Where Ivan asks various questions about Sweden

[Ivan NWG]

As I have mentioned we are looking to move to Sweden in 3 years or so. I have all the big picture stuff down but I will no doubt have ten thousand questions along the way. So I thought I would just create a single thread where I can post questions and folks who have an interest can pop in and answer or comment.

Since I am also working on reading Swedish of course, for the purposes of this thread please ONLY answer på svenska

Question 1:
What are the major grocery chains? Do you have Aldi and Bilka over there?
In particular what would be an example of a more expensive / up scale and a more "day to day" / discount grocery chain?
(looking to do a bit of price comparison online since I have not been used to Scandinavian prices in a hot minute)

Question 2:
How rural can you get and still expect to have decent internet? Is it pretty good everywhere or does it vary?

 

[Magnus Seter]

Question 1:
What are the major grocery chains? Do you have Aldi and Bilka over there?

De stora kedjorna är bland annat:

Coop
Ica
Normal
CityGross
Lidl
Hemköp

De flesta av dessa erbjuder varor till "normalpris", men skillnader förekommer. Tror att Lidl, Normal och CityGross är billigare än Coop, Ica och Hemköp, men vet inte säkert. Jag handlar mest på Coop, och ibland på Ica eftersom de har några saker som Coop inte har.

Sen finns ju online-alternativ, som Mathem.se.

Question 2:
How rural can you get and still expect to have decent internet? Is it pretty good everywhere or does it vary?

Du ska ut väldigt långt i vildmarken för att inte ha okej internetuppkoppling, t.ex. uppe i Norrländska fjällen och bergen. Men i stort sett finns det bra eller i alla fall okej internet överallt.

 

[Rangertheman]

ICA, Coop, Willys och Citygross är de stora kedjorna. Lidl finns också lite varstans, och 7-Eleven är inte ovanliga i de större städerna. En del Netto. Både Aldi och Bilka har (haft) planer på att öppna i Sverige, men jag har inte sett några sådana butiker.

Vissa ICA-butiker är lite mer exklusiva med ett hyfsat utbud av lyxigare delikatesser.

De flesta platser i Sverige har tillgång till fiber eller snabbt, mobilt bredband. Det är mest om du kommer långt ifrån civilisationen som det kan bli problem.

 

[erikt]

The biggest grocery chains are
ICA - average to expensive depending on the size of the store. Small stores in central locations tend to be more expensie than the big ones on the outskirts of cities.
Willys - low price
Lidl - low price
Hemköp - usually on the expensive side
Coop/Konsum - varies a bit depending on the store size.
I haven't ever heard of Aldi or Bilka, so I guess they don't exist here.


If you get really far out into the woods you will have trouble getting good Internet. Or any Internet at all in the more extreme cases.
But as long as you stay in the more settled areas you shouldn't have any problem getting decent Internet.
(If you move into a house up in northern-most Sweden with five miles to the closest neighbour, don't count on getting decent Internet. If you live in some town/village with 1000+ inhabitants, you can very likely get decent Internet without much problem)

 

[Frederik J. Jensen]

Compared to US, especially vegetables are cheaper. Grocery shopping healthy ingredients and cooking dinner at home beats eating out by far both in price and quality.

Alcohol you get at Systembolaget and is more expensive than what you see in the US. Soda, depending on brand, is likely more expensive too. You can get cheap locally produced sugary carbonated water.

Swedes don't smalltalk with strangers.

Self service is the norm. You can tip at restaurants but it's just a money grab, not like in the US where staff get their salary from the jar.

Cash is rarely used. Cheques are non existing. Almost all contact with public administration is digital so get a personal identification number (personnummer) and digital id (BankId) as soon as possible.

No matter how hard you try, you can learn to read Swedish but Swedes won't understand your spoken Swedish. Danes simply don't have any idea of how to pronounce 'r' such that Swedes understand it.

Aldi => Lidl
Bilka => ICA MAXI

 

[Ivan NWG]

Swedes don't smalltalk with strangers.

Even less than Danes?

 

[Dimfrost]

Öl på Systembolaget är inte dyrt. Mycket billigare än i USA. Det är på krogen (restauranger, barer) som alkohol är riktigt dyrt.

 

[Ivan NWG]

How much is a 12 pack of Heineken? The local store here its about 18-20 USD (so about 200 SEK)

And what does a decent domestic beer cost? I can't name a brand since I have never had a swedish beer, but whatever is sort of equivalent to Heineken.

 

[cogitare]

How much is a 12 pack of Heineken? The local store here its about 18-20 USD (so about 200 SEK)

And what does a decent domestic beer cost? I can't name a brand since I have never had a swedish beer, but whatever is sort of equivalent to Heineken.

Heineken is pretty cheap. Costs around SEK 15 at Systembolaget. So SEK 180 for 12, which equals around USD 17.

If you purchase it at a bar or restaurant my guess would be around SEK 70. A little depending on where in the country.

Cog.

 

[soda]

How much is a 12 pack of Heineken? The local store here its about 18-20 USD (so about 200 SEK)

And what does a decent domestic beer cost? I can't name a brand since I have never had a swedish beer, but whatever is sort of equivalent to Heineken.

14,20 SEK for 33 cl at Systembolaget, so 170 SEK for 12?

You will find a really great range of beers at these stores.

 

[Franz]

How much is a 12 pack of Heineken? The local store here its about 18-20 USD (so about 200 SEK)

Ungefär samma pris här. En burk Heineken kostar 15 kr så 12 öl borde landa på 180 kr.

And what does a decent domestic beer cost? I can't name a brand since I have never had a swedish beer, but whatever is sort of equivalent to Heineken.

På systembolaget eller på krogen?

 

[Ivan NWG]

På systembolaget eller på krogen?

Systembolaget. I assume krog prices are jacked up considerably

 

[Franz]

Systembolaget. I assume krog prices are jacked up considerably

Min absoluta favorit bland svenska öl heter Landsort Lager och kostar 34 kr. Men det finns billigare god öl också, exempelvis Melleruds utmärkta pilsner för ca. 17 kr.

 

[Ivan NWG]

Oh I just realised that you can browse the systembolaget website and see goods and prices Looks like wine selections are both pretty big and quite cheap too, so thats nice.

A follow up question:

How common is "pick up / curbside" orders for groceries and other things in Sweden? Basically where you order online and then you just pick it up?
Also for the bigger cities are there grocery delivery services?

 

[JohanL]

Even less than Danes?

But more than Finns.

 

[Ivan NWG]

But more than Finns.

That just means speaking twice a year though

 

[JohanL]

How common is "pick up / curbside" orders for groceries and other things in Sweden? Basically where you order online and then you just pick it up?
Also for the bigger cities are there grocery delivery services?

Supported by most groceries in the cities. Home delivery has also become cheap.

Super-importantly, Systembolaget supports this, so you can put in an order for stuff that’s not in your store (the selection is usually poor by international standards), and they will put it together from different stores and warehouses, at no cost. The online selection isn’t a disaster, although it isn’t impressive either.

 

[w176]

Question 2:
How rural can you get and still expect to have decent internet? Is it pretty good everywhere or does it vary?

Extremt lantligt. Eftersom det gått att få bra bidrag för det var det extremt vanligt att byaföreningar (den ekonomiska förening som underhåller saker som vägar och gemensamma byastugor och sånt) gick ihop och anslöt hela byn med höghastighetsfiber.

Du kan om du bygger ett nytt hus i en by eller köper ett hus på landet det tidigare bara bott pensionärer i behöva betala för att de ska gräva och lägga ner fiber den sista biten fram till huset från gatan utanför. Men det är en engångavgift och de flesta byar har lokala gubbar med traktorer som kan göra det åt en mot en mindre avgift.


Jag bor i em by ett sånt hus där vi skulle behöva gräva 50meter för att få höghastighetsfiber. Så vi kör på 5G abbonemang på huset istället och streamar och spelar 5 pers på det.

 

[Hundenilunden82]

Öl på Systembolaget är inte dyrt. Mycket billigare än i USA. Det är på krogen (restauranger, barer) som alkohol är riktigt dyrt.

Det är en sanning med modifikation med tanke på att Sverige har en statligt kontrollerad alkoholförsäljning , det finns inte alternativet i Sverige att köpa Wallmarts egna low price beer eller gas station beer.

Den billigaste ölen på systemet i Sverige är 9,50+1krona i pant vilket motsvarar runt 1dollar + några cent . Jag är ganska säker på att du kan få en öl i affären eller på en gas station eller i en liqour store för under en dollar i USA.

 

[Hundenilunden82]

Oh I just realised that you can browse the systembolaget website and see goods and prices Looks like wine selections are both pretty big and quite cheap too, so thats nice.

A follow up question:

How common is "pick up / curbside" orders for groceries and other things in Sweden? Basically where you order online and then you just pick it up?
Also for the bigger cities are there grocery delivery services?

Im living in a what i wouldnt call bigger city and most of the larger brand grocery stores here like Ica, Coop, City gross have pick/up curbside orders and also home delivery.

In my town you can either order it so they pack your order and you go to the store and pick it up and pay or you can put in a order and give them your cars license plate numbers. you then get a pick up time and drive to a designated spot in the store parkinglot and alarm them that you're there and they come out and ask you to pop the trunk and put your groceries in the trunk.

You can also order home delivery and then you usually have to order for a minimum sum of 50 dollars and then they add a packing fee and a delivery fee and an inconvinience fee if they have to carry it far from the delivery truck to your home or like if you live on the top floor in a appartment building and there is no elevator so thats maybe another 20 dollars and orders usually has to be orderd 24 hours in advance since they dont do order and delivery the same day but thats where i live it can be that it varies depending on where you gonna live.

Also they dont deliver if you live to rural so dont expect them to deliver if you live way out in the woods but again thats where i live and it can be different where you end up living