Annika Morina uploaded a video on Tiktok with a call to boycott the food retailers Ica, Coop, Hemköp, Willys, City Gross, and Lidl next week. Instead, one should use the food at home or shop at smaller stores, Morina meant.
Food prices are incredibly high, she says.
What made the cup overflow was when she noticed that tomato puree had become 50 percent more expensive. The hope is that the food retailers will listen and lower their prices – or that it will at least create a debate.
People are on their knees, they can't afford it. It feels like a luxury to buy food nowadays, not a right.
Hundreds of thousands of views
Morina's video has almost 500,000 views. The initiative has been spread by others and there are several videos with hundreds of thousands of views on Tiktok. The Facebook group has over 2,500 members. But it's hard to say how many will actually join.
People say it has spread across Sweden, so I have hopes.
The boycott can mean that the legitimacy of the food retailers is questioned, says Niklas Zandén, professor of business economics at the University of Gothenburg.
It's problematic mainly because they have a certain special position on the market. It's an oligopoly market with few actors, he says and continues:
The actors are dependent on being allowed to have that situation.
"Nervous"
As a company, it can be tough to appear negative, but it's a relatively limited problem – like if the chains would lose sales during week 12. On the other hand, the boycott can affect the food retailers' role in the political debate, says Zandén.
In this case, there is the political dimension: that it's an oligopoly and that they are quite dependent on it. Therefore, I would be a little more nervous about this thing if I were high up in Ica, for example.
Some parties might see an opportunity to put pressure on the issue to try to attract voters.
Suddenly, there may be political arguments for putting harder pressure on these food companies and threatening to break up their special position on the market, says Zandén.
The government has called a meeting with actors in the food chain due to the rising food prices. Magdalena Andersson (S) has called the situation "very serious" and Nooshi Dadgostar (V) will boycott Ica next week.
