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SHOPPING

Supermarkets in Norway: What are the best loyalty schemes?

Grocery shopping in Norway is amongst the most expensive in Europe. Luckily, there are plenty of generous bonus schemes to help you get more bang for your buck when you hit the shops. Here’s everything you need to know to make the most of loyalty cards.

Published: 20 April 2021 11:56 CEST
Updated: 15 February 2022 15:18 CET
Supermarkets in Norway: What are the best loyalty schemes?
Photo by Anna Shvets from Pexels

Æ-Rema 1000

Rema 1000 opened its first store in Trondheim in 1979 and has become one of Norway’s largest supermarket chains.

Rema’s loyalty scheme is a smartphone app that anyone over the age of 15 with a Norwegian mobile number and a smartphone can use.

Unfortunately, the app isn’t available in English, so you best practice your Norwegian if you are going to capitalise on the savings on offer.

On the bright side, the discounts you receive are well worth it, especially if you have young children, as the app offers a 25 percent discount on all nappies (or diapers for the non-Brits reading).

In addition to this, you receive 10 percent off all fresh fruit and vegetables and 10 percent off of your 10 most frequently bought items, meaning you can save money on the things you buy the most.

You can also sign up for their personal price cut scheme, whereby you receive tailor-made promotions. However, you must first approve this in the app under your profile.

To get these discounts, you must have the app and scan your personal barcode at the checkout or register a bank card in the app.

The app is available on both Apple and Google Play stores.

Trumf- Kiwi/Meny/Joker/Spar

Trumf covers three supermarket chains in Norway as well as convenience-store-cum-supermarket Joker.

With Trumf you get cashback, or a “Trumf bonus”, every time you shop. The Trumf bonus/cashback is deposited straight into your Trumf account after making a purchase with a card linked to your Trumf account.

Alternatively, you can present your unique barcode via the app at checkout.

To become a Trumf member, you will need to have a Norwegian phone number and bank account. You will then need to link a debit card to your account.

One perk of Trumf is you can also invite somebody to form a joint Trumf account. This means that you can create a joint pot with your partner, for example.

All the supermarkets affiliated with Trumf offer a one percent bonus on shopping. This equates to roughly one percent cashback value of the items you buy.

On certain days, usually Thursday’s, Triple Trumf is activated, which means 3 percent back on all purchases; you’ll typically receive a heads up via text or email so you can plan a big shop to make the most of Triple Trumf.

Here is an overview of how the bonus points work for each store:

KIWI:

  • One percent back on all groceries
  • Three percent back on Triple Trumf
  • 15 percent back on all fresh fruit, vegetables, and freshly packaged fish

Spar:

  • One percent back on all groceries
  • Three percent back on Triple Trumf
  • Free coupons on selected products
  • 25 percent discount on all baby food and nappies

Meny:

  • One percent back on all groceries
  • Three percent back on Triple Trumf
  • Personal offer coupons

Joker:

  • One percent back on all groceries
  • Three percent back on Triple Trumf
  • Five percent back Monday

It isn’t just groceries either, Trumf can be used on everything from fuel to fashion. You can download the app on both Apple and Android.

The biggest advantage of Trumf is the freedom of deciding how to use your Trumf bonus.

You can choose to receive the cashback directly into your bank account, have the money deducted off of the total next time you shop at your chosen store, convert it to SAS EuroBonus points for your next trip away, or make a charitable donation.

READ MORE: The essential phone apps you need to travel around Norway 

Like Æ, you’ll have to brush up on your Norwegian to make the most of the app.

Coop

To access Coop’s loyalty discounts, you’ll have to become a member and part-owner of the business. The big drawback to this is that to become a member you’ll have to pay 300 kroner to become a part-owner.

However, once you’re a member, it’s worth the initial outlay. 

To begin with you will get a one percent purchase dividend, in the form of cashback, on everything you purchase. The dividend is automatically credited to your member account and you can earn a small amount of interest on it.The dividends are transferred into your account once a year.

As a member, you’ll also get exclusive access to special deals on well-known brands. The discounts cover everything from thermals to kitchenware and electronics.

In addition to this, you’ll get discount vouchers for frequently bought items.

To sign up, you’ll need a Norwegian phone number and D-number. To use your membership, you can use a mobile phone app at the checkout or with a physical membership card.

One problem is that while there are many discounts and dividends opportunities to take advantage of, it can be confusing to know what perk can be used where, as Coop divides its deals up between its Mega, Extra, and Prix stores. Thankfully, we’ve taken care of that for you with this guide for what benefit applies where:

  • Extra: 20 percent dividend on baby products and 11 dividend on fruit and vegetables
  • PRIX: 25 percent discount on all men’s products
  • MEGA: 20 percent dividend on organic food and vegetarian food.

There’s also a one kroner bonus every time you reuse a Coop bag at stores.

Own an electric car? There’ll be eight percent dividend if you use Mer charging stations.

If you’re still on fuel power to get you from A-to-B, then there are also bonuses for filling up with Circle K or YX.

This year Coop paid out 1.3 billion kroner worth of dividends to its members based on how much they spent in-store in 2020.

You can use the Coop app on either Apple or Android.

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For members

COST OF LIVING

Will huge fines for Norway’s supermarkets lead to a fairer deal for customers?

Norway's competition watchdog has fined the country's three largest supermarket groups 4.9 billion kroner, but will the punishment lead to any meaningful change for shoppers?

Published: 22 August 2024 13:50 CEST
Will huge fines for Norway's supermarkets lead to a fairer deal for customers?

Fines totalling 4.9 billion kroner were handed to supermarket groups Norgesgruppen (2.3 billion kroner), Coop (1.3 billion kroner), and Rema (1.3 billion kroner) for what the Norwegian Competition Authority described as “price collusion”.

“This is a serious breach of the law, something that reflects the size of the fine,” competition director from the Norwegian Competition Authority Tina Søreide said at a press conference.

The fines were issued after a six-year-long investigation found that the three groups used “price hunters” to constantly check one another’s prices.

READ MORE: Norway’s largest supermarket groups slapped with fines for ‘price collusion’

This practice allegedly disincentivised competition and allowed supermarket chains to set the same prices for products rather than compete for customers through offers.

All three supermarket groups have denied any wrongdoing and said that the fines will also be appealed.

Additionally, the supermarkets argued that the use of the “price hunters” was normal business practice and contributed to healthy competition.

Why do customers in Norway feel ripped off? 

Three large groups have long dominated Norway’s grocery industry, and customers have been frustrated by the lack of competition between chains, poor selection on shelves, and high prices.

Trade minister Cecilie Myrseth acknowledged the lack of competition in the supermarket industry following the news the groups would be fined.

“The grocery industry is characterised by the fact that there are a few large players, and it is difficult for small and new players to establish themselves. It is good that we have a competition authority that actively enforces the Competition Act,” she told the Norwegian newswire NTB.

Meanwhile, another watchdog, the Norwegian Consumer Council, said that shoppers in Norway have possibly been overcharged for a long time.

“As we understand it, Coop, Norgesgruppen and Rema will appeal the decision. Of course, they have the right to do so, but if the competition authority’s decision stands, competition has been weakened over several years,” Inger Lise Blyverket, director of the Norwegian Consumer Council, told NTB.

“This means that we consumers have probably paid more for groceries than we would have done with healthy competition,” she said.

Will there finally be a fairer deal for shoppers in Norway?

Given the size of the fines issued and the supermarket chains’ adamance about no wrongdoing, the appeal process could result in a years-long court battle between the watchdog and the grocery industry.

“It is a sad decision, and it is clear that it will lead to this case going forward in the legal system,” Odd Gisholt, economist and grocery industry expert, told broadcaster TV 2.

In the meantime, Norgesgruppen has said it had no plans to stop using price hunters despite the fine.

Therefore, the fines may not have an immediate effect, especially if chains continue to use the price hunters.

Still, Søreide said that the fines should deter any behaviour that discourages competition or unfairly squeezes customers.

Can anything else be done to bring down prices and make things fairer for consumers?

Norway’s government previously introduced a ten-point plan to make the country’s supermarket sector more consumer-friendly.

Since the plan’s unveiling in early 2023, the way the industry operates has changed in a few major ways.

Firstly, the much-criticised practice of supermarkets announcing price rises ahead of time through the media has, for the most part, stopped.

The government had previously called this practice “illegal price collusion,” as all supermarkets announced similar increases despite having different costs and overheads.

Supermarkets in Norway no longer have “price windows.” Previously, supermarkets changed their wholesale prices twice a year, which the Norwegian Competition Authority said led to weaker competition.

Despite changes in the grocery industry, the intervention of competition watchdogs and the government’s plan, food prices continue to be a key driver of inflation in Norway.

In July, food prices reversed the country’s slowing inflation trend, figures from the national data agency Statistics Norway show. Food prices also increased by 4.9 percent between July 2023 and July 2024.

Food prices increased significantly between June 2024 and July 2024 despite the industry apparently moving on from the traditional price changes introduced in July and February of each year.

“Despite signals from the industry that they want to move away from the arrangement with a fixed time for price negotiations, this year we also see a strong and broad price increase for food and drink in July, where the vast majority of product groups rose in price,” Espen Kristiansen from Statistics Norway said of the figures.

Strategy advisor and expert on grocery policy Erik Fagerlid told the business news site E24 that various measures from different business ministers over the past 10–15 years have led to more expensive food prices in Norway due to the extra work the policies create for businesses.

“Who pays for this work? Of course, us consumers, in the form of higher prices for groceries,” he told E24 at the turn of the year.

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