Hardware/ironmonger shops (Jernhandel)

A well-stocked hardware shop will offer do-it-yourself goods (gjør-det-selv), fittings (beslagvarer), garden tools and equipment (hageredskap), household goods (husholdingsprodukter), interior fixtures (interiør), kitchen utensils (kjøkkentøy), machine tools (maskiner), nails and screws (spiker og skruer), paints (maling), protective equipment (verneutstyr), small electrical appliances (elektriske artikler) and tools (verktøy). For the location of the nearest shop, look under jernvareforretninger or jernvarer in the Yellow Pages.

Health food (Helsekost)

Health food shops, supermarkets and other grocers now offer health foods. The health food shops offer the widest selection of organic foods, vitamins, natural remedies, food supplements, skin care products and other preparations. There are three chains of health food shops:

• Helios, the oldest of the three, was established in the mid-1960s. It has 17 shops across the country, and its products are sold by the other health food shops, as the company is a leading producer, miller, importer and wholesaler of health foods, www.helios.no.
• Sunkost (“Healthy Diet”) is the largest chain, with shops in cities and towns in all 19 counties, www.sunkost.no.
• Vitamina Helse & Velvœre (“Vitamina Health and Well-Being”) is a chain of shops in 12 cities and towns in the southern part of the country.

IKEA

IKEA, the Swedish chain of home furnishings hypermarkets, is in a class by itself. There now are more than 200 IKEA outlets in 29 countries round the world that each year together draw more than 400 million customers. The history of the company is a real-life rags-to-riches story.

Born in 1926 in southern Sweden, Ivar Kamprad soon showed a taste for business, by buying matches in bulk and selling them to neighbours. In 1943, when he finished upper-secondary school at age 17, his father gave him a modest sum of money to start his own business. That he did, naming the enterprise IKEA, an acronym of his own initials plus those of the names of the farm, Elmtaryd, and the nearby village of Agunnaryd. At first, IKEA sold pens, pocketbooks, picture frames and other items that could be offered at low prices. In 1947, furniture was added to the collection; in 1951 the first catalogue was published; and in 1959, the first home furnishings shop was opened at Älmhult in south central Sweden.

The Älmhult shop differed from all other furnishing shops. It was spacious, then the largest in Scandinavia. Customers could stroll through its displays, catalogues in hand. More importantly, the furniture was packed flat, a concept that Mr Kamprud had pioneered three years earlier. The flat-pack cut transport and storage costs, so the shop prices were affordable by more people. Moreover, customers could take flat packs home in their cars and not have to wait for subsequent delivery. In combination, convenience and low prices made the shop an instant hit. Three and a half years later, in March 1963, the second shop opened, in Norway, at Nesbru, 18 km south of Oslo. It too was an immediate success. There now are five IKEA hypermarkets in Norway, two in the Oslo area and one each in Bergen, Stavanger and Trondheim. For further information, visit the central IKEA website at www.ikea.com and select “Norway”, or contact any of the five hypermarkets listed in the Pink Pages.

Liquor (Brennevin)

Each year the Vinmonopolet shops sell more than 12 million litres of liquor. Vodka and unflavoured spirits are most popular, accounting for more than three of every ten litres sold, followed by brandies (a quarter of sales) and whiskies (a seventh). Fourth in popularity by volume sold are the domestic and imported brands of aquavit (akevitt) – “water of life” – the native Scandinavian drink, distilled from potatoes or cereals and flavoured, usually with caraway seeds. Aquavit accounts for 95% of all liquor exports of more than a million litres per year. A Norwegian favourite type has been aged in casks on a ship that has crossed the equator and accordingly is named Linje (“line”). The movement of the ship sloshes the aquavit in the casks, which is held to add flavour. Liquors are listed in the shop catalogues first by type and then by country of origin. For instance, under the whiskies (whisky), brands from Canada, Ireland, Scotland and the USA are listed.

Mail order from abroad (Postordre fra utlandet)

You may buy clothing and other personal items from mail order companies abroad, usually in the same way to which you may be accustomed, by filling out and posting or telefaxing a paper order, or by ordering online with payment via a payment card.

In ordering, be sure to check catalogue prices to see whether or not they include value-added tax (VAT). By international agreement, VAT cannot be charged on export orders, because it is charged upon import and the same goods cannot be subject to double VAT. American mail-order catalogues usually list prices exclusive VAT (“sales tax” in the USA), because it is charged by the States and not by the federal government. But British mail-order catalogues usually list prices inclusive of VAT, which you should request to be deducted, as seldom is a space provided on an order form for that purpose.

When your parcel arrives in Norway by post, courier or air freight, it will be subject to import duty on the individual items plus Norwegian value-added tax (MVA) on the sum of the total for goods, their shipping and the duty levied. A parcel arriving by post usually is cleared through customs automatically and sent to your local post office, which will send you a notice of the charges due. You then take the notice to the post office, pay the charges, and pick up the parcel. Couriers and air freight forwarding agents usually notify you of the arrival of a shipment and ask if you or they should clear it through customs. Import duties vary by category of goods and country of origin. As Norway is not a member of the EU, duty is charged on goods imported from EU countries. Duties are listed according to the international harmonisation system (HS) in an annual booklet entitled Tolltariffen (“customs duties”), which can be downloaded from Norway customs at www.toll.no/tariff; the printed version, published by Cappelen, is sold in many book shops.

If you need to return an item on which you have paid import duty, such as for exchange or repair, ask for a proforma invoice (proforma faktura) at the post office. This need not be the local post office that normally deals with your parcels. Fill the form in, so that when your item has been exchanged or repaired and returned, it will be exempt from duties.

Opening hours (Åpningstid)

Shop opening hours are displayed on building facades and shop windows in a form that indicates six business days, typically 9-21 (10-18), which means that the shop is open from 9 am to 9 pm Monday to Friday and 10 am to 6 pm on Saturday. Grocers (dagligvarer) and supermarkets (super) usually open at 9 am, but those in shopping centres and malls (kjøpesentere) usually adhere to the centre’s opening hours. Some convenience shops and larger kiosks (storkiosk) are open from 7 am to 11 pm, whilst petrol stations with convenience shops may be open day and night. During the major national summer holiday for three weeks in July, the week between Christmas and New Year’s and the week before Easter Sunday, opening hours may be shortened or shops may be closed. By law, most shops cannot be open on Sundays, except for three weeks during the pre-Christmas shopping rush. Small shops, by ruling less than 100 square metres of floor space (150 square metres for petrol stations), are excepted and may be open after hours and on Sundays.

Organic foods (Økologisk mat)

Foods grown without using chemical or synthetic fertilisers, pesticides, pharmaceuticals or genetic manipulation are said to be organic. Worldwide, there are organic farms and farming associations in more than 35 countries and more than a million hectares of farm land is devoted to organic cultivation. (A hectare is the metric unit of land area, equal to 10,000 square metres or about 2.4 acres.) In Norway, organic farming is modest: of the country’s 1.04 million hectares of cultivated land, only about 35,000 hectares are devoted to organic farming. However, whilst farming in general is declining, organic farming is now growing at a rate of nearly 8% a year.

Most organic foods from Norwegian farms are marketed under the auspices of Debio, the country-wide organic agriculture association. The word Debio is a contraction of Demeter-biological. Demeter, in Greek mythology, the goddess of corn and harvesting, is the name of the worldwide confederation of 19 national associations for organic agriculture, including Debio. In shops, the Debio logo on foods indicates that they are from Norwegian organic farms, whilst the Demeter logo indicates that they are imported from organic farms in other countries. Debio and Demeter foods are sold in health food shops and increasingly in supermarkets. Organic milk, cream and yoghurt, are identified by the Debio logo. Foods sold directly by organic farm produce shops may or may not carry the Debio label, depending on whether or not the farm also sells its produce through other shops. For further information on Debio, contact the head office, 1940 Bjørkelangen, Tel: 63862650, Fax: 63856985, www.debio.no. For further information on Demeter, contact the Demeter Trade Net, www.demeter.net, info@demeter.net.

Debio and Demeter logos.

Sales (Salg)

Most shops hold sales at least twice a year, in January and August when normal merchandise is marked down significantly. Some things that are not seasonal are seldom on sale, for example souvenirs and crystal. Seasonal items such as bicycles, ski equipment, garden furniture, winter tyres, Christmas and Easter decorations are on special offer (tilbud) before and after their peak seasons. Sometimes the current models are on sale when shops are overstocked. For instance, if there is little or no snow before Christmas, little ski equipment is sold, and sports shops will hold sales of ski and other winter sports equipment in January, to make way for springtime stocking of summer sports goods.

Second-hand shops (Brukthandlere)

Cities and towns across the country have myriad second-hand shops, most listed under antikviteter or under brukthandlere in the Yellow Pages. There are speciality second-hand shops, such as those that sell used clothing. But otherwise, the typical second-hand shop is like a small department store: it has everything, from tools and appliances to decorations and art to tableware and period furniture. Some second-hand shops even have linens and costumes, as well as books and records. The attraction of second-hand goods is not their age, because few of them are old enough to classify as antiques. Variety appeals, as does quality, as anything saleable after use certainly has proven its durability. So in general, quality is high and prices are low. For instance, used silverware, even of current patterns, often costs no more than half the price of new. Solid, well-made used furniture seldom costs as much as the cheapest of flat-pack new furniture. Indeed, particularly young people often find that they can furnish a flat more tastefully and at a lower overall cost by spending their time visiting second-hand shops than by working overtime or borrowing to afford to buy new. And often second-hand shopping can be as easy as visiting a shopping mall, as when several shops jointly arrange a second-hand market (bruktmarked), usually on a weekend in a convenient local hall; look for advertisements in newspapers.

Second-hand shops are also good places to sell used goods, as the dealers usually know their markets well and often even advertise for certain items. Depending on the item and on the shop’s assessment of its market, a shop may buy outright or may accept it on consignment. In any case, if you sell relatively expensive goods that are easily carried, such as silverware, watches or jewellery, the shop may ask for identification in recording the goods received, to ensure that they are not stolen. Most of the goods in shops, however, come from bulk purchases, as of the estates of deceased persons (dødsbo) and of goods sold by bankruptcy estates (konkursbo).

Sex shops (Erotiske artikler)

Sex shops sell erotic aids and devices (sex-hjelpemidler), contraceptives (prevensjonsmidler), erotic underclothing (undertøy) and related erotic goods. You can find them listed under erotiske artikler in the Yellow Pages. There is one chain, Kondomeriet, with 10 shops throughout the country. Some sex shops offer online and mail ordering services.

Shopping bags (Bæreposer)

Almost all shops now offer bags made of recyclable plastic, usually printed with shop advertising, though some environmentally conscious shops offer paper bags. Some shops give away bags free, while most charge 1 kr for a bag. Though bags are recycled, their greatest reuse is to pack refuse before sending it down a chute in a block of flats or depositing it in the kerbside bin in front of a house.

Sports goods (Sportsutstyr)

Sports goods are widely available and both domestic and international brands are in the shops. Look in the Yellow Pages under sport og fritidsutstyr (“sport and recreational goods”), kanoer og kajakker (“canoes and kayaks”), kniver (“knives”), sykler (“cycles”), ski (“ski equipment”), treningsutstyr (“training equipment”) and fiskeutstyr (“fishing gear”). There are two sports goods chain stores, G Sport, a Norwegian chain with 220 shops and InterSport, the leading international chain with 110 shops in the country.

Supermarkets (Supermarked)

There are more than 3,300 self-service markets in the country, varying in size from smaller, local shops to supermarkets to hypermarkets in shopping centres and malls. Most markets are owned by or organised in one of the four food retailing groups listed below. Look under dagligvarer, detalj (“groceries, retail”) in the Yellow Pages or under the name of the market in the Pink Pages for the location of the nearest markets:

Forbrukersamvirket (“cooperative shops”), www.coop.no: 21 OBS! hypermarkets, 180 Mega supermarkets and 315 Prix local markets.

Coop logos.

Haakon Gruppen (“Haakon Group”, owned by ICA of Sweden) www.ica.no: 600 Rimi supermarkets, 180 ICA local markets, 12 ICA hypermarkets and 14 Maxi supermarkets.

Haakon logos.

Tattooing (Tatovering)

The Vikings marked their skin with indelible designs, as have seamen for centuries. Today, tattooing is trendy among teenagers and young adults, women as well as men. You will find tattooing studios listed under tatovering in the Yellow Pages. Some tattooing studios also offer body piercing.

Tax-free shopping

Tax-free shopping essentially entails a refund of MVA (Chapter 43), which is a value-added tax (VAT). Residents of Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Åland, including citizens and foreign citizens holding residence permits and work permits (Chapter 1) cannot claim the refund. But if you are a resident of another country, you may reclaim the MVA paid on goods bought in Norway, provided you buy for more than NOK 310 in a shop and you take the goods with you upon leaving the country. There are two ways go about it.

You may do it yourself (DIY). First, ask the seller to fill out special customs form RD0032. Upon leaving the country, present the goods and the form at the Norwegian Customs office and ask to have the form stamped. Finally, post the stamped form back to the shop where you bought the goods and request a refund of MVA. The shop will then post a cheque for the refund minus its bank and postal expenses. The DIY approach is time-consuming, both for you and for the shop, so much so that most shops do not offer it. And it is expensive: the average cost of issuing and posting a cheque to you plus the average charge in Europe for cashing a foreign cheque add up to equal the MVA on an item with a listed price of close to NOK 1,000. So unless you buy relatively expensive goods, MVA refund by DIY is not worthwhile.

You may shop at one of the thousands of shops displaying the square Tax-Free Shopping logo, which indicates association in the Global Refund network for reclaiming MVA in countries worldwide. Upon buying goods for NOK 310 or more in a shop, ask for a Tax-Free Shopping voucher with your receipt. The shop will fill in and stamp the voucher, which you should keep along with the receipt for the goods bought. Upon leaving the country, you can claim an immediate cash refund by delivering and signing your voucher(s) at a cash refund point. There are some 40 refund points at airports and road border crossings and on board ferries and cruise ships. For details, ask for a brochure in a shop or download it from the Global Refund website, www.globalrefund.com, select “Norway”.

Tax-free shopping.

Telesales (Telefon-salg)

Telephone sales are debated. Many, including the Consumer Council (Chapter 26) regard unsolicited telephone sales as an intrusion upon privacy. But telephone salespeople (telefonselgere) operate within the law and calls from them are increasingly common. If you wish, you might contact the Brønnøysund Register Centre (Chapter 38) Reservasjon Tel: 75007503, or online form at www.br.no, select Reservasjon mot reklame to bar further distribution of your telephone number and thereby limit access to it by telephone sales firms.

Vinmonopolet shops

As in many other countries, alcoholic drink is sold only by State shops. In Scandinavia, only Denmark does not have State shops, but Sweden has Systembolaget with 420 shops and 590 local agencies, Finland has Alko with 317 shops and 140 order points, and Norway has Vinmonopolet (literally “the wine monopoly”) with about 200 shops for sale of liquors, wine and strong beers. You can locate the nearest Vinmonopolet shop in Pink Pages, or online at www.vinmonopolet.no.

Most of the shops are open during normal shopping hours, Monday through Saturday, but are closed on Sundays, public holidays and days before major public holidays. For opening hours, call Tel: 04560. Some 170 of the 200 shops are self-serve, while the remainder are of the older style where clerks at counters serve customers queued by numbers issued by queuing machines. There are four smaller Minipol shops in small towns. In all, Vinmonopolet sells some 7,000 different items, divided into:

• Basic selection (basisutvalget) of items listed in a free shop catalogue issued six times a year and sold in shops according to local preference; the average shop stocks 800 items.
• On-order selection (bestillingsutvalget) of items listed in a free shop catalogue issued six times a year, and which may be ordered at all shops.
• Test selection (testutvalget) of items included in the basic selection catalogue to test their acceptance by customers.
• Lot selection (partiutvalget) of items available in limited quantity and included in the basic selection catalogue.
• Additional selection (tilleggsutvalget) of items available seasonally or only in limited quantity and sometimes, but not always, listed in the basic selection catalogue.

All shops will accept orders, either telephoned or online, both for pick-up at a later date or for delivery or postal delivery at a surcharge; call the nearest shop for details. As payment, shops accept cash and cards. For further details, visit a Vinmonopolet shop, which will have a rack with catalogues and general information brochures, call the customer service number Tel: 04560 or visit the website at www.vinmonopolet.no.

Wine (Vin)

Wine is sold only by the Vinmonopolet shops. Until 1980, distilled liquors outsold wine. No more: in 2004, wine accounted for nearly eight litres in 10 of the more than 63 million litres of alcoholic drink sold by Vinmonopolet shops. Accordingly, the choice is broad, more than 6,000 wines are available, from all the major wine-producing countries. The catalogues available in all shops list wines according to their main types: natural wine (vin), sparkling wine (musserende) and fortified wine (sterkvin). The natural wines are grouped together, first according to whether they are red (rød), white (hvit) or rosé (rosé), and then alphabetically by country or origin. Each wine in the catalogue is described briefly in text and by three small circles, shaded to show the extent of body (fylde), acidity (garvestoffer) and bouquet (fruktighet). There are also small symbols indicating recommended dishes suiting the wine. The maturity of the wine is indicated by one of three symbols.