FOOD is a joint five-year research collaboration between NHH and NorgesGruppen to generate research and new knowledge on the grocery markets, particularly on empirical issues related to market structure, competition and productivity.
Swedish Coop has struggled for several decades since peaking in the sixties and seventies. For a long time, they have had enormous values on the balance sheet, which has saved operations, after easing the balance year by year.
The concept of unmanned, 24-hour stores has been discussed and evaluated in many markets in Norway and abroad. So far it hasn't taken off completely, far from it. Danish Salling Group is defying weak forecasts and is now opening its first self-service grocery store in Denmark.
Many merchants and suppliers in Norway hoped that border residents would acquire new shopping habits after the covid pandemic, and shop more of their household budget at home and not travel so much to Sweden for cheaper food. Naturally, it didn't work out that way.
The founder of Couche-Tard, Alain Bouchard, has done what really should not be possible. From a single gas station in 1980 in Quebec Canada, he has built an international giant with more than 16,000 outlets in Canada, USA, and Europe. Now he hits at Japan.
