Normal, the Danish discount chain, opened its 190th French store on the outskirts of Marseille, the latest step in an expansion that has brought the retailer to nearly 200 shops across France in just a few years. The French television programme "Sept à Huit," broadcast by TF1, revisited the chain's rise in a report rebroadcast on Sunday, also available on streaming service TF1+.
Sisters Célia and Alicia got up at eight that morning to be the first through the doors of the new store. Alicia works at a daycare centre and Célia at a hospital. They set no spending limit and picked up items with no particular plan.
They said buying chocolate had not been part of the plan at all, and that a three-metre cable for the house was useful. They also picked up cotton pads, make-up remover and a lip balm, spending around 30 euros in total. They said they had come in with a list and left having spent triple that.
Founded in 2013, Normal has built a reputation as a haven for impulse buying, where the final bill tends to climb faster than shoppers expect. The chain's treasure-hunt appeal has taken off on TikTok and borders on the absurd. A handful of branded products discounted by 50% sit alongside gadgets such as Smiley-face sponges, masks for the chest and buttocks, biscuits tied to the Squid Game series, and unusual soft drinks.
Inside the store layout
In Marseille, three new recruits, Corinne, Nathalie and Sandrine, have joined the chain, which employs 14,000 people. Laura, who works at company headquarters, travelled from Denmark to coach them. Corinne, formerly employed by rival discounter Action, completed two months of training to learn the strategy that has helped Normal carve out a place in the crowded discount market. Staff are not there to advise customers but to keep restocking shelves continuously, keeping shoppers over-stimulated and guiding them along a set route through the store, similar to the layout used by Ikea.
The apparent clutter is in fact carefully planned, and it is designed in Denmark. Sept à Huit travelled 1,700 kilometres from Marseille to the company's headquarters in Skanderborg, a small town set among beech forests in central Denmark. In the basement of the building sits a model store, where vice-president Susanna and purchasing director Kasper decide on the layout that is then replicated across the chain's 855 shops.
Kasper described building a themed section around hand care, pairing hydrating overnight gloves with a range of hand creams so customers apply cream, put the gloves on, and wear them overnight.
1.5 billion euros in revenue
Normal stocks a permanent range of 5,000 products, negotiated directly with wholesalers across the European Union, meaning the assortment can vary from country to country. Asked what sets the French market apart, Kasper pointed to coconut. Susanna agreed, saying French shoppers love anything coconut-based.
The chain now operates in eight European countries. It was founded 11 years ago by two friends who opened the first Normal store in Skanderborg. That original shop has since been turned into a café and museum, where visitors can learn how the brand's first designer settled on its signature turquoise-green colour, taken from the beach cabins of a well-known Danish seaside resort.
The original concept was simple: stock everyday essentials, the kind of products found in most bathroom cabinets, for cleaning, washing up or brushing teeth. Susanna said these were boring products, but ones customers could buy in an appealing setting at prices below the market average. Since then the chain has widened its range considerably, helping revenue double over the past two years to reach 1.5 billion euros. More than 100 new products are launched each week.
Chasing trends from TikTok
Oliver, one of the group's 16 buyers, is responsible for approving new food products, and he tracks trends on TikTok. He discovered grape-flavoured Fanta on the Chinese market and brought it to Normal's shelves regardless of its carbon footprint, saying exoticism was worth pursuing at any cost. He has also drawn on a trend from the United States of filming oneself eating something barely edible, which led him to launch extremely spicy chips sold individually. They are currently out of stock.
Asked about the junk food on offer, Oliver said he did not see it as a problem, but that the chain was trying to add more healthy alternatives, citing success with dried mango and dates.
Normal is also known for selling "dupes," cut-price versions of major brands popular with the TikTok generation. Kasper said the company constantly wants to create new things and that its products draw on a wide range of inspirations. Susanna added that the chain's mission was not only to sell customers what they need but also all the extras that come with it, giving them the feeling of treating themselves to something luxurious. To keep prices low, the Danish chain produces at scale and spends nothing on advertising, relying instead on social media.
What the products are really worth
Laurent Pan, a business school graduate and self-taught skincare expert, said Normal's shelves hold both excellent and poor-quality products, and that the key, as often, is reading the label. Examining a vitamin C cream on camera for Sept à Huit, he pointed out that for such a product to work, the vitamin C needs to be highly concentrated, and that this particular cream contained none at all.
Even so, Pan said he approved of stores like Normal, which allow a student, for example, to buy a cleanser, a serum, a moisturiser and sunscreen for 25 euros, as long as they do not blow their budget on Korean sweets or onion-flavoured crisps.
