How are supermarkets for the poor in Sweden and why are they so successful in a rich country?

With the highest inflation rate in four decades, Sweden, one of the richest countries in the world, is also feeling firsthand the effects of the global cost of living rise.

With a historic annual increase of 11.5% in November, food and energy prices have left some of the Scandinavian country’s 10.4 million inhabitants in trouble.

And the future doesn’t look very encouraging.

“The Swedish economy and households will be under pressure for the next few years.” So said Finance Minister Elisabeth Svantesson shortly before Christmas.

The government has warned that the country will plunge into a deeper and longer-lasting recession in 2023 than previously estimated.

With record high electricity rates, difficulties in getting food at reasonable prices and a huge rise in mortgage payments, many Swedish households are facing a situation they were not used to.

“More need for support”

This has been confirmed by Johan Rindevall, head of the social supermarket chain Matmissionen in Stockholm, who saw the number of customers double this year.

“We have noticed that there is a greater need for support from the people we know through our organization,” Rindevall tells BBC Mundo.

To access discounted prices through a membership, people must have a low income relative to the rest of the Swedish population.

Even, says the social entrepreneur, there has been an increase in clients who – despite having an income above the minimum set by the membership system – have contacted them asking for their support.

A developed country like Sweden does not define poverty by the standards used in other parts of the world.

For example, according to World Bank estimates, the country has practically no poor people.

Sweden uses the European Union’s definition of “risk of poverty”. From this perspective, a person is at risk when living on less than 60% of the country’s average income.

This is evident from recent figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics. about 15% of the Swedish population is currently in that risk situationwhile 20 years ago it was only 9.6%.

They are not people who go hungry, Rindevall warns. They are people whose standard of living is “significantly lower than the rest”.

“We are faced with families who do not have the opportunity to cut costs. They have no savings to fall back on, forcing them to cut back on living expenses,” he added.

Often they stop buying nutritious food to make ends meet.

Do not throw food in the trash

Matmissionen is considered a social enterprise and one of its main objectives is to reduce food waste.

Like it does? Sell ​​products donated by food companies that would otherwise go to waste.

So clients, many of them retired, unemployed or recently immigrated, they pay a third of the original price for each product.

In addition to having eight stores in different cities, serving 25,000 members, the organization distributes food to 25 shelters.

The increased demand for their services this year, Rindevall explains, has to do with the opening of new stores, the arrival of more refugees from Ukraine and undoubtedly the unstoppable rise in inflation.