Grocery Stores

The most noticeable difference between grocery stores in Norway versus those in America, is the price of the food.  Norwegian groceries cost about three times more than what I’m used to paying.  After living there awhile, I stopped looking at prices.  I couldn’t bear to pay over seven dollars for lettuce, only to discover half of it inedible.  Produce isn’t the freshest in the far north, and Norwegians don’t eat much of it.  They do like frozen pizza, though.  There’s at least one pizza aisle in every store.

The opening hours of grocery stores are finally expanding.  Ten years ago they opened only 10-5 weekdays, until three on Saturdays, and closed Sunday.  Now some have extended hours so the lit-up signs on their buildings say 9-21 (10-18), which means they are open 9am-9pm, Monday to Friday and 10am-6pm on Saturday.  It took me a while to figure out that code.

I asked my mother-in-law once if she ever missed living in Norway and her only reason was, “No!  In America, you can go to the grocery store anytime you want!”  Apparently it was quite the thrill for her to no longer plan her days around the store’s opening hours.  I now understand.

Grocery stores in Norway don’t use coupons, but they do have sales.  Products sell out quickly though, and there are no rain checks, so arriving early is essential.  Store employees don’t work the night shift, so when I’d go shopping right after they opened, I’d have to make my way around racks of food waiting to be shelved, or step over pallets of merchandise.  Customer convenience or safety isn’t an issue.

Customers have to bag their own groceries which makes standing in line an opportunity to practice patience.  They also charge about twenty cents for every bag used.  I brought my own.  And there is a ten kroner deposit ($2) to use the shopping cart, which is returned from the little slot on the handle only when the cart is put back in its proper place and attached to all the other carts.  Luckily, I discovered an American quarter is the same size as the ten kroner coin. Sometimes I’d insert a quarter to use the cart and then not bother to return it to its proper place, leaving the quarter behind.  It was an act of rebellion I could afford.

One of the many stores I used has a member’s card that offers a one percent rebate.  I was shocked after we’d lived in Norway for a year, to discover my refund balance was almost $200, which meant, in that year alone, I’d spent nearly $20,000 on groceries there.  I’m thinking for that kind of cash outlay, members should get bags and carts for free.