Student Blog: A guide to grocery shopping in Sweden

Grocery shopping in a new country can be a pretty overwhelming experience. Noha from France is here to help you navigate Swedish grocery stores with this little guide!

Published: 2026-06-24 Text: David Meyers

Image: Mostphotos

(This blog was originally written by Noha Seddik and is republished with permission.)

Grocery shopping in a new country can be a pretty overwhelming experience. But I am here to help you navigate Swedish grocery stores with this little guide!

There are three main grocery stores in Umeå: Ica, Coop and Willys. Usually, the store’s brand is the cheapest option. You can look for Ica Basic, Coop or Eldorado (Willys). Most stores also have a section called “ät snart” which can literally be translated into “eat fast”. These products are often 30% or 40% off because their expiration date is coming very soon. You might encounter nice discounts with the words “Medlempris”. Unfortunately, you have to be a member to have these prices which you cannot do without a Swedish personal number. Another way to save money is to meal prep your lunches. There are many microwaves scattered all over the campus! These are often marked as “Student kitchenette”.

Dairy products

Coffee lovers do not worry; you will find an immense selection of coffee in Swedish stores.

If you would like to add some milk in your coffee, you need to find the refrigerated section. The dairy aisle can be sometimes marked as “Mejeri”. Milk is called “mjölk” in Swedish. There is one exception though: “Filmjölk”. Do NOT put that in your coffee! It is not milk but actually a type of thick yoghurt, it is very good when eaten as such! Still in the dairy section, we have different types of cream. If you are looking for a liquid cream, then you need to look for “Grädde”. It can be “Matgrädde”, “Vispgrädde” or other names depending on the fat percentage. As for sour cream you will need to find “Gräddfil” or “Crème fraiche”. Both are quite similar but vary in terms of sourness and thickness.

One thing you might notice is that they have a special section with lactose free (laktos-fri) dairy products if that is your preference! Right next to it, you should also be able to find other milk alternatives such as “havredryck” (oat milk) or “mandelmjölk” (almond milk).

Meat/Proteins

For the meat section, said “kött” in Swedish, the words you need to know are “kyckling” (chicken), “nötkött” (beef) and “fläsk” or “skinka” (pork). If you are vegetarian/vegan then do not worry, there is always a section dedicated to meat substitutes! Vegetarian is “vegetarisk” in Swedish.

Flour

For you who perhaps likes to bake cakes, there are many options of flour! Wheat (all-purpose flour) is “vetemjöl” but you can also have “kornmjöl” (barley), “maismjöl” (corn), “grahamsmjöl” (whole wheat), “kikärtsmjöl” (chickpeas), “kokosmjöl” (coconut)…

Tomato sauce

A classic student meal might be pasta and tomato sauce. But there are different options, which one to choose? The most common are “krossade tomater” or “passerade tomater” which differs only by how smooth the sauce is. “Krossade” means crushed, meaning there will be chunks, whereas “passerade” means pureed. They are usually unflavoured but you can also find some that are labelled with the words “vitlök” (garlic) or “basilika” (basilica). If you would like to buy tomato concentrate, then you need to look for “tomatpuré”.

Cleaning section

Finally, the cleaning section. A mistake I made in the beginning while shopping for laundry detergent is to buy softener instead. Laundry detergent is labelled as “tvättmedel” here and softener as “sköljmedel”. Similarly, dish soap is “diskmedel”. As for paper towel, it is called “hushållspapper” and is usually placed next to toilet paper which is pretty simple in Swedish: “toalettpapper”