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Rampant food prices in Sweden mean that more Swedes are turning to the cheaper food chains’ own brands. Ulf Johansson, professor of marketing at Lund University, believes that the grocery stores focus too much on price and too little on quality. The group with milk, cheese and eggs has seen the biggest increase in sales of goods under the store’s own brands such as Ica, Coop or Willys Garant since the beginning of the 2000s.
According to Ulf Johansson the reason why stores can offer a lower price for EMV is because they have gained greater power in purchasing, shelf placement and pricing. This has led to dairy farmer Paulina West in Nordingrå reacting negatively to this development.
Ulf Johansson believes that the increased power over the product range of the food giants is a problem. He states that it is horrible that Swedes are not prepared to pay for quality. He believes that if more focus was put on quality in grocery store TV commercials then consumers would be able to know which parameters to shop based on.
