Strawberry sandwich

One thing I don't want this blog to be is one that constantly talks about the differences between Sweden and the States. Whether I like it or not it will be read as "an American in Sweden" blog by some but I'm doing my best to space out and consciously limit my posts stating obvious or, most likely previously unknown to you, differences. It was on my agenda in my early months here, but no longer. But after reading the daily news I felt that it was time again to beat the horse: US v. Sweden. This is actually something that's been weighing on my mind since last summer. (this may apply to a larger part of the continent and the world because the company I'm going to talk about a multi-national giant.)


GB Glace is owned by a company called Unilever. For simplicity's sake I won't go into all of the well-known companies they own, but they own a ton. So, GB Glace makes ice cream. Nearly every corner store, tobacco or convenience store type place has one of these out front. They seem to have a monopoly on the ice cream market here. Note: there is a competitor called SIA, but they definitely seem like the small guys in this game. So when the warm weather hits and Swedes start to get their taste back for ice cream (not sure if this taste ever really goes away, ice cream bars are pretty popular here) a big story is the new ice cream bar creations that GB Glace has whipped up and released.

In the States Good Humor is pretty popular in the ice cream bar market. But for other companies to jump in and try to compete wouldn't be seen as a big deal at all. People would buy lesser-know brands. They might here as well, if the choice was given. I guess there is a comfortability factor involved with this monopoly though. You always know what is going to be available and therefore know exaclty what you are going to get and how much it's going to cost. The popular flavors stick around for many years while the ones that don't sell don't come back. See, I can't complain about the lack of choices because their ice cream is so fucking good. I might have to go buy some today now that I think about it.

One of the first things I noticed when I moved here was the lack of choices in grocery stores. Every store seemed to carry basically the same brands and products. A small country, and more importantly, different govermental beliefs answer the question on why this is. Moving a few steps away from capitalism wasn't easy at first, but of course I'm learning and managing.

Then on the other hand, to completely contradict myself, you can buy a brand of non-dairy vegan ice cream at pretty much every common grocery store here. And I'm back to square one in my understanding of the differences between here and there.

Now I'm faced with the decision on which new GB Glace treat to sample. The choices are: Top Hat, Sandwich Jordgubb, Pepe, Simpsons, Magnum Colombia arom, Girlie, Solero smoothie blackberry & banana and Magnum Equador.