Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

SUPERMARKET

Grapes sold with toilet bleach as Swede launches eco war

A supermarket has put chemically-sprayed fruit on the same shelf as cleaning products as part of a campaign to encourage Swedes to buy and sell ecological goods and label foods fairly.

Published: 29 February 2016 14:54 CET
Grapes sold with toilet bleach as Swede launches eco war
Customers looking for non-organic green grapes at the store in Täby, Stockholm, were surprised to find them stacked up close to bleach, toilet fresheners and washing powders as the new week got under way, alongside a strongly-worded message.
 
“Hi! We have chosen not to sell ordinary grapes. We have placed these regular grapes here to show how much chemical spray there is on them. You will find only ecological grapes at Hemköp Alléns,” read the note.
 
The manager of the store, which is part of the nationwide Hemköp supermarket chain but is independently owned, told The Local that he was attempting to “get into the media in a funny way and reach as many people as possible”.
 
“There are a lot of chemicals in the grapes so why not put these chemicals together with the other chemicals,” said Joakim Skotte.
 
“They should not be with the other fruits – with the apples and bananas – because there are so many chemicals in the grapes.”
 

The store's manager Joakim Skotte. Photo: Private
 
The businessman said he was hoping to encourage other Hemköp outlets to follow suit, as part of an ongoing campaign to promote ecological goods.
 
His store was also the first in Sweden to sell only organic bananas three years ago, a move which was later adopted by branches of the company nationwide.
 
“This is statement number two,” said Skotte.
 
Asked why the supermarket was still selling strong cleaning products, while running a campaign against other kinds of chemical sprays, the 29-year-old said that he was simply trying to tackle one green issue at a time.
 
“There is so much to do in Swedish stores, so you have to start somewhere. The bananas and the grapes are things that kids are consuming very often, so we start with the kids,” he added.
 
The father-of-two said he had been inspired by his love for his own children and wanted other kids to benefit from eating products farmed organically, without the use of chemical sprays.
 
“The kids are not buying this themselves, they have no choice, it is their parents' [choice],” he told The Local.
 
His ambition for the initiative to go viral was swiftly achieved, with news stories about the grape stunt on Monday only beaten in terms of likes and shares by those featuring Sweden's new Oscar winner Alicia Vikander, according to social media site Socialanyheter.

FOOD AND DRINK

OPINION: Are tips in Sweden becoming the norm?

Should you tip in Sweden? Habits are changing fast thanks to new technology and a hard-pressed restaurant trade, writes James Savage.

Published: 5 April 2024 13:59 CEST
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. 

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.

SHOW COMMENTS