The Multi-Cultural Food Market: grocery stores approaching foreign-born consumers in Sweden

Field: Social Sciences (Social Sciences)

During the last decades, the Swedish food market has seen a greater selection
of food from different cultures. Globalisation and tourism are reasons for a
more international food market. For example, Mexican-American Tacos
(Pilcher, 2012) can be found all over Europe nowadays, even though there
are hardly any Mexican immigrants in Europe. A company called Santa Maria
has managed to make TexMex (Texan Mexican) food popular in Sweden. By
making ingredients available and easy to cook, a broader group of consumers
is reached. Sushi is another example of food that is popular even though there
are very few Japanese people living in Sweden.
Another reason for a Swedish food market with a larger variety of food
from different cultures is because of its increased immigration. This change in
the food market is particularly, but not exclusively, noticeable in countries
such as Sweden that traditionally has had relatively few immigrants. Shelves
in grocery stores that a few decades ago held one type of cooking oil in two
different bottle sizes, half a litre and a full litre, are now ﬁlled with a vast
assortment of oils in different quantities. The change towards more international food is noticeable in all grocery stores, but particularly in residential
areas where many immigrants live.
Consumers who move from one country to another are likely to change
their eating habits, but to various degrees. It is common that people keep their
original food culture, especially if they are not forced or pressured to set it
aside. However, this varies widely with degrees of acceptance and the importance of food to a person’s identity in their country of origin (Ray, 2004). The
extent to which food consumption changes and adapts differs and depends on
individual factors such as personality, experience and habits, as well as contextual and structural factors. To what degree are foreign-born consumers’ food
habits acknowledged in the new culture, for example in restaurants and
grocery stores? Is it even possible to ﬁnd brands or ingredients from the home
country? Does the attitude of the host country towards migrants make a difference? The purpose of this chapter is to increase the understanding of how
grocery stores in Sweden approach an increasingly multi-cultural food market.The global trend of interest in cooking, reﬂected in television programmes,
radio-programmes, newspapers, magazines and books, is noticeable also in
Sweden and mirrored by an increased selection of international food in
grocery stores. Another reason for increased interest in global cuisine could
be that Swedes in general are extremely well travelled. In 2012, nearly 13
million holiday trips were made by Swedes,1 a country with only 9.5 million
inhabitants.
As mentioned earlier, another major reason for a greater assortment of food
from different cultures is increased immigration. Sweden has immigrants comprised of around 200 nationalities2 who represent heterogeneous food cultures.
Immigration has increased, in particular during the last decade. In 2012,
Sweden had nearly 1.5 million foreign-born citizens,3 corresponding to about
15 per cent of the population, which is high from a European perspective.
The percentage of foreign-born residents is higher in large cities such as Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmo. In 2012, the most common countries of
origin for immigrants were, in descending order: Finland (11.1 per cent), Iraq
(8.7 per cent), Poland (5.1 per cent), Yugoslavia (4.7 per cent), Iran (4.4 per
cent), Bosnia-Hercegovina (3.8 per cent), Germany (3.3 per cent), Turkey
(3.1), Denmark (3.1 per cent), Somalia (3 per cent), Norway (2.9 per cent),
Thailand (2.4 per cent), Chile, (1.9 per cent), Syria (1.9 per cent) and China
(1.8 per cent). About half of these immigrants are born in Europe and about a
third in Asia. Many Finnish people came to Sweden during the Second World
War and in the 1950s. Iranians emigrated to Sweden after the revolution
during the latter part of the 1970s. Immigrants from Yugoslavia and BosniaHercegovina moved to Sweden during the 1990s. Recent turbulence has seen
increased immigration from Iraq and lately Syria and Somalia.
Even though the number of immigrants has increased in Sweden, there is
a lack of studies of their consumption patterns and of how retailers view
them. This fact is surprising, since foreign-born consumers have relatively
large purchasing power when it comes to food. Food is considered important
and cooking is vital for spending time with family and friends. This should
make the group interesting for retailers (Fridholm, 2006).