Norwegian groceries / brands
First off all, this article may be updated in the future...
So, everybody knows that everything is expensive in Norway, especially food. But it has to be said that it is incredibly cheap for the locals, food being around 12% only of the expenses of the families.
Where can you go buy your food in Norway? In Norway, hyper-groceries like the French Carrefour, the Portuguese Modelo, the US Wal mart and so on... doesn't exist, except in some places, for exemple the Giant Coop at Lagunen, south of Bergen. But there is supermarckets everywhere in Norway. On my way to the university (7km) I go along **at least** 8 groceries. The market is divided in local groups like Rema 1000, Rimi, Kiwi, Safari, Bunnpris, and foreign groups like Spar, Coop, Europris. If Safari is famous for its high prices and Kiwi for its low ones, it's not so easy. There is many many promotions here each week, and prices can be **very** differents from place to place and time to time. This is why many people do their food shopping in several shops (not so hard, there is a Rimi in front of every Rema, and vice-versa).
In Norway, in groceries, you find most of the time only food and some basic hygiene stuff. Impossible in most of them to find sheets to write, or for instance, a broom, etc.
Rows are not organized at all... ice cream is right to cookies, hygiene stuff in the same row as dog food. Every fresh dairy product is in the same place. Milk, cream, ect. Every cheese in the same place except the foreign - only good - and expensive as hell cheese. Rows are not placed symmetrically as everywhere else. Every grocery sells dozens of varieties of bread, from 5kr to 50kr, and most of the time the taste doesn't differ so much. Cigarettes and condoms are sold in the same place as tabloids and chewing gums, at the paying desk. Drinks are sold on **big** crates where you pop-off the bottle from its emplacement. You can find a promotion of anything in a row with something very different.
Alcools are hidden behind curtains after 10PM (8PM on saturdays) because of the law, and can't be purchased. Norway is probably the only country in the world where alcool-free beer or christmas-drinks (Julebrus) are sometimes cheaper than mineral water. Milk is only **fresh**, not pasteurized nor UHT. Expensive (2€/L) but very good. Tree main milks: Hel (fat), Lett/skummet (light) and Extra Lett. I have read on this cool blog that Norwegians drink so much milk (house, school, work) that it's adviced to drink light mik to avoid health problems.
Here is the land of sauces, junk food, fake/true exotic food and lyophilised stuff. Soups in powder. Sauces in powder. Preparations for bakery, desserts, etc, in powder. Many different mustards, ketchups, dressings. Entire rows of tortillas, wraps kits, chicken salsa, tikka masala, nasi goreng... the master of this dry-food is without any doubt the brand Toro, from Bergen (sponsor of the SK Brann).
Being expensive for foreigners but normal/cheap for the locals (see above) there is something very strange in Norway: Everything is mainly sold in **big** quantities: Cheese by cubes of one kilo, chicken by bags of 2 kilos, same thing for sliced meat. Jam is always sold in... buckets. As well as for the bread, the price of the cheese ridiculousely increase for nothing... for exemple, the Hvitost is around 50kr the kilo. The Gulost around 60, and is not better. The Norvegia is around 70 and better, but not so much than the previous one. Jarlsberg is around 80/90 and is only a pale untasty copy of emmental.
Speaking about brands... Norway high-tax his imports, whatever they are. The best exemple of official/unofficial monopoly in the food market in Norway i probably Tine. I don't know the exact terms and functions of this brand but it seems to be a cooperative, as almost every farm in Norway has their stickers on their windows. Tine cover **almost all** the milk and dairy products market. They produce and sell most of the Norwegian cheese and European copies of Brie, Camembert, etc. The other brand selling Norwegian cheese is Synnøve, with the Gulost. Here is a **little** overview of products sold by Tine.
So, everybody knows that everything is expensive in Norway, especially food. But it has to be said that it is incredibly cheap for the locals, food being around 12% only of the expenses of the families.
Where can you go buy your food in Norway? In Norway, hyper-groceries like the French Carrefour, the Portuguese Modelo, the US Wal mart and so on... doesn't exist, except in some places, for exemple the Giant Coop at Lagunen, south of Bergen. But there is supermarckets everywhere in Norway. On my way to the university (7km) I go along **at least** 8 groceries. The market is divided in local groups like Rema 1000, Rimi, Kiwi, Safari, Bunnpris, and foreign groups like Spar, Coop, Europris. If Safari is famous for its high prices and Kiwi for its low ones, it's not so easy. There is many many promotions here each week, and prices can be **very** differents from place to place and time to time. This is why many people do their food shopping in several shops (not so hard, there is a Rimi in front of every Rema, and vice-versa).
In Norway, in groceries, you find most of the time only food and some basic hygiene stuff. Impossible in most of them to find sheets to write, or for instance, a broom, etc.
Rows are not organized at all... ice cream is right to cookies, hygiene stuff in the same row as dog food. Every fresh dairy product is in the same place. Milk, cream, ect. Every cheese in the same place except the foreign - only good - and expensive as hell cheese. Rows are not placed symmetrically as everywhere else. Every grocery sells dozens of varieties of bread, from 5kr to 50kr, and most of the time the taste doesn't differ so much. Cigarettes and condoms are sold in the same place as tabloids and chewing gums, at the paying desk. Drinks are sold on **big** crates where you pop-off the bottle from its emplacement. You can find a promotion of anything in a row with something very different.
Alcools are hidden behind curtains after 10PM (8PM on saturdays) because of the law, and can't be purchased. Norway is probably the only country in the world where alcool-free beer or christmas-drinks (Julebrus) are sometimes cheaper than mineral water. Milk is only **fresh**, not pasteurized nor UHT. Expensive (2€/L) but very good. Tree main milks: Hel (fat), Lett/skummet (light) and Extra Lett. I have read on this cool blog that Norwegians drink so much milk (house, school, work) that it's adviced to drink light mik to avoid health problems.
Here is the land of sauces, junk food, fake/true exotic food and lyophilised stuff. Soups in powder. Sauces in powder. Preparations for bakery, desserts, etc, in powder. Many different mustards, ketchups, dressings. Entire rows of tortillas, wraps kits, chicken salsa, tikka masala, nasi goreng... the master of this dry-food is without any doubt the brand Toro, from Bergen (sponsor of the SK Brann).
Speaking about brands... Norway high-tax his imports, whatever they are. The best exemple of official/unofficial monopoly in the food market in Norway i probably Tine. I don't know the exact terms and functions of this brand but it seems to be a cooperative, as almost every farm in Norway has their stickers on their windows. Tine cover **almost all** the milk and dairy products market. They produce and sell most of the Norwegian cheese and European copies of Brie, Camembert, etc. The other brand selling Norwegian cheese is Synnøve, with the Gulost. Here is a **little** overview of products sold by Tine.