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During the current corona pandemic, Strömstad in Sweden has been particularly hard hit financially. The city is made up of Norwegian customers looking for cheap tobacco, food and beer, but the last year has been a difficult year for Swedish merchants who have had almost their entire customer base taken away.
In the Nordby shopping center, outside the center of Strömstad, many stores have been forced to close their doors. The Nordby Supermarket grocery store, owned by the Grensemat company, is keeping checkouts open, despite a sharp drop in revenue.
– We have almost no trade, basically everything is quiet. So we ended up in a concussion-like situation, and we never thought it would be like this. You feel completely ill Göran Lundgren, operations manager of the Grensemat grocery company, which owns two Maximat and Nordby Supermarked stores, tells Aftonbladet.
Additional support is lacking
Grensemat tends to have a turnover of a couple hundred million crowns in December, but the loss of Norwegian customers means that the company can expect a long time for similar turnover this year.
Since the corona pandemic, Grensemat has experienced a turnover loss of around 95 percent.
Criticizes the fact that cross-border trade does not receive additional state support.
– The border region has made billions for the state over the years, so I thought it should be seen more, Lundgren tells Aftonbladet.
– Worse
Strömstad Mayor Kent Hansson has previously stated that he believes that the closure of the Norwegian-Swedish border will last at least until the end of March next year.
– That the border will open before Easter, nobody believes. With each passing day, the situation in Strömstad only gets worse and worse, Hansson told NTB.
Norwegian authorities tell NTB that they have no idea when free movement across the border will be allowed again.
– Quarantine rules are continually updated and can change quickly. It is too early to say at this point what the situation will be around Easter, Secretary of State Maria Jahrmann Bjerke said last week.
