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Rain sees more Swedes shop for electronics

Published: 26 Jun 12 17:15 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/41670/20120626/

The wet Swedish summer isn’t bad news for everyone – Swedish retailers have seen an influx of television sales after many Swedes have decided to stay on the couch instead of brave the rain.

“We’re seeing a clear difference between May, when it was nice weather, and June, when it turned around,” said Niclas Eriksson, head of media outlet Elgiganten, to the Dagens Nyheter newspaper.

The Euro 2012 football championships have no doubt been a big contributor to the TV sales, according to Eriksson, but it hasn’t only been televisions that have been jumping off the shelves.

Magnus Kroon, head of Swedish employers’ commerce organization Svensk Handel, explained that many other goods get a boost in sales when the weather is lousy.

He said that wet weather gear, board games, and wallpaper tends to sell well, and that many people take the opportunity to renovate the house too.

However, the overall raise in consumtion is not necessarily due to the rain, according to Kroon.

“I wouldn’t say that people shop more when it rains. It’s more of a shift in what people buy and where they get it,” he told the paper, adding that a growth in trade of between 2.5 and 3 percent in the June-August period is the prognosis, regardless of the weather.

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15:17 June 27, 2012 by silversurfer
Interesting that Swedes decide to pay for the overpriced products, in particular electronics, in Sweden (and not because of the high VAT to be precise) when globalisation has allowed for easy purchases over the internet at lower prices (including shipping).

There is only one electronics I bought in Sweden during my years here... and it was because the price here was the same as buying it abroad (shipping included) though I think it was a mistake from the retailer because a couple of days after I bought it, its price suddenly increased by the usual 20-30% extra that brands tend to put on products sold in Sweden just because Swedes don't care much about checking how much are they being ripped off :D

I will never understand how the country with the lowest price per mobile subscription (given what you get and the good quality) is also among those countries where almost everything is overpriced (and there's no need to go much further away to find better prices and larger variety...)
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