Stores: ICA in Gothenburg

Found these great vintage photos taken at two different ICA stores in Gothenburg, Sweden. Most likely taken for publicity reasons for use in catalogs or magazines. ICA is one the largest retail chains in Sweden, started back in 1938 and today boasting over 1 600 stores nationwide. Can't help thinking how Americanized the ICA store top photo looks like.

NK in Malmö

Here are two postcards showing the old NK department store in Malmö, Sweden. NK (Nordiska Kompaniet / The Nordic Company) is one of the oldest merchandise companies in Sweden. The first, and biggest store opened in Stockholm in 1915 and featured Sweden’s first escalators. Soon NK also had stores in Gothenburg and Malmö. The department [...]

Shopping Spree – Part 2

Time for another visit to yesteryears shopping malls in Sweden, this time focusing on a gem located in the suburbs of Gothenburg in the southwest parts of Sweden. The Frölunda Torg mall was built in 1966 and was by its completion the biggest mall in Europe. It took seven years and 80 million Swedish Krona [...]

Väla Centrum

Väla Centrum is a shopping mall located in southern Sweden just outside of Helsingborg. Been planing on writing about it for a long time now but have not been able to find anything useful – until now. This is the mall I grew up with. Many many Friday evenings and Saturdays were spent here when [...]

Charles

Supermarkets are an atrocity these days. Delights such as the ones depicted here have pretty much vanished and have been replaced with larger more impersonal stores and big-box warehouse stores where you have to buy a year's supply of whatever to save money. I mean does anyone really need a 500 pack of condoms? Does anyone really need a 10 pound bag of Captain Crunch? I remember when I was growing up and I went to Tops with my grandmother. It looked like this store and everyone knew everyone. The closest thing we have to this now is a Trader Joe's where everyone is a wanna be gourmet. A market is being built near my school by a Swedish company. I forget the name, but it is totally self-service
Chris

There still are some smaller stores like this in Sweden, but major international companies are taking over more and more. Stores are replaced by big malls or "gallerior" as they are called in Sweden. There used to be a big Domus store not far from here that still looked like it did in the 80s, but now it's gone and converted to a mini mall instead. And yeah you are right, who needs a 500 pack of condoms? It's the 60s, where free love and promiscuous sex still rule, right?
Charles

I like how you think Chris! My wife and I no longer wish to be reproductive so one of us got a vasectomy and that would be me.

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Ultra Swank takes you back in time into the kitsch, chic and swank living of the 50s, 60s and the 70s. We mainly focus on the design, architecture and the lifestyle of the happy-go-lucky and space-age-living mentality of that era – but also on the music and movies that takes you back to happier times. Ultra Swank is run by Chris, a Swede born in the wrong decade that currently resides in Barcelona. Read more

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