Posts tagged with "Ica"

Christmas in preparation

Posted by Katja 3 Comments
Nov 22 2011

Christmas means different things to different people, I’m sure that that is a commonly agreed on fact by now. For a lot of people christmas has no longer anything to do with the birth of Jesus, it can be summed up with presents, Santa, snow and holidays. In Sweden food and family are huge contributing factors as well.

The stores aren’t terrible about when they hang out their x-mas decorations and it is really only this week that they have really pulled out things. I was a little surprised at this and thought “Wow, is it christmas time so soon?” I’ve talked to people and most of us agree that it is the lack of snow making it hard to believe its soon december. In many cities in Sweden there is always snow on the ground by mid-november. This year at least Umeå (in the north) hasn’t had snow once.

Instead I have focused on what the stores have to offer. Pepparkaksdeg (gingerbread dough) has been out on the markets for about 2 weeks, if not a little bit longer. :) And they have been handing out free Christmas recipe pamphlets too.

Of course everything is online as always, but I find it very inspiring to pick up a pamphlet and look through it while choosing what Christmas baking to do.

This is ICA’s (one of Sweden’s biggest grocery store chains) Christmas logo for this year. The text on the picture saying “Julköket” meaning the Christmas kitchen, and followed by “och det goda stöket” on the second row. “Och det goda stöket” means: and the good preparations/bustling about.

 

Opening hours

Posted by Katja 3 Comments
Sep 29 2011

The chances that you will be battling people right after work for groceries are quite high in Sweden. Probably less so now then a couple of years ago when almost all shops closed at 5 PM, but I think you would still be hard-pressed to find a shops that is open after 9pm on a weekend if they aren’t big chains like ICA MAXI, Coop Forum or Willys for example. Especially in smaller towns most shops such as H&M or Galerix (paper and stationary shop) aren’t even open at all on Sundays, recently to more and more peoples frustration.

One reason why these opening hours are kept the way they are, is probably the countless trade unions that enforce workers rights, prioritizing and seeing the importance of living a balanced and healthy life. That being the reason for trying to keep working hours down and within a reasonable time of the day. Swedes in most cases ‘work to live’ and not ‘live to work’. This way people have more time for family, friends and hobbies :)

The End of Apoteket (well, almost)

Posted by Transparent Language 1 Comment
Aug 24 2009

If all goes well, very soon you’ll be able to buy over the counter and prescription medications at your local ICA supermarket! Yay! I’d say it’s about time! You see, until July 1st of this year, Sweden was one of the very few countries left in the world with a state-controlled pharmacy monopoly. That has (finally) come to an end, and now other firms (both Swedish and foreign) can also apply to open and run drugstores.

Personally, I’ve always thought that the Apoteket monopoly was a very dumb thing, especially for simple over the counter meds, like paracetamol or spray for runny nose.

There were times when I found myself with no Otrivin (nose spray) on a freezing wintry Sunday morning and was forced to trek to the local hospital where the only pharmacy open for longer than 4 hours was. It was inconvenient and wasted both time and gasoline. Those trips frequently made my cold even worse, and by the time I actually got to the hospital, I also needed headache medicine and sore throat treatment.

After a while, I learned to be prepared. I kept a stock of Alvedon (paracetamol) and some assorted prescription-free allergy pills, cold meds, contact lens solution, yeast infection treatment, and who knows what else at home. Just in case. Because you just never knew when you might need something, right? And our local pharmacy was open strictly during weekdays strictly during business hours.

But now, it just may come to pass that our friendly ICA will carry an assortment of pharmaceutical essentials! It will be such a relief to be able to buy a bottle of contact lens cleaner at the same when shopping for milk and bananas.

So how will it work exactly? It seems that ICA will open their own in-store pharmacies. The plan is to begin doing it during the first quarter of 2010. But even sooner than that, in November of this year, some grocery stores (and not just ICA, but other retailers as well) will be able to sell certain over the counter drugs (and I do hope that contact lens solution, as well!). But only to customers over the age of 18. So how is it going to work, really? Are they going to ask for IDs, just like when buying beer, if someone wants a pack of Mucoangin for their sore throat? Isn’t that a bit of overkill? Well, maybe it is, but still, I am very happy that these pharmaceutically deregulated days are finally almost here.

So Sweden, what is next? I’d say let’s get rid of Systembolaget!

Varor Du Brukar Köpa?

Posted by Transparent Language 5 Comments
Oct 16 2008

I’ve been down with flu for quite some time now, and needless to say, I got bored. So bored in fact, that I actually started to read the stuff that the Ica supermarket chain sends us in the mail. Yeah, I was THAT bored. But I’m glad I read it, because now I’m thinking whether or not I should actually email Ica and tell them they’re about 15 years too late to claim to be “first in the world.”

But let’s start from the beginning. Ica runs a few different kinds of supermarkets, all with the word “Ica” in their names. You have a regular Ica, Ica Maxi and Ica Kvantum.

Ica Maxi is the largest store they have. And just so that every nimwit knows it’s large, they call it “maxi,” which for me always brings sanitary pads to mind. Don’t you think Ica Maxi would be a great name for a maxi pads brand? You’d have your Always, your Libresse, and your Ica. Sadly, it isn’t so. It’s just a supermarket. And just how big is it? Think of a midget Walmart and you have your average Ica Maxi store.

They sell everything, from toilet brushes to school supplies to frozen foods. And their prices are OK. At least in our town. But you can get even better deals if you use their loyalty store card. If you spend 2500 SEK in one month, you receive a coupon for 25 SEK. Isn’t that great? No, I know, not really. But hey, I’ll take what I can get. And because to get this coupon you need to swipe your card every time you buy something, the company knows exactly what you’re buying and where.

Once a month you get your Ica Buffé magazine, along with a selection of discount coupons and your “big” coupon for 25 SEK (could be 50 SEK if you manage to spend 5 thousand a month).

And this month, this is what Ica had to say:

“Lägre pris på varor Du brukar köpa!
Vi på ICA år först i världen att testa personliga erbjudanden till alla våra stamkunder. Vi kallar det “Mina varor.”

Which means:
“Lower prices on items you regularly buy!
We at Ica are first in the world to test personal offers to all our regular customers. We call it “my products.”

Which is indeed very sweet, but totally incorrect. “First in the world”? In their dreams, maybe, yeah. Shoprite in the US (and I think A&P too) offered a similar scheme back in the mid-90s.

And why is it that they say “varor du brukar köpa”? I haven’t bought any of this stuff in the last year! My suspicion is, they look for a thing you bought maybe once, because they know you’re not likely to buy it again, and so they give you a discount on it.

I much preferred the previous coupon version, where they randomly picked sale items and they were on sale for everybody. At least that way I was open to trying new things, because a girl just can’t resist it if it’s on sale, right?

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