Hemköp is really funked up

So, as most people living in Sweden (generally a vast majority) you need to go grocery shopping every now and then. In Malmö, you generally have five options. ICA and Coop who are the main producers and hold 90% of the market share in Supermarkets in Sweden. Netto are the Danish invaders, who are the low cost option (with generally lower quality fresh produce), and there's always the market down at Möllan. But the one, which is pure disgusting in Hemköp.

For those reading this blog whom are unfamiliar with the Swedish language, its pronounced 'hem-shop' and translates literally as 'Home shop'. Its not your normal milkbar, its a perfectly legitimate supermarket and its an external addition to the new Entré shopping centre. This place is certainly not where you shop if you're not rich.

As you enter Hemköp, you are directed to your left where you first come across the breads selection. The same pågen bread you buy at Netto or Coop, with the same date on it charged at 5kr more than at Netto. ($1 Australian) There's also another variety of 'gourmet breads', which you'd struggle to find anything different in ICA's cabinets, also for a ridiculous markup.

You continue ahead to the fruit and vegetables, where you can find some real exotic apples, oranges and bananas (the same you find at any other store). It is normal in Hemköp to pay 35kr per kilo ($7) for apples, or bananas. Compared to Möllan, where you can buy these for 10-15kr, you are paying over double the price at Hemköp.

Surely this would have to be different looking at the meat department. Of course not...their finest cuts of mincemeat (thats right, beef mince) are 120kr ($24) a kilo. Chicken breast, is none other than 170SEK ($34) and finally you can find pre-sliced pre-packaged steak for as much as 380SEK ($78) per kilo. And its not even Wagyu beef, its non-organic imported from Ireland. Probably on the same delivery truck that brought the pre-sliced pre-packaged beef to Netto for 60SEK a kilo.

I went to Hemköp for one reason and one reason only, olive oil. They have one brand (Carbonell) which I have grown up with in Australia, and its price is only slightly more than the standard for extra virgin olive oil in Sweden 70kr ($14) a litre. Comparing it though to the price mom and dad buy it in Australia, I can remember then once buying the 4 litre drums of Carbonell for $15, though it was a couple of years ago. But putting it into perspective, inclusive of the markup it cost(ed) the same in Australia to buy 4 litres of olive oil that it costs for 1 litre here. How does this work? Spain is just up the road, a train trip away, and there's no tariffs as its within the EU. So somehow, for this Olive oil to be transported within Europe to Hemköp's shelves, without tax enables them to charge such a ridiculous price, compared to Australia where it has to be shipped over 10,000 miles, with four times the amount of oil in the drum.

Hemköp is not only funked up, but its a bloody ripoff!