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    The norwegian grocery store oligopoly experience
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    The norwegian grocery store oligopoly experience

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    25 Comments

    2. Boo_Hoo_8258 on

      While I hate the whole monopoly thats going on within this country we usually go to OBS to get 2 loaves of bread for 66 kroner, just shop about.

    5. Emergency-Sea5201 on

      LIDL failed in Norway due to using union busting services.

      Once that was widely known (VG front page) their launch was dead man walking in Norway.

      Nothing else is relevant in this topic.

    6. xolov on

      I find it so funny how when norwegians complain about something on r/norge people will be “so true!!!” and 1000 upvotes, but if a foreigner complains about the same thing in English at r/norway all hell breaks loose.

    10. OSRS_Garmr on

      Lidl’s problem wasn’t they were libtards or people didn’t like German stores or whatever. It’s that they tried to go to war with the grocery store workers union. They tried to deny people unionizing and tried to being in a strike busting firm. So the unions went to their allies in the Labour Party. And used their political connections to hinder LIDL. As well as the other actors in the grocery store market buying pit any space that TLDL tried to rent. Essentially if Lidl had acted less arrogant and agreed to play by the rules of the Norwegian labour market. They might have had a chance.

    11. Stavvy_ on

      I’m a foreigner who moved to Norway 4 years ago, and if asked i always tell people how much I love this country. But if I have to find things to complain about, this is the 3rd one. Right after healthcare and the lack of warm food in schools / kindergartens:)

    12. Dull-Spell-1699 on

      Do norwegians actually understand how poor the food selection is in Norway? And how extortionists are the prices for basic goods? Yes Norwegians are “rich” but I don’t think that they are ” pay 3x the price for the same exact food item than you can get 100km away in Sweden” rich. And the selection is literally worse than in a third world country run by a dictator…

    14. HighlandSquirrel on

      As someone who’s going to be spending a lot of time in Norway on a budget later on this year… am I cooked?

    16. MariMargeretCharming on

      Var innom Lidl den korte tida de var her: Shitvarer! 

      Alt er ikke perfekt med Rema, Kiwi ol, men så stusselig det var på de Lidlbutikkene jeg rakk å være innom, ønsker jeg ikke til min verste fiende.

    18. ForCamelot0611 on

      Note: I have been informed by some commenters that Lidl practiced union busting opertaions while in Norway which may have contributed to their failure in the country. I want to make it clear that union busting is a disgusting practice and condemn it on every way. The point of this post was to make fun of and critisize monopolistic practices, not in any way to endorse union busting. Please support union action and collective solidarity. Good riddance to Lidl.

    20. Grayseal on

      Fuck the union-buster import moguls, they’re oligopolists themselves except even worse. Buy local.

    23. feitfan82 on

      “Even though tortillas primarily contain corn, there is a duty on the product. It is possible to apply for a duty reduction, because the product does not compete with Norwegian agricultural products.

      The same type of tortilla can therefore be subject to new case processing time after time at the Directorate of Agriculture.

      It is clear that this bureaucratic mill favors the big ones, says Havgar.

      This is actually possible to do something about, points out the Norwegian Competition Authority”

      Our food mafia wants to decide what we can and can’t eat.

    24. smmky on

      Lidl has quite a good selection with a lot of options for Scottish products. They treat their staff quite well in regards to salary.

      One thing I have noticed is that we (in Scotland anyway) would typically visit the butcher for your meat, fish merchant for fresh fish, baker for pastries and farm shop for eggs etc. Never really observed that in Norway?

    25. Seal-EV on

      I remember the propaganda against Lidl. Some of them were just comical and idiotic but people believed them. Like you had to drive only a black car if you wanted to work at Lidl. Another classic was that Lidl employees were not allowed to date other employees. I used Lidl while they were here. Newspapers like VG and Dagbladet was on overdrive with these rumours along with many local politicians asking people to stay away.
      For the first time I saw many immigrants at work and with better salaries than the established companies. Employees at Lidl were organised in the trade union unlike many of the employees in the «correct» stores.