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Swedish traders warm to euro

Acceptance of euro notes and coins is becoming more and more widespread in Swedish businesses, despite the country’s rejection of the European currency in a referendum in 2003.

Published: 10 July 2008 17:57 CEST

Swedish traders warm to euro

Businesses in Gotland and Norrbotten are particularly open to customers carrying euros, according to a new survey of shops, hotels, restaurants and tourism-related companies by Swedish business group Företagarna. Of 602 companies questioned, 60 percent said they accepted euros. Hotels and restaurants were significantly more likely than shops to accept the European currency.

Areas near land borders were generally more accepting of the euro than other areas. In Haparanda, on the Finnish border, there were almost no stores that said they would turn down payment in euros. Even in Luleå, 130 kilometres from the border, many traders accepted the currency. In Norrbotten county, where Luleå and Haparanda are situated, and in Gotland, around two-thirds of companies polled said they took euros. Companies told Företagarna that they took the euro because it was what customers wanted.

Företagarna’s CEO, Anna-Stina Nordmark Nilsson, said the survey showed that there would be advantages to Sweden joining the euro:

“Despite the fact that Sweden remains outside the eurozone, the euro has in practice made inroads in parts of the country. It would simplify things for companies if the euro was introduced in the whole country,” she said.

Despite the high acceptance rate for the euro, relatively few customers used the European currency for transactions. Just a third of companies that accept euros in Gotland and Norrbotten said they received payment in the currency at least once a month.

The survey did not reveal whether customers were getting a good deal when paying in euros, or whether businesses were making a tidy profit when changing the cash into kronor. More than 75 percent of businesses said the cost of handling two currencies was small or non-existent.

OPINION: Are tips in Sweden becoming the norm?

The Local’s guide to tipping in Sweden is clear: tip for good service if you want to, but don’t feel the pressure: where servers in the US, for instance, rely on tips to live, waiters in Sweden have collectively bargained salaries with long vacations and generous benefits.

SEE ALSO: What’s the tipping etiquette in Sweden?

But there are signs that this is changing, and the change is being accelerated by card machines. Now, many machines offer three preset gratuity percentages, usually starting with five percent and going up to fifteen or twenty. Previously they just asked the customer to fill in the total amount they wanted to pay.

This subtle change to a user interface sends a not-so-subtle message to customers: that tipping is expected and that most people are probably doing it. The button for not tipping is either a large-lettered ‘No Tip’ or a more subtle ‘Fortsätt’ or ‘Continue’ (it turns out you can continue without selecting a tip amount, but it’s not immediately clear to the user).

I’ll confess, when I was first presented with this I was mildly irked: I usually tip if I’ve had table service, but waiting staff are treated as professionals and paid properly, guaranteed by deals with unions; menu prices are correspondingly high. The tip was a genuine token of appreciation.

But when I tweeted something to this effect (a tweet that went strangely viral), the responses I got made me think. Many people pointed out that the restaurant trade in Sweden is under enormous pressure, with rising costs, the after-effects of Covid and difficulties recruiting. And as Sweden has become more cosmopolitain, adding ten percent to the bill comes naturally to many.

Boulebar, a restaurant and bar chain with branches around Sweden and Denmark, had a longstanding policy of not accepting tips at all, reasoning that they were outdated and put diners in an uncomfortable position. But in 2021 CEO Henrik Kruse decided to change tack:

“It was a purely financial decision. We were under pressure due to Covid, and we had to keep wages down, so bringing back tips was the solution,” he said, adding that he has a collective agreement and staff also get a union bargained salary, before tips.

Yet for Kruse the new machines, with their pre-set tipping percentages, take things too far:

“We don’t use it, because it makes it even clearer that you’re asking for money. The guest should feel free not to tip. It’s more important for us that the guest feels free to tell people they’re satisfied.”

But for those restaurants that have adopted the new interfaces, the effect has been dramatic. Card processing company Kassacentralen, which was one of the first to launch this feature in Sweden, told Svenska Dagbladet this week that the feature had led to tips for the average establishment doubling, with some places seeing them rise six-fold.

Even unions are relaxed about tipping these days, perhaps understanding that they’re a significant extra income for their members. Union representatives have often in the past spoken out against tipping, arguing that the practice is demeaning to staff and that tips were spread unevenly, with staff in cafés or fast food joints getting nothing at all. But when I called the Swedish Hotel and Restaurant Union (HRF), a spokesman said that the union had no view on the practice, and it was a matter for staff, business owners and customers to decide.

So is tipping now expected in Sweden? The old advice probably still stands; waiters are still not as reliant on tips as staff in many other countries, so a lavish tip is not necessary. But as Swedes start to tip more generously, you might stick out if you leave nothing at all.

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