Reaction Swedish Supermarket ICA Maxi

Reaction Swedish Supermarket ICA Maxi
This is my reaction to Swedish Supermarket ICA Maxi
In this video I react to a supermarket from Sweden called ICA Maxi
#sweden #culture #reaction
Original Video - • Swedish Supermarket - ...

[@GuinevereKnight]

The tubes you thought were sauces for fish and read Bacon-ost (not a brand but one type of cheese) is actually tubed soft cheese spreads for sandwiches. Very popular here, and comes in all kind of tastes, bacon, shrimp, blue cheese and lots more.

[@GuinevereKnight]

Fruit and veg is apart from Sweden from around Europe certainly but also from around the world. Torget means the square/market, so the market for fruit and veg. The chips/crisp brands are Swedish OLW is a classic brand, Loka is Swedish, sparkling but I think they might have still water as well (not sure, not my go to brand), but those sorts of brands.

[@arneedlund8512]

Chees tubes are good becorse they can last for 2 years whithout cool. I know, I am bad in English writing 😂

[@nisselarson3227]

Don't forget "Caviar" :)

[@cottonsocks9169]

It's so good! My sis always takes some home back to Finland😂

[@larslarsen7457]

This cheese is a processed cheese, very tasty.

[@Asa...S]

ICA is the biggest supermarket chain in Sweden, with 1 300 stores. ICA Maxi are their biggest stores, there are about 90 of those. It's not the cheapest one, but it's not like some fancy place either. Here are some of the prices of products you saw in the video: 1:49 Soap, 15 SEK, ca 1.11 £ 2:33 Children's books, 39 SEK, ca 3£ 3:43 Vaccuum cleaner, 999 SEK, ca 74£ 4:08 Foccaccia, 30 SEK, ca 2.20£ 7:35 Apples per kg, 35 SEK, ca 2.6£ 7:43 Pineapple, 14 SEK, ca 1£ 9:11 Sparkling water 2 for 15 SEK, ca 1.11£ 11:21 Pick and mix candy per kg, ca 90 SEK, ca 6.70£

[@ArchieArpeggio]

ICA Maxi is similar to finnish Citymarket and Prisma, but way smaller. At least for my experience that i have visited one in Haparanda and one in Nacka. I used to visit Haparanda few times in year as i were in my ex-wifes parents in northern Finland. I usually bought 1kg Polarbröd and Skogaholms limppa from there. Also meat were cheaper there than in Finnland, but we lived 360km away so it was too long way to buy meat products as we were going back to our home. Also many other things were cheaper in ÖoB, Rusta and Coop.

[@Herpes_free_since2006]

And the most expensive. 💀

[@DoNE021]

I try to avoid this big supermarkets like Ica Maxi. To much people i need to stop and talk to. It's like meeting place for families. hehe. But they have almost everything. All the different taste on products.

[@minnamalmstrom3329]

We import veggies and fruit from a lot of different countries. U asked what Torg is, its square. Estella and O L W is Swedish.

[@LoungeCorp]

@@DoNE021 And still, ICA Maxi is little. In other countries, the hyper markets are way bigger!

[@vesaleppanen275]

The only surprise was that the film did not show very much of the dairy department. They tend to be huge in Scandinavian countries with large variety of milk, butter, yoghurt, etc., products.

[@masterblasterT47]

About the bread, most Swedish supermarkets get deliveries of raw dough that are baked in the store. And that's in addition to the commonly available bread brands that are produced on an industrial scale. There's also independent bakeries who make all their baked goods from scratch, but they are not as common as they used to be.

[@Asa...S]

Smaller supermarkets get deliveries of raw dough that are baked in the store, but all ICA Maxi I'm aware of has their own bakery in the store where they bake from scratch.

[@GenericNameeee]

From my experience shopping at different Maxis’ and having worked at one, Ica Maxi stores have their own bakeries where they bake the dough from scratch themselves. Even some Kvantum stores have this, though they aren’t as common and I think that’s more up to the franchise owners.

[@Exbozz]

and as someone working in ICAs distribution unit, all of those fika goodies you think are storemade are actually frozen.

[@ZwenssonLP]

Interesting to know: There are four different sizes of ICA stores. The smallest is called "ICA Nära". These small shops can be found in many small villages. The selection of products focuses primarily on food and the most necessary household goods. The next level is the "ICA Supermarket". These shops can be found in slightly larger villages. The range is somewhat larger and mostly there are also fresh goods such as fish, meat and cheese. Then comes the "ICA Kvantum". Can be found in cities with a large selection and additional area such as clothing, kitchen utensils, electronics, etc. The ICA Maxi is then the largest. Often found in large cities. You can actually get nearly everything there, similar to WalMart.

[@K4inan]

Walmart

[@ronng21]

här i kiruna vi har båda ica nära och ica quantum

[@YaFunklord]

Outside big cities. In big cities you'll find ICA nära or Supermarket at best, as real-estate is too expensive for very large stores. Small towns also have bigger stores at driving distance.

[@Drenamow]

The ICA Connoisseur

[@kohwai8321]

I live in Jönköping and Im pretty sure we have all 4 kinds of ICA here. Its more like, the further you are from the city center the smaller the store gets.

[@joelkalin9764]

As a way to practice my english I will try to compile your questions a bit. ICA, Inköpscentralernas Aktiebolag should translate to The Sourcing Centrals´s LTD/LLC (feel free to correct me on anything). The ICA MAXI is the largest store in the ICA chain of stores and should be considered a Superstore rather than a supermarket. Answers to follow chronologically: Flowers; common in swedish grocery stores/supermarkets but the range will vary widely. Small stores may have seasonal plants or cut flowers and larger stores both cut and or planted flowers. A small store located near a cemetary will often have cut flowers or for example heather. Prices; a tad higher in ICA stores since ICA is not a (and you touch on this later) a discount store. ICA kind of refers themselves to beeing a more traditional store (from back in the days when there was one merchant in the village, a classical vibe or sorts). Other stores as Willys, City Gross (gross being the swedish word for wholesale) focus more on low prices. Can you get all sorts of things in a swedish supermarket? Yes, in supermarkets and superstores, not smaller stores. Biscuits; The "broken" ones are fudge buiscuits, or fudge "snaps". Traditionally made in a baking pan and, if not cut, broken into pieces. I guess the crums can be used in other baked goods if one would prefer. Krämbulle: Cinnamon bunn filled with vanilla custard. Kräm=custard bulle=bunn. Different variants exist. Kaffebröd: Different kinds of baked goods to enjoy with your coffee. Bröd=bread but can also mean different kinds of pastry as in FIKABRÖD, some kind of bread to go with your Fika. Where you say OooH; That´s a Semla or semlor. Just google it :) They appear in the film "A man called Otto" as "Semlors" since it is a remake of the swedish film "En man som heter Ove". Vetekaka: Wheat bread. Fun fact since hard bread has been mentioned in the comments; hard bread will go soft if it gets old and soft bread will get stale. Ironic. Tube cheese: It has been mentioned and comes in great variety. The brand is Kavli and what swedish kid has not eaten Vetekaka and tube cheese on their field day in school or on the "sportlov". A great outdoor snack to use with bread. It comes with taste of ham, bacon, crawfish, shrimp, chipotley and many many more. Do we import fruit and vegg? Yes, we do. Sweden is a cold country which is not suited for a lot of produce but we do grow our own when the season allows it. This answer might be slightly simplified. Torget: Has been mentioned as the square but I´d say it´s more like "the market", as in fruit market". An homage to the old ways of selling things at markets since ICA often has that nostalgic vibe. You can almost imagine a merchant amonst the crates shouting the deals of the day. Food quality: ICA has their own tier system (aswell as other stores) for their own brands for example Basic (low cost bacis quality), Goot liv (good life) the healty alternative and Selection (premium). Other brand sold generally is of good quality. Signeage: These are for things that are on offer for members (you can be ICA member which gives you offers and discounts). Signs with offers are common I would say. Loka and Ramlösa: Both mineral spa centers and producers of mineral bottled water. The Ramlösa brand is featured in the Sopranos and I guess exported to different parts of the world. Are energy drinks popular in Sweden: Yes. Very much so. There is even an age limit of 15 years old to buy them. Coffee or tea; What you see is coffee and I would say that sweden is amongst the top countries for consuming coffee in the world. Per capita that is. Candy on saturdays: This was very common when I grew up. We usually did not eat candy during the weeks so it was a saturday treat with some flex. If you saved some for sunday that was okay but running to buy more; no dice. This still lingers today especially with younger children. Chocolate candy: If you look close I´d bet you´d spot the Malteesers :) What you see are products from Marabou, Cloetta, Fazer (finnish brand), the malteesers brand and OLW. Maybee more. Baby clothes: This is because MAXI should be considered a superstore rather than supermarket. I know that some questions have been aswered in the comments already.

[@prageruwu69]

har aldrig hört nån översätta torg som market

[@joelkalin9764]

​@@prageruwu69 Bedrivs handel på platsen vilket jag utgår från att det gör i en affär så är market en bra översättning.

[@johangull4796]

@@prageruwu69 The proper translation would be 'city square' and/or 'market place'. Traditionally, the city squares were the market places.

[@deviltear]

Hi! Swede here. This is a normal supermarket here in Sweden. One of the biggest ones, in fact. I go to this store or Coop every week. OLW is a swedish brand. :D Also the tubes are soft cheese thats used on sandwiches, mostly. All the signs are prices. :) The bigger letters describes what section that you are in. All the bread are baked in store btw. Some from scratch and some are bought in frozen. Also: we love tea AND coffee. also fika. Kaffebröd = coffee bread. Which means sweet stuff that we have when we fika (aka: drink tea and/or coffee and eat something sweet). Candy is bought on saturdays. On fridays we eat tacos. Taco-fridays! Love your reaction. :D

[@kohwai8321]

Vi har också ICA Maxi som är betydligt större.

[@7echnoid]

Worth noting - both ICA and Coop (don't know if connected to the British stores) have stores in various sizes. For ICA they come as ICA Nära ("Near" - small stores that mostly have groceries and not a lot of other "stuff"), ICA Kvantum ("Quantum" - decently sized where you can get any groceries and some stuff), ICA Maxi (largest store which is what you saw in the video - these are scattered on the outskirts of larger cities). For Coop they have Lilla Coop (Small Coop) and Stora Coop (Big Coop) where Lilla is anywhere between Ica Nära and Ica Kvantum and Stora Coop is similar to ICA Maxi.

[@NennaC]

You forgot ICA Supermarket, the next smallest size after the smallest ICA Nära.

[@kohwai8321]

Thats a small Maxi. The one in my city looks much bigger. Wider aisles etc

[@ag0nii]

ICA is pronounced eeka, and its probably the biggest supermarket we have in Sweden. Decently priced Creamy sauce is soft cheese with different flavours. And Yes the bread in the cabinets are baked every day fresh

[@Wurtoz9643]

When he said it it sounds like a government organisation or something😂

[@marcushillerstrom25]

As a swede, I think we do give away flower quite often. Normally if you are invited to someone, you can bring some flowers and a bottle of wine. And as a boyfriend I give my girlfriend flowers every now and then. Edit: We are huge coffee drinkers, like the fifth most per capita in the world.

[@deviltear]

Also: The clothes from ICA Maxi are pretty good quality. I buy them for my kids sometimes and they are as good or better as clothes bought from H&M.

[@pdobani]

Agree with you better then HM.😂😂

[@newsnowsweden1661]

8:51 OLW and Estrella, the two dominant snack companies in Sweden, are previously Swedish owned companies, but soled out to foreign companies, as many other Swedish companies, unfortunately.

[@ij88]

I moved from sweden to spain with my scottish husband 2 years ago, this video made me miss ICA Maxi so much! 😅 You go for 1 litre of milk and leave with a jacuzzi

[@lisaandersson7962]

We need energy drink and coffee during the winter here😅

[@Asa...S]

The tubes of melted cheese is mainly used on sandwiches, but you could of course use it for anything you like, on pasta for instance. Around christmas it's popular to use the blue cheese ones on gingerbread. There are two brands, Kavli, which is Norwegian, and Fjällbrynt, that is Swedish. The flavors from Kavli: Scrimp, mushroom, chipotle, jalapeño, sriracha, chorizo, bacon, ham, deer/juniper/horseradish, bluecheese, crayfish, bluecheese/pear, brie, browned butter The flavors from Fjällbrynt: Scrimp, spicy tuna, spicy salmon, spicy pepper, ham, bacon, salami, smoked reindeer, mild blue cheese, blue cheese/whiskey

[@Templarofsteel88]

I will never understand why they translated it as creamy sauce.

[@Asa...S]

@@Templarofsteel88 Yeah, that's odd. I think that almost everyone use it as a cheese spread for sandwiches, not as a sauce.

[@DoNE021]

Either i eat from the tube, sandwich or on hamburgers. :). They are nice.

[@nisselarson3227]

Yeah, and bacon-cheese, the one you mentioned in the video, would probably not go that well on fish.

[@Jullebulle1991]

At the fruit section it said torget, that means square, like a market square. Fruit in Swedish is frukt. Here in Sweden we are HUGE coffee drinkers. So what you saw was all different coffee brands. We also drink tea, but not as much as we drink coffee. We drink it so much that everyone assume we like coffee without asking first. So when I for example say I don’t like coffee, people look at me like I’m from a different planet almost. I prefer tea over coffee any day. 😅

[@gunlindblad6816]

Oh, you really think that flowers are for husbands to buy? I am really stunned! You constantly keep fresh flowers in your home, always

[@Evastumpan]

Not always

[@moondaughter1004]

I'm pretty sure that this was filmed during the pandemic so that's why it's not that busy. Also yeah ICA store's are usually very neat and tidy. I used to work at one and we would continuously re-organize the shelves so they looked nice. Btw while Saturday may be candy day, you can also treat yourself to something on a Wednesday. We sometimes refer to Wednesday as little Saturday, or in Swedish Lill-lördag

[@matsv201]

I would say that is a pretty normal between 9 and 11 type activity. Most people there are seniors or mothers with babies, suggesting its before 12.

[@mr.sts.p]

Yes it was and a speaker voice sade ceap the distans 1,5 to 2m.

[@nisselarson3227]

Yeah, pandemic and the store was open as usual. Glad this turned out to be a good idea. :)

[@stoferb876]

To answer some of your questions: What you wondered was cracker is something called 'hard bread' in swedish. It's a version of bread that is completely dry like a cracker, and also of course exist in a gazillion varieties (avoid at all cost the 'hard bread' they sell in IKEA, those taste like card board). The 'creamy sauces' are actually varieties of soft cheese and also caviar, a local thing, not expensive russian caviar. So it's not anything fancy it's just for making yourself a cheap sandwish or something for breakfast. The other bread you saw was indeed store baked. And even much smaller ordinary grocery stores will often bake their own bread and have a similar but much smaller selection of all kinds of things: flowers, toys, kitchenware e.t.c. This store looked extremely clean so I'd guess it was filmed before noon. Supermarkets like these are usually cleaned early in the morning and the real rush and crowding of customers in the store usually starts at about 2 o' clock in the afternoon. So rest assured that the store will get more messy and dirty during the afternoon and evening. But probably someone will clean up the worst mess during the entire day and then in the morning it will get really polished up again, so yeah I guess swedish stores in general are kinda clean and neat. As for the brands I can't really say anything, they are all familiar to me and I don't really know if they are only typical for Sweden or not. I guess many are.

[@veronicalidstrom5424]

"Hard bread" is actually called Crisp Bread!

[@marcusisacson]

Being Swedish I have no experience from the grocery stores being "messy" at any time, that's a extreme exaggeration 😂 I believe they are almost as tidy all the time 😊

[@Estenberg]

Having visited my cousins in Sweden numerous times, I've shopped at many Swedish Supermarkets. Swedish food is extremely seasonal. Of course, Cheese, Gravlax, Pickled Herring, plus canned or packaged goods are available all year round. Live Crawfish are abundant in Late Spring and Summer. Fresh Strawberries are ripe in early Fall. And the best fresh Seafood & Fish are usually much better in certain months. Around Christmas (Jul) many foods become more frequent, like Smoked Venison, "Green" (uncured) Hams , Reindeer, Bear Meat, Holiday Cakes & Breads, many Wild Berries and Pickled Roots, plus Potato Sausage. One food items unique to Sweden is "Surströmming", or sour herring, which is canned for up to a decade to rot.

[@dannyboy-vtc5741]

That's funny, strawberries are ripe here only in spring and early summer, shows the differences in climate, i noticed this with many products indeed.

[@MsLilly200]

?? Strawberries definitely aren't a fall thing, it's like, may-august in a good year, at least down here in the south. They're an absolute staple during summer, if your midsummer table doesn't have strawberries it's not complete.

[@dannyboy-vtc5741]

@@MsLilly200 there's two types of strawberry, the old domestic ones as they were called, strictly seasonal, they were ripe once at late spring and that's it, same like the wild ones, and long lastong ones that have multiple cycles and can give fruits fir a month and a half or two. I had a lot of compost before when i mowed all my grass with the basket, and my neighbour had bees, still does, just i reduced them while doing the ground in my garden, but due to compost and bees my strawberries were ultra feertile, each "bush" would have along 5-10 nornal strawberries at any time, at least that much or double tiny ones like the wild ones, obviously not enough minerals to sustain full growth, but they had it all concentrated, the aroma and flavour of the normal one, they were basically identical to wild strawberries, picking just them and making my yoghurt with them was something else completely.

[@marcusisacson]

The biggest part of the selection is actually all year around but then there are also as mentioned previously seasonal selection as well...

[@altoclef6688]

Sour herring is fermented fish, not rotting.. and you eat it same year or up to a year after it was canned. It is, however, extremely smelly.

[@zanyt13]

To make it easy, move the decimal one to the left and you get the price about correct in dollars or euro, so if it says 50.00kr it is close to 5.00 dollars or euros. No 100% correct but you get a hint! 😊

[@ProgMannen]

U made me smile a bit when u asked if swedes drink coffee or tea. Guess we are quite big on both, but per capita according to coffee... only the Finns beat us...in the world. We are very serious about our coffee. Pure black and strong ! Several coffee chains here are popular, which made starbucks having difficult to establish themeself in sweden. ICA is one of the biggest chains here in Sweden, if not THE biggest. Every bigger city (+20-30.000 ?) has an ICA Maxi. ps. I thought that particular store was rather small. In my city ICA Maxi is twice as big. (Linköping).

[@michaelhansen4225]

Norway ranks 2nd behind Finland. Denmark ranks 4th and Sweden is all the way down on 6th.

[@ProgMannen]

@@michaelhansen4225 maybe we got lots of tea drinkers after brexit. But really don't care. We in the north plus netherlands takes the first 6 places. We all are serious about our coffee i think...

[@ProgMannen]

The ones that drinks other than dark roast are wimps. A spoon should dissolve itself in a cup.... Joking... but pure black no sugar no milk is no joke ! Heja Zoega intenzo, mollbergs blandning... Arvid Nordqvist Festivita..

[@MrMk82]

​@@ProgMannenrather the uncontrolled immigration to sweden the past decades.....

[@ProgMannen]

@@MrMk82 what the hell has that to do with if we drink coffee or tea ??? Which was the question i answered to....

[@Nina-sn8hf]

Many Ica Maxis has their own greenhouse in the store to grow fresh herbs and salads. My local Ica Maxi even has a bakery and a sushi counter in the store . The only thing they don't sell is wine. But the off license is just next door 🙂

[@PInnHeAd]

If sweden is big on coffee? Sweden would go under without its coffee nowadays xD

[@moondaughter1004]

We'd all be home in our beds with massive headaches if coffee suddenly disappeared

[@ProgMannen]

First thing in the morning a BIG cup of strong darkroast black coffee. NO sugar NO milk.. that's for wimps !

[@swedishmetalbear]

Those tubes.. Are all melted cheese... Different flavours. Sweden has a very very large domestic cheese selection in general. More than many other countries. And hardly anyone knows about it.. A treasure trove for cheese lovers..

[@GryLi]

yes in all of Scandinavia we buy clothes from supermarkets they are cheap and kids grow real fast. The expensive brand stuff seems stupid to buy

[@tommiejonsson8952]

Saturday used to be the designated candy-day in Sweden and might still be for some people, but it has been largely replaced by a phenomenon called "Fredagsmys" which is kind of hard to translate, but it means to cuddle up in the sofa and watch TV while eating snacks ("Snacks" have a broader meaning in English, but in Swedish, it's used as a collective term for crisps and the like) and candy and drink soft drinks. If you want, you can start it off with take-out or a home-made easy-to-eat-in-front-of-the-TV-dinner.

[@tommiejonsson8952]

Oh, and it's set to Friday, which is in the name "Fredag. . ."

[@lenaforsgren]

We tend to honor both fredagsmys and lördagsgodis 🤪

[@MrMachineHead]

While the concept of "saturday candy" partly has it's roots in teaching kids not to ruin their health by consuming too much sugar in the weekdays and also giving the parents a chance to get their kids to bed in time for some relaxing weekday evenings after work "cozy friday evening meal" was originally launched as a commercial slogan from some food manufacturer (tacos and byproducts). Of course the concept of taking the chance to do some instant indulging after five days of a working week is not so hard to sell to the vast majority of the population.

[@torrancerichter1469]

when I travel, I too enjoy going to the local shopping and seeing what the prices and variety are being sold there.

[@arthena2130]

1. ICA is without a doubt the biggest supermarket chain in Sweden and are really good when it comes to getting day fresh baked bread and desserts for cheap prices. The other supermarkets we have are COOP, LIDL, City Gross and Willy's. 2 Creamy sauce is just a thick liquid of mild cheese that are naturally flavored depending on what you want. My favorite is jalapeño and it for putting on sandwiches. 3 Everything that can be produced in Sweden is, but Sweden is cold and a lot of things can't grow here. Where we import from is depends on which supermarket you are at and what brand you are buying from, for example, Nescafé would not be who I would ever buy coffee from. We are huge coffee drinkers, among the top in the world. 4. Favorite Swedish brands would be Estrella for me, they make chips.

[@mnemonicn]

baconost is bacon cheese in a tube, Swedish are coffee drinkers. I think we are the second biggest coffee drinkers in the world after finland i think

[@michaelswede1804]

Hi Mert. Nice to see your videos from Sweden. I myself have been living in Thailand for 7 years. This ICA MAXI, is a so-called super store, they are usually found outside the city centers. There are three major players in the Swedish market. ICA (privately owned stores) COOP, (are cooperative stores, type of social democrats. And Axfood (privately owned) which owns Willys etc. Then there is LIDL which does not have as big stores. Writes in Swedish like that you get to see what it looks like.

[@Fnoffen]

On Sweden and coffee: Sweden is the country that consumes the second most coffee per capita in the world. First place is Finland...

[@FenrisUlfven]

The tubes were cream cheese, not sauce. BaconOst = Bacon cheese If it not season in Sweden, veggies comes mostly from Holland or Spain. The origins of fruits are more diverse.

[@MagnusFoss]

The bread. Some Ica maxi (e.g. The one that is close to where I live) have a real bakery with about 15 bakers baking bred and pastries (not bakeoff, this is the real deal). Very high quality… ”my” ICA Maxi have a tearly turnover of about 23 000 000 GBP (300 mil sek).

[@RikardAnders]

I'm from Sweden and I like your videos a lot. Like you and your dialect as well. ❤😊

[@Sunkan111]

Torget means the towns square!Loka is a place in sweden where they get the fizzy water!!

[@KryddaFesten]

Hi, I live in sweden and can answer some questions you asked. The flowers, no often ther is not the husben that bays it, it is the wife. Most toys are expensive They dont bake the bred in the ssupermarked, but they come row and are done in the oven in the so they are new from the oven. Baconost tube, Ost menas chees. The potatoes and carrots, apples, leddes we grow here in sweden, but banana, kewe, pinaple, mellon, orange we need to inport from wormer countriees, The offer signs is in the big stores/markets The chips OLV is from sweden Loka is water, can also be flawed water, yes it is from sweden. Yes we are big coffe drinkers

[@kingwacky184]

Swedes love coffee yes. Sweden is one of the biggest coffee consumers per capita. I think Sweden is number one consumers of coffee per capita. That is because of the Swedish tradition of FIKA. Everyday it is tradition to have a fika, meaning a coffee break with coworkers and friends. Coffee and pastries like cinnamon rolls, a slice of cake and cookies.

[@martinfranzen9151]

I think Finland is nr.1 and Sweden nr.2

[@kingwacky184]

@@martinfranzen9151 Yes you are right per capita Finland is first i was mistaken it is in total consumption it says Sweden is first. The list I found is from 2019 tho so it was awhile ago.

[@EterPuralis]

Yeah but... the finns boil their coffee. Boiled coffee 😅

[@ambientspacem]

I love how the Swedes loves there coffee culture so much that they have come up with a name for it and pretends they are the only ones in the world taking a coffee break with coffee bread or something sweet ,

[@EterPuralis]

@ambientspacem Fika isn't necessarily coffee, may as well assume British tea is tea

[@schoolingdiana9086]

We have supermarkets like this in Seattle. The clothing is usually higher quality and a bit expensive. There’s also a garden center that’s part of it, an automotive section, shoes, and a bank and jewelry store inside-it’s not a mini mall; it’s just one store. Most of the settlers here came from Scandinavian countries. I grew up in Atlanta and there was no such thing when I lived there-supermarkets were for food items and paper products only.

[@newsnowsweden1661]

10:23 It is coffee, Sweden is the second in the world to drink coffee, Finland is the first coffee drinkers.

[@hannahgrawr1]

”Lördagsgodis”!! It’s the golden day of the week for kids. Saturday-sweets 🎉 I’m 30 years old, and it’s been a thing since I was a born and probably before that too 🥳⭐️

[@willewiking98]

finally someone else who understands my fascination with visiting different supermarkets whenever I go abroad. it's one of my favourite things to do. for all the same reasons you mentioned

[@carlawiberg6282]

My favourite tourist pastime, too! Enjoy seeing Italian supermarkets displaying six hundred varieties of pasta and no milk ... and French ones with miles of charcuteries and murderous-looking bread guillotines 🙂

[@marcusisacson]

The fruit and vegetables are both from Sweden and from other countries mainly in Europe but also from other parts of the world.

[@Frendh]

5:20 Crisp bread. Generally doesn't taste much at all. But very nice to eat with different toppings and/or condiments on. I eat it almost on a daily basis. 6:51 Most produce are imported. Less so in late summer and autumn, but still a whole lot. It is relatively cold here which gives us a narrow selection of what we can grow. But even things that we can grow are still usually imported. Potatoes, onions and carrots are rarely, if ever, imported though.

[@matsv201]

Half the store is like general stuff, half the store is Food. There is typically 2 or 3 shelf rows of every type of stuff. They missed the garden and electronic and clothing section They actually narrow what they are selling a bit. They use to sell bikes and computers and other stuff as well, but don´t do that anymore. Ica maxi sure try to make it look and feel upmarket, but its relatively low prices. Its typically considerably lower than corner shops and just a few percentage more expensive (if any) than low price shops. They for sure make there money on general stuff like clothes and electronics that are somewhat decently priced, but not really cheap. The Fruit's and veggies are a mixed of stored, greenhouse produced and imported. Most of the imported once comes from Netherlands, that in turn have a longer growing period more greenhouses and in some cases, typically for tropical fruits they are imported in turn from Spain, where the tropical fruits are not grown in the tropics but rather in the desert with shading. A lot of the food is Swedish brands, or at least Nordic brands. They really can´t have anything on the floor The health inspector would be there and close down the shop if they did. The rules for food cleanliness in Sweden is really harsh. Anything that have a decently log expiry date they basically have all of it on the shelf. So while there is loads and load of stuff, that can hang around on the shelf for a month. Then they just move everything progressively out to make it look fully stocked at all times 12:26 Yes very much. When the kid is born and you don´t have time to go shopping. Its so easy to just take it whan you walk buy when you have to go buy food any way. They are not really cheap, but also not overly expensive, and the quality is generally quite good. Typically anything that is sold as the store brad is top notch quality. Then some shops, like ICA also have a store budget brand, that also really have quite good quality

[@ouwle6618]

An interesting fact i learned about the ICA brand here in Sweden is that it isn't a chain supermarket brand in the sense i thought. For example, i thought it was alot like how Mcdonalds and other fastfood places has where they are overseen but regional managers and that every fastfood place in that brand has connections that trickle down from the top. And i would guess that is how many british and/or american supermarket brands work too. But ICA is kind of just a distribution and production brand. Every ICA from my knowledge is local aka It's owned by a store owner, so the owner has no one "above*" them telling them how to run the store itself. The thing they do with them is using the ICA brand in return for steady supply and well priced groceries they can sell at the store, most of them coming from ICA's own production of course. I learned this when i had a discussion with someone why they didn't go to HR because her boss was an asshole. But the store owner WAS both HR and boss, which is kinda scummy. There was no HR part from ICA itself that oversees how store owners handle their jobs. The only thing you could turn to is a workers union. This might've been a nobrainer for most, i just thought it was interesting haha.

[@KungKokkos]

I mean, mcdonalds also have alot of franchinsees, aka owner/operators that are not directly controlled from above but have to follow a certain ruleset. Same with subway etc. Im pretty sure thats about the same system ICA uses.

[@znail4675]

ICA are all franchises where as Coop are centrally owned member stores. There are some cases of owners owning several ICA stores making it a group of stores thing.

[@KingJulianXIII]

As a Swedish teen, I can confirm that we like energy drinks a lot. You won’t find anyone in my class that doesn’t have at least one can in their locker. Some examples are: monster & red bull, as you said. Then there’s Celsius, nocco & latitude 65°

[@susannleinonen5831]

Love to see your reactions of Swedish stuff 😂

[@Sorenzo]

I think old Scandinavians really like flowers. I dunno if younger folks care, but for a lot of older folks, there's a custom of bringing flowers whenever you're a house guest somewhere. My grandmother always had fresh flowers that she got from visitors. It's also the kind of gift you can always give to somebody who doesn't need more clothes or appliances in their home. Maybe I should think about reviving this family tradition. Anyway, I think you hit the nail on the head - these places are mostly like mini-malls... There are smaller supermarkets that mostly only carry foodstuffs and daily supplies, and then you've got these big department stores, usually not right in the centre of town, which carry all kinds of stuff people COULD buy when they're picking up groceries anyway. They usually have a huge variety of foodstuffs too. Fruits and vegetables - common fruits are generally imported from Spain (or the Netherlands, for some reason, they've historically been avid fruit cultivators - they were the first to grow pineapples in Europe, for instance), with rare fruits and most nuts coming from other continents, but a few fruits have decent growing seasons in Scandinavia, including apples, pears, and a wide variety of berries. Vegetables are likely to be locally produced, their availability, price, and size depending on whether they're out of season or not, so the most common vegetables will always be available, but they'll be cheaper after the local harvests, and bigger after the summer growing season. Some get imported too, especially when out of season if there's demand for them. Potatoes are always local, because they thrive in colder climates. Some vegetables don't benefit from the climate, so the local supply can be a bit blander, so stores might carry imports instead. But when vegetables CAN be grown locally, that tends to be what we see in the stores. Basically - the stores tend to carry local vegetables when in season, but our food habits are shaped by our growing seasons, so we more commonly eat vegetables that can be harvested early in the spring and/or just before the winter, and in the summer a lot more produce is likely to be local. Overall this means our most common veggies tend to be local most of the year, with imports filling winter demand and the demand for anything that isn't grown here, such as certain peppers, nuts, exotic fruit, what have you. Frozen foods - usually a third of the section is relatively junky food, and a third is ice cream, but then you've got chopped frozen vegetables, meat products, and fish in the rest of the section, which tend to be good. Also yes, energy drinks are HUGE amongst the youths, lol. As for all the sales, it's common for mid-range supermarkets to widely advertise sales to draw in customers. I often only buy products on sale, because they happen so regularly I ironically don't have to pay attention to when they happen, which I feel obviates the idea of drawing people in with a sale 😂

[@AkesOutdooradventure]

ICA has three sizes of its stores. Maxi is the biggest, then it's just called Ica for the smaller model, then it's called Ica near when it's a block of shops.

[@vilmerr9930]

Something about supermarkets in sweden is that most of the different supermarkets that are kind of the same size mostly have the same kind of products. But the prize is different on most of the things, and depending on where you are in sweden a product can cost more cause of the taxes as well.

[@britonabrompton9912]

The ICA Maxi you see here is a relatively recently updated one. An ICA Maxi, like this one has a huge range of stuff, think like Tesco, or ASDA. You will sometimes see some heavy duty tools, that might be a surprise. I have seen boltcutters, and chainsaws in some ICA Maxi stores

[@znail4675]

I would think the extras would depend a lot on what other stores are nearby. If there are no hardware stores in the area then ICA would carry some as there would be a market for it, but most stores wont.

[@PUTDEVICE]

don't know if all ICA Maxis have a bakery, but ours does. good with freshly baked bread, they also make cakes and pastries.

[@christopherbackans560]

Those tubes are cheese with different flavours. Soft cheese. Used on bread.

[@charisma-hornum-fries]

Dane here. I love to go shopping in Sweden. We're going by train tomorrow and Jule Must is a favorite. And e-cig fluids. Prices are 40% lower so we feel rich when shopping in Sweden.

[@petter5721]

This is filmed in the store I go to every week, excellent store. We swedes love food in tubes; cream cheese, caviar, mayonnaise, tomato purée…..

[@Skans-Gustav]

I agree with you, it is informative to check supermarkets in countries I visit.

[@annikasteiner4389]

Good quality, medium prizes and a pretty large supermarket. ICA is a change of supermarkets where Maxi is the largest. Most of the food is produced in Swedenyes Lökar is bottled water, sparkling.

[@whojanson6751]

Actually, the grocery chain ICA is pronounced 'eeka', not as the threeletter agency, with the same letters, in USA.

[@worldtravelimagesnet]

ICA MAXI is in almost every midsized or big Swedish city. For example in Malmö metro area there are four and they are all huge! They are acutally the cheapest store to buy toys that are so expensive in Sweden elsewhere, since we only have one toy store chain left. 1euro=10-12 kronor depending on the rate. At 5:52 those are creme cheese with tastes of shrimp, bacon etc...

[@pdobani]

Tack för informationen. ❤❤

[@marcusisacson]

Sweden is the number two biggest coffee consumer in the world after Finland 😋 We drink tea as well but mostly for breakfast or in the evening.

[@Anton_Mantynen]

Ica is founded in my home town, we recently got 24/7 open ICA. You shop with your phone and open the store with it also. Ica is the biggest here in Sweden. We got two Maxi in my town.

[@malinpeh]

We have a 24/7 Coop where I live :)

[@Anton_Mantynen]

@@malinpeh Skellefteå or am I wrong?

[@malinpeh]

@@Anton_Mantynen Haninge, south of Stockholm :)

[@Anton_Mantynen]

Ahh! My old place where i delivered packages.@@malinpeh :)

[@robert4you]

Remember that this was filmed during the beginning of the Covid pandemic, that's a big reason why there were so few people there.

[@DefaultFlame]

ICA is one of the two large Swedish chains, the other being COOP. Their prices are mid-range and they can be found just about everywhere. The MAXI is the name denotes the store size and therefore the selection and general price, as compared to other ICA stores. If you want a supermarket chain that has a similar quality but cheaper you go to City Gross, usually built just outside cities or in industrial areas for the lower cost of the land. If you want even cheaper you go to the German chain Lidl. The quality isn't as good, but their prices are generally the cheapest.

[@marcusisacson]

We love bread in Sweden and the selection is quite big. They bake the bread fresh in the stores 😊

[@michaelmay5453]

We're HUGE coffee drinkers but some of us, actually quite a lot of us, drink tea in the evening. I can't drink coffee after 16.00 or I won't get any sleep. My mum drank coffee in the evenings as well but she was like a clock, once it's 23.00 and her head hit the pillow she was sound asleep.

[@stormmoster]

It is common to give flowers at birthdays or when you are invited to a dinner party.

[@Soldrakenn]

We keep many plants indoors and it's a very common giving away gift for any situation. You can always bring a flower

[@bobbou]

Being from the UK you probably recognize Daim bars as a kind of candy. Marabou is the company that created and makes it still, though it might be licensed to a different company internationally I guess.

[@Fnoffen]

Those tubes were mainly full of softspread cheeses with different flavors such as Ham, Bacon or just plain cheese. Mainly used instead of or on top of butter on sandwiches.

[@Mrlifewithoutlife]

We love variety over here. That is why there are so many different things of the "same" kind of products.

[@TheRealmBetween]

Sweden has a few rivaling markets (I'm working for one of ICA's rivals, but it doesn't matter which one), and while good prices draw customers, it isn't the only draw. It's important to be attractive in all aspects; good selections, clean areas and shelves, logical organisation that makes shopping easier, space to move, friendly and helpful staff. If your supermarket checks all these boxes, that's where people will go to shop, sometimes regardless of what the prices are.

[@patricvursen3314]

Huge coffee drinkers in sweden we are. The packages with a Z on is Zoega´s coffee located in Helsingborg. Coffee made for the water in this area of Sweden.

[@tomassteen6092]

Hello! Ica is pronounced ica. I is pronounced like i in fika. 🙂

[@stefanjohansson8402]

Yes, If you skip the f in fika you get the pronunciation of Ica.

[@Heizekel77]

I agree. Walking into a super market or a small kiosk or anything the "locals" go to is really nice! :)

[@kennethgustafsson9503]

As a swede I can say the greatest cinnamon bun ever found were in malay ("national swedish dish" a.k.a. "fika" = coffee + buns). Used to stop by 05-06 a.m to get fresh ones + in afternoon usually bought the best samosas on the planet from another guy. + I got famous for my various tuak-drinks.. So great food & drinks (tonkat Ali = malay coffee ;))

[@DoNE021]

5:44 Its creamy cheese on tube, with different taste. To put on sandwich. Cheese that taste bacon, Cheese with smell of used socks. and on. hehe But they taste good. :)

[@JohanHolmbergMalmo]

Aaah, good old ICA Maxi Ystadvägen in Malmö prior to the latest remodeling. I miss the layout.

[@Thaerii]

ICA (pronounced ee-ka) has like four different tiers from smallest to largest: Nära, Supermarket, Kvantum and Maxi. For food, you usually want Kvantum, for a bit of everything you want Maxi. This seems to be a really good Maxi though, so it's on about the same level as a Kvantum when it comes to food. And yes, all Swedish supermarkets are this tidy. Oh, and if you're lactose intolerant: the selection of dairy is huge! As in actual dairy but with lactase (the enzyme that breaks down lactose) added. This extends to coffee shops, so you can have a latte with non-lactose cow's milk rather than having to resort to soy or similar. Produce is... ICA usually tries to keep local but it depends on the individual store. My local one has locally sourced potatoes, onions and carrots for more or less all of the year, and it tries to keep parsnips, rutabagas¸ beets etc. going. But fruit in the middle of winter? Nope. The same for herbs. _torget_ is pronounced like if it were written "toryet" in English. -rg does that, which includes _torg_ and all its forms. -lg too, so for example _älg_ and all it forms as well. _torg_ means "city/town square" by the way.

[@evak1003]

Kvantum is the worst, they (in Gävle - Fjällbacken) often promise (a product) but almost always fail to deliver

[@Thaerii]

@@evak1003 Considering that most ICA stores are individually owned, they can vary quite a bit in quality, but the absolute best I've been too when it comes to food have all been Kvantum.

[@christopherbackans560]

Love the video, i also like your accent m8.

[@lillanlofgren7424]

The best thing for me in Ica Maxi is that they make food themself in the store kitchen where I am . (They also baking bread there )Always very good food and healthy . They also have clothes and shoes for adults . They are also of good quality .

[@vilse89]

I worked in a ICA for 5 years, so have some info, On the part of veggie we have both swedish and import, all depending on season. Main places we import from are Spain, Netherlands/Holland. allso a few middel eastern country but i would not say as much as the other 2.

[@linusfotograf]

Swedes are the second biggest consumers of coffee in the world and yes, people love their energy drinks here.

[@charisma-hornum-fries]

Who is number 1? Just curious 😊

[@linusfotograf]

@@charisma-hornum-fries Finland

[@kultomten]

The reason for swedes eating candy on Saturdays is that in the 40's and 50's there were experiments conducted at a mental institution (Vipeholm). The experiments aimed to prevent Caries with vitamins and minerals. They gave chewy caramel to the patients to observe the impact the sugar had on the patients' teeth. This resulted in the conclusion that a large consumption once a week is better than a moderate consumption every day...

[@perer005]

Always like this as well, the supermarket tells you quite a bit about a culture.

[@jenniferhelmersson570]

"Torget" could most closely be translated to "Market place" or "Market square", so they want the produce section to feel like buying from kind of a farmers market (is my interpretation) 😊

[@jockeskanal22]

The bread and cookies that shows like that are baked by the shop itself :D

[@7echnoid]

"Torget" means "the square" (like a town square) ...don't know why they call it that, but I guess it's to symbolise a produce market

[@user-oj9oy7mi1j]

ICA Maxi even has electronics like mobil phones and TV sets for sale. Anything but stronger alcohol. Swedish people are surely one of the worlds most coffee drinkers - we love a fika with coffee and a cinnamon roll.

[@jakobrosenqvist4691]

ICA shops are run by individual entrepreneurs with a large amount of freedom to run their shop, this means there is a fairly large ammount of variation from location to location on what products are stocked and how large the different sections are.

[@Bjorksons]

We love coffee but drink a lot of tea as well, the loka bottles are sparkling water produced here in Sweden

[@gabieldenstierna]

2:05 My early childhood was literally to go grocery shopping with mum in our local ICA Maxi. She'd leave me in the toy section with strict promises of not leaving until she came back for me. Wasn't hard to do, I mean I got to look at toys for 40 minutes lol XD

[@fredrichenning1367]

Bought flowers at ICA MAXI today -- being Valentines Day!

[@larsuppling981]

The prices at the ICA franschise in general are usually mid-range but the larger stores are often trying to push prices down to be competitive in the bigger cities. One of my go-tos for my dogs food and treats is a ICA Kvantum.

[@KerstinMamma]

"It's a brand called baconost" oh my sweet summer child. That's bacon and cheese in a tube.

[@Fnoffen]

About Swedish prizes: There is somewhere around 10 SEK to the USDollar or Euro so just divide the Swedish price by 10 to get a general gist of the prices in Dollars or Euros.

[@UpcomingJedi]

The one thing you cant find in the supermarket is the additional hidden 'tax' charge they surprise you with in the States.

[@anannanas8118]

10:30 Sweden has the 6th highest coffee consumption per person in the world. We like coffee.

[@Thalsha92]

Love the accent, I thought it was a mixture of scottish and french at first but then you said you live in Malaysia. regardless it's wonderful! Some answers: I-C-A is pronounced ika (like in ikaros) and Maxi is the size, so this is the Largest store size. However that is usually an indicator of what might be available in the store, as size really depends on location. Some Maxi are bigger than others. and yes it's pretty popular, it's one of four major grocery stores (altho Maxi has more of an "everything" feel.) As for things you might not find elsewhere. I haven't been to many other countries, but it is fun to know that in some locations where they are closer to farms you might find fresh milk straight from the farms instead of the national brands. "Färsk Gårdsmjölk". Flowers: generally I think it's because gardening and having fresh flowers in the house is common culture. and if you don't want to grow from seeds you can buy started plants. It's also brightening up the house during winter when it can be dark all around the day. Prices are very varies. it's a standard store but they try to compete with the others, so there's some good deals, there's some average, some pricy. Items: Ica Maxi I believe aims to have "everything you need in a household" so that it's a very good place to go when you are just moving into a new place the first time. The items are varying quality, some plastic items are lower quality but affordable (student friendly) some items can be very good, mostly pots and pans, or steel and glass things are on the higher end. Can be a little more expensive tho. Wooden things are also usually very nice, maybe not the most durable because organic material will always need more maintenance, but they are very pretty. Bit basic style if you are interested in more design variety, but useful and often affordable is a good start!