Swedish News:

Stockholm or Härnösand? Great times for cafés. Swedes are getting heavier. 

  • Which would you take? A small one bedroom apartment in a Stockholm suburb like Farsta? Photo: Holger.Ellgaard
  • Stockholm or Härnösand?
    For one million SEK ($151,000) you’ll get a one room apartment with a kitchenette in the Stockholm suburbs, or a roomy ten room apartment in Härnösand (270 miles north of Stockholm, in Ångermanland and considered 'gate to the High coast' Population: 17,500).

  • Or a spacious ten room apartment in Härnösand? Photo: Fredrik Malmquist
  • Great times for cafés
    The café boom in Sweden continues, and it doesn’t look like it’s about to go away any time soon. So far this year, the increase in volume is 6.3 percent over the same period last year. The latest addition, coffee business giant Starbucks, is about to open its first branch in Stockholm.

  • It used to be referred to as ”konditori” or ”kondis”—today it's called a café—and Swedes would go there and order coffee and a piece of pastry. Well, the tradition to go to cafés continues and shows no sign of slacking off. Above, an early image of Greta Garbo feasting on pastry in front of the camera.
  • Swedes are getting heavier
    Swedes today are heavier than they’ve ever been. And for companies that are producing clothes for larger sizes, this is good news. Smaller boutiques as well as bigger chains specialize in collections for larger sizes. Recently published information shows that the Swede is an average of five kilos (11 pounds) heavier today than in the late 1980s. Even though it’s become easier for larger adults to find clothes, Emma Eklund—a finalist in the Swedish version of the television show ”The Biggest Loser”—says there’s more to be done. ”Many people are bigger today. I don’t understand why they cannot make bigger sizes in the regular collections as well.”