Your supermarket choice in Norway can say a lot about you, as The Local has previously written in a lighthearted take on supermarkets in the Nordic country.

READ MORE: What your Norwegian supermarket choice says about you

However, the customers you find in the supermarkets probably say even more, as they say a lot about the country and society as a whole. There are a few common characters you’ll meet in Norway’s supermarkets, and we’ve listed some of them.

The shoppers treating themselves to a trip to the upmarket chain

If you can regularly shop somewhere like Meny or Coop Mega, you are likely doing well for yourself.

These supermarkets are considerably more expensive than their cheaper alternatives, but they offer a wider selection of goods and amenities, such as fresh fish, a butcher’s counter, a better selection of bread, and a wider range of world cheeses.

For this reason, many shopper in Norway will treat themselves to the weekend shop at Meny once in a while.

These customers are easily spotted by the baskets full of luxuries rather than everyday goods (after all, the essentials are cheaper pretty much anywhere else) and are seen oscillating between a look of amazement at the product selection and the inevitable shock at the prices, 140 kroner jar of gazpacho anyone?

Still, we all deserve a treat now and again, and it’s worth wincing through the checkout process and never looking at the receipt again to feel the contentment that comes with treating yourself once in a while.

The last-minute shoppers rushing to the tills

People often associate Scandinavia with a cold efficiency that should, in theory, mean everything runs like clockwork.

Thankfully, the locals are just as fallible and human as the rest of us – and punctuality isn’t a virtue valued by some Norwegians.

Therefore, it should come as no surprise that there are always a few shoppers rushing through the store for some reason or another.

The two most common offenders are those who forget that stores close on Sundays and need something for dinner the next day. Stores on a Saturday evening are almost exclusively filled with those who have forgotten to get enough supplies to see out the weekend.

The country’s tight alcohol laws also mean there is a daily deadline to be aware of. Alcohol sales either stop at 8pm or 6pm, depending on whether it’s a weekday or not. Five to ten minutes before these times, a few customers always try to get through the store before the cut-off point.

READ ALSO: Everything you need to know about supermarkets in Norway

The pizza aisle shoppers

Norway is home to world-class produce and has produced many world-class chefs. However, the country’s culinary pedigree can still be considered lacking.

Norwegians eat more frozen pizzas per capita than anyone else on Earth, and the pizza aisle of a supermarket is typically one of the only parts of the store with more than one or two different options.

In truth, there’s more than one type of shopper in the pizza aisle. In the big cities, you’ve got the students and young people filling up either before or after a night out on the town who want something simple and satisfying.

Then there are the people who are drained from work and can’t face the thought of the hassle cooking something brings.

There are families after an easy option everyone likes on a Friday night, and then there are the people who grew up with pizza as a childhood treat and are now craving a slice of nostalgia in their adulthood.

The Sunday shoppers

If you missed the Saturday deadline, you’ll have the ignominy of trying a smaller convenience store-sized shop for your mealtime needs.

Pretty much everyone in such a store on a Sunday gives one another the knowing look of admitting they’ve “ballsed it up” by not getting the shopping in earlier.

The stores are packed, the layouts are almost always strange to comply with the maximum size requirements, and the prices are exorbitant.

Some will accept their fate and opt for something easy like a frozen pizza, while others will put on a more defiant face and try to find enough decent ingredients to make something worth eating. Either way, you’ll wind up in the same store in a few Sundays despite promising yourself to be more organized in the future.

The bargain hunters

Norway’s expensive, but that doesn’t mean people take that fact lying down. Instead, it means many pride themselves on getting good value for money like they can.

Almost every supermarket has a reduced-to-clear section, and almost always, a few people will hover around it, waiting to dive in and rummage through the discounted goods.

The rules of engagement aren’t super clear when it comes to the meet-and-fish fridge, as some people, mainly old Norwegians, treat the opportunity to reach the fridge first as a full-contact sport, shoving past and hurling arms to place an authoritative hand on the fridge door.

One pro tip would be to try and combine this with the weekend luxury shop. This is because these stores’ fish and meat counters will have heavy discounts on Saturday as some of the produce won’t last beyond Sunday or Monday.

Doing so can help you fill your freezer with decent-quality stuff for less than the cost of their cheaper alternatives.

Bargain hunting has been brought into the modern age too. You’ll see plenty of customers scrolling through their phones to see what savings they can make with customer loyalty schemes on this shop, or looking for their membership barcode to benefit from cashback and reductions at the tills.

The pick and mix fanatics  

Every day of the week, although Friday and Saturday especially, you’ll find a group of shoppers, trusty plastic scoops in hand, gathered around the pick-n-mix.

You’ll find families trying to get enough of everybody’s favourites, couples stocking up for a movie night, or adults who have got their perfect ratio of sweets already figured out in their heads.

Such is the popularity of pick n mix, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a decent-sized supermarket without a section of sweets ready to be bagged up. Another way of illustrating the love Norwegians have for pick n mix is that some families will choose their regular store based on the quality of the pick n mix compared to other stores around.