they needed more time to establish.
The problem in Norway is that the big 3 have a monopoly and instead of using their huge profits to broaden their selection they prefer to build shops on seemingly every piece of land. It’s just stupid.
For example, in my small town of 10000 people the list of grocery shops in a 5 min radius is as follows:
Kiwi x2,
Bunnpris,
Rema 1000,
Eurospar,
Coop Extra,
Spar.
Increase the radius to 10 minutes and you can add
2x Kiwi,
Spar,
Bunnpris,
2x Rema 1000,
Coop Mega.
Its ridiculous.
As a Polish person living in Norway for 3 years now ,going to Poland once every few months and entering grocery store feels like an amusement park. The diversity of products and brands that is lacking in Norway makes shopping there way more enjoyable. Same with Danish Netto/Lidl. The makeup/drugstore assortment also leaves much to be desired compared to Germany/Polish stores like Rossmann or DM
Rema is my go to store when i spend my vacation in norway! Prices still hurt
Yep. We are.
Lidl tried but they sold their locations to Rema shortly after. (Which made it so some locations had two Remas right next to each other for a while)
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