Swedish shoppers boycott supermarkets over ‘runaway' food prices

The Guardian

25-03-2025

Marcel Demir was not impressed. The Swedish student had been monitoring the price of chocolate and crisps and had noticed that both had gone up astronomically.
'Absolutely, prices have gone up,' he said, standing outside a branch of Sweden's grocery store chain Coop in Stockholm Central train station. 'I usually buy crisps and chocolate and they've gone up a lot. Chocolate recently. Crisps over the last year.'
The 21-year-old from Eskilstuna in south-eastern Sweden is not alone in his consternation.
According to some estimates, the annual cost of feeding a family in Sweden has gone up by as much as 30,000 kronor (£2,290) since January 2022. A packet of coffee is soon expected to reach the symbolic threshold of 100 kronor (£7.64). That's an increase of more than a quarter since early last year, according to the government agency Statistics Sweden.
Last week, after the biggest rise in food prices for two years in February, thousands of people across Sweden decided to vote with their feet, boycotting the country's biggest supermarkets for seven days from last Monday.
Helped by viral posts on TikTok and Instagram, the campaign has become a national topic of conversation and a political flashpoint.
Protesters blame the rise in prices on an 'oligopoly' of supermarkets and big producers prioritising their profits over customers, and a lack of competition between companies. But supermarkets blame far-ranging factors including war, geopolitics, commodity prices, harvests and the climate emergency.
It is one of several cost-of-living protests that have unfolded across Europe in recent weeks. Shoppers in Bulgaria boycotted big retail chains and supermarkets last month in protest at rising food prices, reportedly leading to a drop in turnover of almost 30%. In January, a boycott in Croatia spread to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia.
The Swedish protest initiative, 'Bojkotta vecka 12' (Boycott week 12, so called because it was held in the 12th week of the calendar year), asked consumers to stop shopping at big food shops including Lidl, Hemköp, Ica, Coop and Willys to protest against rising prices.
'We have nothing to lose, but everything to gain,' social media posts said. 'Food prices have run away while food giants and the big producers are making billions in profits at our expense.'
Demir was not wrong: of all foods, chocolate prices went up the most last month, rising by 9.2% according to tracking site Matpriskollen. Cooking fat prices rose by 7.2% and cheese by 6.4%. Milk and cream rose by 5.4%.
Not everyone is convinced by the merits of the seven-day action, however.
Though Sandra Gustavsson, 34, has been noticing the rising cost of food, she is more in favour of a complete overhaul of shopping habits – such as using a 'reko-ring'. This is a way of buying locally produced goods without intermediaries.
'Since Covid it feels like food prices have just gone up, up, up,' said Gustavsson, who works as a head of operations and lives in Gothenburg. 'One week is good because it starts a conversation,' she added. 'But otherwise I don't think it has an effect.'
Filippa Lind, a leading figure in the boycott, said conversation about the action – for and against – was everywhere. Lind, a student from Malmö, said she was doing it both as somebody who was affected by the 'unreasonably high prices' and as an 'act of solidarity for others'.
Calling for government to act, she said: 'Politicians need to step in and break apart this oligopoly that is causing high prices because of lack of competition between grocery companies.'
Now they plan to continue their protest with a three-week boycott of Ica, which is Sweden's leading grocery retailer with around a third of the market share, and the dairy producer Arla. After that, they say, they will add more companies to the boycott list.
'I hope it will lead to political action that will indefinitely lower the prices on basic goods,' said Lind.
Accusing the centre-right, Moderate party-led coalition government of inaction, the Social Democrat economic spokesperson, Mikael Damberg, said in parliament on Tuesday: 'In Sweden today, ordinary families empty their savings accounts and borrow money to get through everyday life.'
In response, the finance minister, Elisabeth Svantesson, said that inflation had fallen since the government took office in 2022, when it was about 10%. In February 2025, the inflation rate was 1.3% – up from 0.6% in January.
But, she acknowledged, food prices were still high. 'To support those who have it hardest is important,' she said. 'It is also important now to see what we can do about food prices.'
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The minister of rural affairs, Peter Kullgren, said price rises had been caused by largely international factors such as higher commodity prices due to crop failures, but said that competition in trade needed improving.
'Food prices have increased over time and they hit the economically weakest households hardest: families with children, students and the old on low pensions. It needs to be addressed,' Kullgren said.
He added that tackling the problem and ensuring prices stabilise was a 'high priority' for the government, which met with food industry figures last Thursday. He described their discussions about high food prices as 'constructive' and promised: 'We will now take that work further.'
On Friday, the government also presented a new food strategy that included measures to increase Swedish food production. Kullgren said he wants to see better competition in the food industry, including the launch of new grocery stores to encourage competition throughout the country.
He also warned that boycotts could have 'the opposite effect' of the one intended, and said he could not support them.
Jenny Pedersén, a spokesperson for Hemköp, was unable to comment on how customer numbers had been affected by the boycott, but said food prices in Sweden were being affected in the same way they were in other countries.
'There are many factors that are affecting food prices,' she said. 'Everything from war, geopolitics, commodity prices, processing costs, climate change, weather and harvests.
'There are a few categories driving inflation at the moment – in particular dairy, coffee and cocoa/chocolate. Dairy is one of the biggest grocery store categories, and therefore has a big impact on inflation, both its rise and fall.'
The Coop chain said it had seen a 'slight decline' in customer numbers last week compared with the same time last year, but were unable to pinpoint a definitive reason.
'We do not rule out that there is a certain effect of the boycott, but it is still difficult to assess,' said its spokesperson Håkan Andersson.
The Ica spokesperson Jenny Gerdes said the impact of the boycott varied significantly between stores, but that some stores had seen 'some impact', including increased food waste.
'We understand our customers' concerns about rising food prices and respect their right to express their frustration,' she said. 'It has become more expensive to grow, produce, package and transport food, but also to run a store.'
Johanna Eurén, a spokesperson for Willys, said: 'We have full understanding for customers and the worry and frustration that food prices have increased. We understand that people want to show their discontent.' However, she added: 'We probably think the boycott is a bit misguided.'
Lidl and Arla were also contacted for comment.