American Reacts to Grocery Stores in Norway vs USA (Part 1)
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- čas přidán 11. 01. 2023
- As an American I understand that there are alot of differences between the USA and Norway, but I never imagined that there would be such a significant difference between our nation's grocery stores. Today I am very excited to take a close look at Norwegian grocery stores and how they compare to America. If you enjoyed the video feel free to leave a comment, like, or subscribe for more!
Mailing Address:
Tyler E.
PO Box 2973
Evansville, IN 47728
Walmart tried to enter the Norwegian market but did not get a license to operate a store as they could not meet basic wage standards and workers' rights. They were judged to be too unethical for the Norwegian market. The selection in Norway reflects the number of people who live here. You can't have the selection like an American metropolis when the whole country only has 5.2 million people, but Norwegians make more home-cooked food so ready-made products are very few. We work much less per family and have time to make things ourselves, and the shop content reflects exactly this.
I´ve never heard of Walmart trying to enter the Norwegian market, when was that? I´ve only heard that Lidl tried it, but failed for the same reason.
@@mimosa7070 Note that she writes that they tried to get a license but were not approved. Lidl established itself with stores, but had to close because Norwegians did not shop with them for ethical reasons.
McDonald's have been under fire for the same reasons, yet still operates.
@@mimosa7070 they tried first in 2019 and then again in 2021
There is no way Walmart could operate in Norway anyway, as most of their products would be banned unless sourced in Europe. American food contains a lot of additives banned in Norway or the EU as a whole, which is why most is illegal to import.
The tubes give the product a way longer expiration date :D Due to less product exposed to oxygen, it makes it last way longer :D AND they're very easy to bring along for hikes or trips to the cabin. Last longer, and way less weight than a jar :D
Bacon ost er godt
@@pepperkakespisern5531 Baconost 😩
I wonder what Tyler's reaction will be when he finds out we even have fish in tubes?
@@pepperkakespisern5531 Baconost og Ritz er kos.
The tubes are a nightmare to recycle though. Prefer jars for this reason (and a bunch of other reasons). And Scandinavians take recycling seriously.
Norway has one of the highest amounts of grocery stores per capita in Europe. This is because the population is very spread. A result of this is that the median store is quite small with a limited selection. You just can't afford to bring in too many items that only 1/100 persons will buy when your customer base is small.
True and the toll barriers towards EU countries also decreases the variety of products available to consumers, the extremely powerful three food chain giants is also a problem for variety. (Especially Norgesgruppen). You can go to small post soviet countries like Estonia and find more interesting stuff in the grocery stores.
In 90s we had a grosery floor in norway who should support a populations of 40 million people. Today this number is higher.
Fun video. We do have beans in Norway, though? Various types of canned beans with different flavour. Chili, tomato, kidney beans...
Most grocery shops in Norway get daily delivery of bread or bake them in-store. You can generally be sure that the bread in the fresh section is baked on the same day. The «problem» with fresh bread is that the bread only stays fresh for a couple of days. It is therefore common to slice and freeze the bread when you get home to ensure freshness.
Or the store has an automatic cutter.
Those cutters in the stores are a relatively new thing. I rarely buy bread, but when I do, I dom't use the cutter. The bread will only dry up faster. All Norwgian homes have a bread knife, and most people have a dedicated cutting board for bread. Loff is usually used with seafood and a few other things. Most Norwegians don't eat loff (white bread) daily.
@@egilsandnes9637 the machines in the stores aren't new at all though? We've had them for many years in Tromsø...
@@Jorsk3n That's why I said "relatively". There were absolutely none of them when I was a kid in the 80s. I don't know exactly when they started being a common sight, but it must be in the last 10-20 years. Many stores still don't have them ... I think.
Most are still a little frozen on the inside when you buy them, def not fresh. Rema 1000 uses only 8 different bakeries for all their stores.
I was married to an American and last fall he was here to be with his son for a week. That week he was eating loff/white bread with peanut butter and jelly to breakfast and even at lunch at school. i was chocked when i realized it! That is a no-no food to bring to school.
The way you pronounced "brød" was perfect 😀 the "ø" was perfect and the fact that you didn't pronounce the "d" at the end because it's supposed to be a silent d was exactly right. Great work there Tyler
Well, the silent “d” would depend on the dialect
Kaku heite det 😉
On the other hand you pronounced Norge as “nordz”.😂😂😂
Having less variety is also to reduce food waste :) So if there are too many options, they won't be able to sell everything before the date runs out! Also: every Norwegian grocery store has it's own TACO SHELF!
"Loff" is not a collective term, but a separate type of bread in the white bread family. There are many different types of white bread, such as Wittenberger, Frøbrød and of course Loff.
Peanut butter can be found in all grocery stores in different varieties, both crunchy and smooth, and different brands. Most grocery chains have their own cheap variants. I don't know why he can't find it.
One thing we have in Norway are different apps where you can buy food that is nearing its expiry date but is still perfectly edible and good, for a very cheap price. An excellent way to both save money AND reduce food waste.
The tubes are popular for many reasons. One is it makes the product last a lot longer as we press the air out and it just keeps better than in a tub. Also, as you know by now we LOVE going out in to nature. It's not conducive to bring jars of stuff that can break. So tubes that don't take up much room and that are easy to reseal has become very popular here =) You can get anything from pure mackrell in tomato to tartar sauce, mayo and all the cheeses with tons of different flavours. We even have jam in squeezy bottles you can screw shut so they don't leak. A lot of product design in Norway is "tainted" by our constant need to camp / go out in to nature ;)
Regarding the unguarded free sample thing: Norwegians hate being roped in.
If there's an employee guarding the free fruit samples, then first of all, they would attempt to get eye contact with you, thereby luring you in to this unspoken contract that you are now forced to buy something you might not have wanted in the first place. Try a sample, and you are now, as it were, contractually obligated to buy more of that fruit, so as to not disappoint that employee. So instead, you avoid eye contact at all cost and give that employee as wide of a berth as practically possible.
Conversely, if the fruit samples are left unguarded, there's no pressure. You can try some and then decide that "you know what, i don't think i want to buy oranges today" and nobody would judge you for it. So it feel like a lot less pressure.
Kiwi was actually established before the fruit was known. The name is put together from the founders’ (Kirkeng and Wike), and they decided to go for green simply because there weren’t anyone else using it!
The size of produce sections really depends on the size of the store. Some have huge ones, but rarely the size you would see in America.
Loff is still bread. But it is indeed used for white bread.
True, but we mostly don't use the word brød for loff. If I askef you to buy some brød, and you came back with loff, I would be like "Whaaaat? Why did you buy loff?!"
I would never call loff bread.
Loff is loff. Brød is bread.
Never heard someone call loff bread ..,
@@egilsandnes9637 I absolutely agree with you there!
Fun fact: "Loff" is one of the earliest loanwords from English into Norwegian (it derives from "loaf").
The closest to Wallmart would probably be Coop Obs, they sell everything from food to building materials. However it’s not super cheap as Wallmart, or selling big bulk like Costco, and no Norwegian stores have “greeters”
Not only in Norway, but in most European countries, having good bread is very important. Where I buy my bread, it's mostly baked in the shop and there is a slicing machine. Because I only do my shopping once a week, I keep my bread in the freezer. In the morning a take out how many slices I need and after 15 sec in the microwave you have a freshly tasting slice of bread again and nothing goes to waste. Peanut butter is also very populair in the Netherland. I hate the stuff, but my kids loved it. Brrrrrrrr.... 🙂
Another reason why our grocery stores are much smaller here in Norway is because there tends to me many more of them per capita. At least that’s my impression. And I think that has to do with Norwegians wanting a grocery store within walking distance form their home. Everyone has that if you live in something closely resembling a city. In bigger cities you usually have 3-5 grocery stores within walking distance of your house.
That again has to do with Norwegians walking a lot more to and from places, and using public transportation a lot more when heading into the city center.
We do have grocery stores that are bigger, and these are usually located in shopping malls or typically places with bigger parking lots, meant for people who either drive or have easier access to public transport right outside of the store.
Not just for walking distance, but most people will stop by the shop on the way between work and home to do small shopping.
there are 5 grocery stores within walking distance, then a whole ass Mall within walking distance too with like 3 grocery stores in it
@@ahkkariq7406 yup, so it’s a cultural thing also
I live in a little town of 6500 people and I have 4 grocery stores within a 15 minute walk (Each way). Two of them are Kiwi even. No idea how that makes sense, but I assume it's got something to do with the franchise nature of that store chain and the smallest one has been around for ever and joined the Kiwi group in later years (Before I moved here 15 years ago). And I don't even live in the "center" of it. They're not all in the same direction obviously and the closest one is less than a 5 minute walk away.
the grocery store he talked about, kiwi, their idea is being small and cheap, their stores have grown alittle in size over the years to offer more stuff, but the idea is still being cheap and have most of what you need. some other stores like spar or meny usually is bigger, offer more variety, they have a butcher section with variety of meats and fish, but because of that is more expensive.
i think the food on tubes is from old times to make the food stay fresh longer and is also easy to just squeeze onto your bread.
We also got a strong culture when it comes to children and candy.
In Norway we have something called (Lørdagags godt) where we only get to eat candy once a day (Saturdays), every WEEK!
Normaly from 6pm
Yep, exported to you from your eastern neighbor Sweden :) although the history of how it became candy on Saturdays is a grim one.
food in tubes are easy to bring with your matpakke, to the cabin or for the simplisity when your making your food. Food on tubes are clean and not messy, and has longer lifespan than those in jars, where air comes in and get stuff easily moldy. And it doesn't breake if you drop it. And its less heavier. Very good for trips
Horsemeat is very common in Norway. It is usually mixed in with other meats to make different types of sausages, like salami and fårepølse. Some places you can also buy steakes, but that is more rare.
I would add that because of this, a lot of Norwegians, including me in my childhood, eat horse without knowing it
@@thePyiott vent hva!!! hvorfor har ingen sagt dette før
Hmm, I agree with that horse meat is used in a few things. But it's not very common.
I have never eat horsemeat in Norway. I thing it is not Common.
@@randihelenehansen5741 Are you sure about that? :)
You saying "mahjoneys, Mahoneys?" made my day! lol
By the way - what got you so interested in Norway? Completely random? :)
Horse meat? What is he on? Never bought horse meat once in my 48 year life. Horses we feed to the tigers and lions at the zoo.
horse meat tasted great and you should probably try it if you get the chance to get a quality piece
I have seen horse meat many times in shops here in Norway. Once I even bought it as a steak...
There is horse meat in one type of salami.
Let me rephrase: Horse-meat is about 0,1 pst of the meat that is used. It's then not very common or typical norwegian at all.
Norwegian here. that Coop Extra is a realy small store. Yes it is hard to lauch a new product in Norway due to the fact we are quality based.
The bread gets baked in the night/early morning, so just a few hours before you buy it.
If you want a bigger selection, there is Meny, Coop Mega and Coop Obs, who has youre regular selection, but also has local products, and international products, they also usually has a big Fruits and Vegetable sections, also a fresh food section and store baked bread and baked goods
Tyler, you should watch the video "How The US Ruined Bread" by Johnny Harris. It gives an insight into the differences between Europe and the US when it comes to bread.
10:25
Last few days?!?
I wouldn't buy a bread that's not baked in the last 24 or so hours.
And every store I've been to removes *all* the breads every day in the evening and replace them with new ones from the bakery in the morning.
Horse meat isn't common at all. If you want to you might find "Svartpølse" (black sausage) in some stores that is a sausage that contains horse meat but we only eat about 0,009lb of horse meat a year per person.
If you want horse meat you should go to Central Asia. Like in Kazakhstan you can buy horse meat everywhere, it's the most popular meat to use in their national dish and you can even buy horse milk in every grocery store.
Most of the bread is actually backed during the nigth before it's delivered to the store. I used to drive for a bekry here in Norway. They backed bread all nigth, and I drowe out at like 4-5 AM to deliver it to the stores. Then it's on the shelf for ONE day and are sometimes sold cheap the day after.
We have different type of sausage with different meats: pig, cow, horse, reindeer, even martens. I personally like horse or martens sausage with a little lingonberry jam on my bread, but I ate a peanut butter sandwich (with Nugatti chocolate spread) watching this.
Some people also bake their own bread. Sourdough has been popular for quite some time here, and I make make my own sourdough and sourdough bread.
Marten sausage are not made from marten 😄, but from offal (heart, lungs, kidneys, tongue, stomach, esophagus and intestine), mainly from sheep.
It's not Mår (Martens), it's Morrpølse.
Hah. That's funny. We eat so many different meats I didn't realize it doesn't contain marten. By the way, mårpølse, morrpølse, mørpølse or just morr or mòr are synonymous.
@@AudunWangen 🤪
easy to get confused, haha..
Some of the stuff he talks about not being readily available, such as the beans, is in part because a lot of Norwegians will just make it from scratch. There is also a bigger selection in other more "urban" places in Norway.
I also don't get why people get so upset over horse meat. There's even a girl here in Norway who's been harassed because she ate her horse after it died.
Lastly, there's no Walmart here, and likely never will be, because of various rules, as well as the fact they likely wouldn't be able to effectively compete with our chains of grocery stores. Dominos hasn't done as well in Norway as they hoped, in large part because Norway has a different culture when it comes to restaurants.
You can always ask someone working in the store if they can order a different brand of whatever (peanut butter for example). Some stores have a lager
selection of brands, like "Meny", but they are generally more expensive.
At Meny some places you can buy Jiff peanut butter.
Only to a degree. The large corporations who own several chains (or 'concepts'), such as Norgesgruppen or Coop, buy exclusive rights to products. Sometimes there's exclusivity to individual products within a brand. I have stores from five different chains within walking distance, and there's a clear difference between which parts of the Fjordland products you can get in each. Coop Extra seems to have exclusivity on several of their 'low calorie' options, as an example. These deals are negotiated once a year with the food producers. You wouldn't be able to get them to stock products that have been snatched up by another chain.
It's part of the problem with near-monopolies in the market. The three major corporation are also involved in some mild cartel-like practices. Not a great thing under the current inflation.
Some people here seem to think that Lidl failed in Norway due to ethics. In reality it was a combination of not being able to penetrate a market with the threee large dominating groups of chains, and selling European products that Norwegians were sceptical of.
As a norwegian, I have never even heard about refried beans.
Tubes are handy while hiking, on the boat, at the job, or on the weekend at the cabin.
Bread and white bread is both common in Norway it is just that we have more variety of breads then white bread but both can easily be found in stores
For me, i LOVE tubes. It's so simple to get a tube, press it on my bread and eat it. It's so "Plug and play" No need to get put a knife and a spoon, which also both needs cleaning afterwards. No need to to the dishes afterwards.
Tube-food is a good and easy choice for hiking (tube and bread in the backpack) and also for other trips😊
* The tubes of cheese, mayo, caviar, etc. isn't that strange when you consider that the US has cheese in spray cans. 😉
* The limited produce section is a result of several parameters: Small stores are limited to just the basics. Having way more produce than you can sell leads to more food waste. Except for root vegetables, certain greens, certain fruits, and vegetables that can be grown in green houses, there isn't really much that can be effectively grown this far north. Only approximately 3 % of Norway is arable land, so a lot of fruit, and vegetables have to be imported, thus limiting the variety that is available.
* Sliced bread is available in practically all stores in Norway, but it is far less common than un-sliced. With the bread slicing machines that isn't really an issue though. Also an un-scliced loaf will keep fresh longer as there is less surface area exposed to the air.
My town is fairly small (~20,000 pop) and Spar has Jif peanutbutter and at least 7 different types. Though Spar's whole thing is selection, they're also the chain known for their hot food selection (meat slices to go, potato mash, stuff like that you can put into a thermal bag and eat as lunch)
Horsemeat is often used as an added meat in "black sausage" as in svartpølse. It's dried and has hung in airy storage for at least 6 months. Horse meat in itself is too sweet to my liking, but in svartpølse it's good.
And the foods on tubes, which are only condiments, are for practicality as we put in on bread anyway. Easier to get it out of a tube, and spread it with a knife if cheese, or just squeeze it out if over boiled slices of eggs on toast or bread. Also less mess, and easy when stored and lasts longer… caviar is in a tube because traditionally we put that on hard boiled eggs. I grew up eating that every Sunday morning for breakfast/lunch. Sometimes you boil the egg, put it in an egg glass, cut off the top and eat with a spoon and season with salt. Other times as I mentioned sliced hard boiled egg on a slice of bread with caviar on top, Some put dill, and pepper. I’m user to this, and no one here would think caviar on eggs, or condiments on tubes are weird. We put yam in tube, more practical than the classic glass jar with a lid, tho we have that too. We think Americans are weird for not having a cheese slicer, too much sugar in tour foods, too big of a portion etc. And I grew up eating horse sausage. We call it “svart pølse», black sausage. I even grew up eating blood pudding, as well as whale, raindeer, and moose. Again normal here…
tubes are great for hikes outside takes less space in your backpack :)
As he said he's in a small town. There's not so much different people in small towns compared to like Oslo (norwegian capitol). In small towns they need to scale down on what they buy so they don't buy items the customers don't want or need.
So they need to see over time what product the costumers there wan't and keep purchasing this and rather not buy items customers don't want.
Also the size of the shops he was in are rather small compared to the bigger cities. That's also something they need to think about when the companies build them. They can't build something gigantic that takes to manny years to get paid back for.
The pre cut bread in Norway has more "crap" in them to make them last longer. The fresh bread is not cut.
It’s true, the bread here is usually fresh, and the machines were my favorite thing when I was a kid 😂 I only buy ready sliced bread for grilled cheese toasts.
You can get a bigger selection of peanut butter in the small bodegas/corner stores
Most bread here is baked every night except Saturday, so very fresh. Most stores are closed on Sundays so no point in baking on Saturday. There are some types that are less fresh (bread that is already sliced, made to last longer by adding additives to delay molding etc. Bleh.). Most people just buy fresh though and use the slicing machine. White bread is mostly used in combination with grilled chicken or fresh shrimp with mayo and some lemon. A favorite is going down to the dock, buy fresh shrimp, mayo and white bread. Sit down on the peer and chow down. Not limited to that of course, I just can't think of anything else. :P Oh white baguettes are popular with stews and lasagne. But many use non white baguettes too.
Meny brand stores of some size also have a fresh food area where you can buy "fresh" meat and/or fish or fish products by weight. This used to be a thing in many more grocery stores 20-30 years ago. Probably because we didn't have a butcher or dedicated fish store. We actually had a dedicated fish store for a while.
The store my mom worked at also had a cheese counter staffed back in the 80s where you could get any amount of all kinds of fancy cheese.
They would basically cut from the big round piece of the cheese to the amount you wanted.
We do not have Walmart's and huge stores like that,but coop is the franchise closest, with a larger warehouse style with not only food and drinks, but also garden and house equipment,which you usually got designated stores for...
I am married to an American, we have lived in Norway for 24 years. Everytime we visit the states we miss the Norwegian bread, and actually the fruits and veggies. Just way more flavour to the produce here.
About the bread,they only sell fresh baked,delivered daily, any leftovers are taken out of the shelfes after closing, so the whole bread is fresh,the ones who come already sliced,are usually for sale for a few more days.... But yeah,FRESH bread daily. Everywhere
I think the tube is just a practical thing because then you don’t need spoons or anything like that when you’re out on a little trip. You just squeeze it right on to your bread 🥖👌🏽
Walmart was blacklisted by the Oil fund for ethical reasons back in 2008, so it's not likely they would make it in our market. Amazon tried but would not meet
the working conditions in Norway.
Hey! Walmart was not allowed to enter Norway, as they are seen as breaching human economic rights, and human rights. Also, Coop, Kiwi, Rema 1000 are some of the biggest groceristores in Norway, they are widespread through the country with Rema1000 (and I think maybe Coop) both even having started to move outside the country.
Hey! Walmart was not allowed to enter Norway, as they are seen as breaching human economic rights, and human rights. Also, Coop, Kiwi, Rema 1000 and Meny are some of the biggest groceristores in Norway, they are widespread through the country with Rema1000 (and I think maybe Coop) both even having started to move outside the country.
Also, most stores often have a small row as well as the island stand with fruits and veggies, as well as the forzen section often having a small vegan secion in it.
I come from a small town with 6000 people, and even we have that.
Also, varriety here in Norway is smaller much because we are so less people, having mass varriety would not only make it hard for the state to make sure all product follows standards, AND of course if we were to have loads of products, then we would need to throw food away.
Horse, Lamb, sheep, Cow, Calf, Pig, all types of fish, tukrey, moose, reindeer, deer (There are two different animals, but the only translation I found was deer for both of em), are all meats etean here. The most popular spread also is Liver Pate.
Some few of us stil eat traditional food like Smalahove has well, which is a sheeps head (Tastes amazing). But yeah, meat is loved here.
Something that was not mentioned: Look at the price labels on the shelves; they're LCD panels. That way the prices can easily be changed as the product is checked in when delivered. No need for an employee to go around replacing paper price stickers.
About the bread in Norway, it is fresh that day. Unless it is the ready sliced ones. It is only wrapped in a paper bag. In the morning it is still warm from the baker.
The reason we have a lot of tubes things, is because we HIKE a lot and those tubes are so easy to bring with you on your HIKE🇧🇻
I haven't seen the fruit samples since before covid. Had almost forgotten about it
The closest analogue to Wal-Mart here is Coop Obs! but it's the smallest chain because the concept only works in bigger towns, and since Norway is instead dotted with tons of smaller ones you don't see them much.
I used to work for one of the founders of Kiwi a long time ago. Their office were located in Lier, just outside the town of Drammen. And he unfortunately he drown in i boat-accident a couple of years later. 😢 When it comes to bread; I baked them myself for many, many years. Much better than those bought in a grocerystore. 😊
Kaviar in tubes is delicious. Kaviar in blue tube is the best, perfectly salty, color is kind of orange colour. 👍🏻
Idea for a video: what you can get in a Norwegian library (you can borrow sewing machines and skis f ex). Is that an American thing?
I'm looking forward to seeing videos of you being in Norway 🤩 Reacting to your reaction videos 😃
To clarify, we dont kill horses just for the meat.
It's a "do not waste" situasion if horses die naturally or have to be put down
The bread thing is very common in all of Scandinavia. We eat rye or whole wheat bread. Taco’s or mexican inspired foods are very popular in Denmark as well. The tube things are normal in Norway and Sweeden.😊
I gotta tell you right now, tubed jalapeño cheese is delicious. I don't even like spicy stuff that much but love it
The bread is usually baked at the store. Or atmost a bakery closr to it and shipped for same day/one day after sales
the breads are made the same day, really early in the morning, except the sliced breads. The crust is crunchy fresh.
One thing I can point out about the produce section in Norway, as a born norwegian, is that they generally space it out depending on how big the store is and how much they sell, so it may vary a lot between different areas. My local store is about 20%produce, with two isles with fruit, and a good part og the walls around that space being used for produce. It is also being refilled regulary to keep everything fresh and it is rare to see it sould out, unless you shop close to closing hours or something.
I also don't live in one of the biggest places, it's a okay size city. Nothing too big, but also not a small place.
As a Norwegian, and as I have said before, I REALLY enjoy these videos. :)
Hiking with tubed spead types of food and sliced bread is so much more convenient then bringing peanut butter boxed in jar type of food, which takes more space in a backpack. So I am not surprised that spread in tube form is such a big thing.
Tubes are very common in Sweden as well.
He should have been here in 1984, when I moved to Norway. Talk about frustration. There was one store in Oslo that had Tex mex products, Mexican food was not something you made weekly. I couldn’t get fresh chicken here to prepare myself, only barbecued small chickens. The cuts of meat didn’t resemble the ones at home. Making dinner was a challenge at first. But the breads were worth the move. The breads in paper bags are delivered daily, super fresh. Although Norway doesn’t offer 50 types of ketchups, we have what we need. Peanut butter without sugar is super healthy. More protein than meat. I make my own.
Remember when I was younger, I always ate the slices from that “bread cutter machine”
The tube is cleaner and keeps the food fresher than in a jar.
Regarding the produce section in Norway, in some shops it is a lot more grand, This also varies from shop to shop, Kiwi is a cheap chain. Still decent quality the food is fresh. Pretty good rotation on the fresh produce. Usually 95% or more is good when you buy it and stay that way for 1-2weeks in the fridge.
The bread in Norway that is not presliced most of it is made in the night, delivered in the morning the same day.
My wife used to work at a hotel here in Norway. Being American, she was asked to translate the restaurant menus. One item they offered was horse meat. It was translated to "equine steak".
Mmm, delicious
I usually call white bread for Air with Sugar 🙂
On a side note, we usually make our own peanut butter. Buy regular peanuts and put it in the food processor with a few spoons of peanut oil and it's done in a few minutes.
Speaking of meat. I read a while back that the American McDonalds hamburger meat contains 18 ingredients while the Norwegian mean contains 4...
I was in Norway last August and everything was so fresh 😂good! Mayo is in the fridge section 😢the store. Most milk is on the shelf, but they do have it in fridge section too but more expensive
In Norway, we don't have Wal Mart. We have our own big players in the grocery space.
The big companies that own the stores are the following ones.
*Norgesgruppen (the Norwegian Group), which own the following stores:*
Kiwi - The option with the lowest prices, and a direct competitor to Coop Extra and Rema 1000
Meny - This store is similar to Kiwi, but offers a good selection of freshly made food in store.
Eurospar - The larger of the Spar stores, which offers much of the same as Kiwi, but the pricing is slightly higher. Although Spar is known for their good discounts.
Spar - The smaller Spar stores, which are often located in smaller towns. - Spar offers fresh food in their stores.
Joker - Like a kiosk, with a small selection of items, typically found in the larger stores. These kiosks are found everywhere.
Nærbutikken - Another kiosk, but is typically found in small towns and out in the rural areas
*Coop, which has the following stores:*
Obs! - The grandest store, and the closest thing to Wal Mart in Norway. This store has everything. - Obs! stores are commonly found in large shopping malls
Extra - The low-price option, and a store with a very good selection of items.
Prix - A slightly cut down version of Extra, with similar low prices, but a more limited sortiment. These stores are commonly found as standalone stores in smaller towns.
Mega - Similar to Prix in the level of sortiment, but has more exclusive goods, and offer freshly made food in store. These stores are often found in towns and cities.
Marked - The basic Coop store, usually only found in rural areas.
Matkroken - A cut down version of Mega, with fresh food available. This brand of store is a leftover from the ICA group. Only found in small towns and rural areas.
*Reitan A/S*
Rema 1000 - The grocery stores which usually has the lowest prices. Offers a grand selection of items, as well as certain goods not found in the other stores.
*I.K. Lykke*
Bunnpris - Another low-price store chain, with their own low-price range of items. Many Bunnpris stores are open on Sundays.
Warning, if you buy bread online and it is pre sliced. Make sure you check out the price in Norway because that alone some times double the price.
8:20 sometimes there are cafeterias where they serve food but it depends on how much the school earn
Coop is a chain that has stores through Sweden, Norway and Denmark. I think its a Swedish brand that has expanded and bought up several other brands.
First thing that I reacted to was his prononciation of "Coop". It's not coop as in a bargain but co-op is in co operative. Part owned by the customers.
The bread is actually made fresh every morning not within 2 or 3 days like he said. Stores are not allowed to sell them the next day. Except for a few types of white bread that are sliced and packed in plastic. The rest is all fresh.
The tube thingie.. Well.. That is true of all of scandinavia, and the issues that relates to it are these: 1. They ARE more expensive.. 2. The more you use, the less reasonable it is to use tubes (you can make jars as big as you like, but tubes are really limited in size before they get useless, and it would be ridiculous to have half a dozen tubes in your fridge of the same thing, so.. it's about quantity)... 3. You don't need to use utensils.. and this is good for MANY reasons.. f.ex. less washing up; IF you are going somewhere and want to bring some food- like a picnic, or a long train journey you won't have to worry about sticky utensils until you get to some place where you can deal with it.. nor would you have to worry about forgetyour utensils. everything has contaminants on it. Every utensil you have in your drawer is pretty much guaranteed to have a few Mold spores on them.. So by using a jar together with a knife or spoon will most likely reduce the shelf-life of the item.. 4.. For the same reason it's VERY good that you don't let in (almost) any air.. There iwll be spores in the air as well.. so.. for the longevity of the product a tube is.. kind of part-way to being a tin. 5. Some things really really aren't consumed fast enough, so prolonging the life-span by using a tube can make it reasonable for a family that RARELY do anything that f.ex. contain tomato-paste to actually DO such a thing once in a while.. The tube makes the tomato paste last longer (WITHOUT adding horrible preservatives), so.. you may use one table spoon two three times pr year and you still MAY avoid having to throw anything away, just because of the hygiene aspects of it.
Tubes are awesome, but.. they have a specific range of where they are "useful".. you want more than "almost nothing", and really not much.. If you have a family of four you may not want your most commonly used cheese to be in a tube, because if you eat a bread-based .. breakfast.. or dinner.. or snack... and Everyone use the same cheese-spread then you may almost use an entire tube pr meal.. That is not viable.. but the fact that the option is there it also mean that it kind of cost less to have alternatives (you may have one "tub" of cream-cheese with ham.. and one tube of cream cheese with.. jalapeño? or Makrell? or olives?. pretty much anything).. even if it is just one person in the family, and EVEN if that person only get a "craving" once in a blue moon.. "I don't use a lot of it" often mean that you can't really endulge in it, because you have to either by EXTREME amounts for "portion"-sized packs (compared to the volume) OR buy a reasonably sized portion, BUT it is likely to get spoiled before you used it all..
It is a very efficient package indeed.. not to mention that it doesn't exactly take up "shelf-space".. Most people put the wrong things in the doors of a fridge (never never ever put milk in the door UNLESS you want it to lose taste and get spoiled quickly).. but.. the narrow shelves in the door that have "walls" on them? They are PERFECT for tubes. I have never ever had so many tubes that it would matter, but.. The fact that there are walls in all directions on those shelves mean there is no effort needed at all to just stack them and make the most of the volume.
Usually fruit and vegetables is delivered two times a week, sometimes more. So you don't need that large section. And you get fresher fruits and vegetables.
Our closest equivalent to Wal-Mart would be Coop Hypermarked. That reminds me, you should check out their commercial about these silicon valley incubator guys. Yep, that commercial is for Norwegians.
In my local Coop Extra the seasonal fruits in high demand, like strawberries in the summer and clementines during Christmas, tend to have a fairly large volume stack near the shop entrance which comes in addition to the regular selection in the fruit and vegetable corner. I dunno about everyone else, but my consumption of seasonal fruits can be pretty high (2-3 KG clementines for me alone during this last Christmas period, lol) so from my point of view it makes sense they have extra stock of that which is more accessible.
And you're right, if there's any selection we might have US beat it's probably in regards to meat variance as it goes beyond the the classic variety of pork, beef, mutton, and chicken. Turkey isn't as common or in demand here as in the US, but we do have that too. However, reindeer is fairly common for example, with elk and deer supplementing the variation. Not to mention the wide selection of fish types. And yeah, horse meat gets mixed into some salami products - you can usually tell from how dark the salami meat is. Goat meat is unfortunately the one meat lacking on the commercial market; from experience I find goat tastier than sheep, but there's no public demand or tradition for it. I was only able to get it in the past because my father worked in one of Gilde's butcheries.
Horse meat was historically just as common as cow or pig back when everybody worked as farmers. It became increasingly rare during the 20th century, as the percentage of the population who lived on farms decreased.
My parents are in their mid/late fifties, both grew up on farms and ate horse steak without it being seen as weird in any way. It's still mixed into various salami and sausage products, but pure horse meat in the form of a steak, is extremely rare today.
To the dude in video :if u are close to sweden to go shop there they have Jif peanut butter in the big stores at shopping mall in the America section :)
Bread is super important for us.
im Norwegian and love see whats the diffrent in the world love your videos so much keep it up!
Greetings from Finland!
Here people makes most of the food from scratch so we don´t need tons of unneccesary products in stores. Basic things that we need and use are enough.
In general Nordic people doesn´t eat peanutbutter at all. We deffenetly don´t spread it over our bread with jam. We spread margarine or butter on our bread and put something salty like slice of ham and cheese or those "weird" (for your view) tubed things like mayo, caviar, soft cheese pastes, cold smoked salmon, prawns, sliced (boiled) eggs, sliced salami or pepperoni, salad leafs, sliced tomatoes or other veggies, tuna fish etc.. There are so much varieties. So that is quite weird for us to undestand why in hell someone even wants to put peanut butter and jam on top of the bread.
And the bread... Finland has alot of varieties of breads and long long time we were the odd people eatig alot of rye bread and we have eated it.
Beans are not common here either. I like mostly darker like kidney beans in chili sauce that i mix with fried ground beef and spice that stew with hot spices.
The general Norwegian store is way smaller than the general Walmart. I'd say for the most part we have mostly the same stuff that you guys do, just less variety of them.
Tubes of food is very practical when eating on a hiking trip
The weird thing about the otherwise brilliant Norway is that they don’t provide school lunches. Here in Sweden we have super good free school meals.
Norway does not have wallmart.
Kiwi stores have green outfits for workers.
The samples of fruit depends on the store, not every store has this.
This is a small store though. If you go to larger stores, like Coop Obs, then the fruit and vegitables section is about the full size of a smaller store on the countryside or even suburbs.
Tubed food is honestly awesome, the food keeps so much better in my experience :)
Also I have never bought groceries from Walmart when I lived back in California. Only Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Ralph’s, Vans
the sample ranges all from fruit to cheese to even pizza, and nobody takes more than 1 sample in Norway. all Norwegians make their own lunch for school, work etc. and yes we love bread, 9.3 kg per person per year