In this episode of the How to Live in Denmark podcast, host Kassandra Melish explains why food is expensive in Denmark—high sales tax, higher wages, and premium supermarket pricing—and offers a comprehensive set of strategies for cutting grocery costs. She starts with the Danish weekly supermarket flyer (the "tilbudavis"), recommending the use of electronic versions and apps to spot deep discounts, buying in bulk, and freezing surplus items. She then advises shoppers to follow seasonal fruit and vegetable cycles (e.g., strawberries in May‑June, cherries, sugar peas, autumn apples) and to freeze produce for later use. Melish contrasts the limited but pricey Copenhagen market halls with smaller town farmers’ markets that sell traditional, inexpensive produce, and highlights Middle‑Eastern or Asian‑run fruit and vegetable stores for cheap spices, beans, lentils, and bulk rice. She explains how to take advantage of “last‑chance” sections and the Too Good To Go app for discounted near‑expiry food, and notes that many bakeries cut bread prices after 8 PM. Cross‑border shopping in Germany and Sweden is presented as another cost‑saving option due to weaker foreign currencies. Finally, she stresses that cooking at home and bringing personal recipes is the most effective way to stay within budget, as prepared meals and take‑out are prohibitively pricey. The episode concludes with a plug for her books and social media channels.
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Hello and welcome to the How to Live in Denmark podcast. I'm Kassandra Melish. Anyone who has spent time living in Denmark. knows that it's one of the most expensive countries around. That's true when it comes to food shopping in Denmark, too. One Dane who had lived in the U.S. explained it this way: In Denmark, every supermarket is priced like Whole Foods. For those of you who haven't visited the States, Whole Foods is a high-end grocery chain nicknamed Whole Wallet. Or whole paycheck. One reason prices are so high is that, unlike most Western countries, Denmark imposes a full sales tax on food items, adding 25% to the price of almost everything. And Danish supermarket workers are also paid a healthier wage than their counterparts elsewhere. Although, if you look closely, you'll notice that many supermarket workers in Denmark are teenagers, who are paid half the adult rate. As a consumer, you have many ways to save money on food in Denmark. We're going to talk about farmers markets, Middle Eastern markets, and special markets and apps to avoid wasted food. But the most obvious tip for saving money on food in Denmark is to do it the way the Danes do it and look at the weekly supermarket specials. The tilbudavis. These used to come in paper form, stuffed into your mailbox every week, and some people still get them that way. But most people now choose to get them electronically or via apps. You can download the app for your favorite supermarket and get early info about what's on sale. Now the deal with the tilbudavis is that supermarkets offer super cheap prices on popular items just to get people in the door where they will presumably buy other things too. For example, yesterday I bought Danish butter for 5 crowns a package. The usual price is 21 crowns per package. 75% off? Not bad. I bought 6 and froze 5 for later use. Your freezer is your good friend in Denmark. Works great for meat too. Chicken is often on special at very low prices. Or if you're a vegan, it works for seasonal fruits and vegetables. That is my next tip: to plan for the various Danish fruit seasons. Strawberry season in May or June is legendary. The Danes have some of the best locally grown strawberries in the world— bright red, juicy, and sweeter than candy. Usually when the season starts, strawberries are about 40 crowns a box. As more come in from the harvest, the price falls to 30 crowns a box. And then 20. At the end of a selling day, from one of the street vendors, I've been able to get them for 10. Eat as many berries as you can— they don't last more than a day or two— and then freeze the rest for some other season. Enjoy them during the winter, when the only other strawberries available in Denmark are imported versions, so tough you can bounce them off your plate. Cherries and sugar peas are some other Danish fruits and vegetables you can get from street vendors during the harvest season. And don't miss the apples in fall. Crisp Danish apples right off the tree—absolutely heavenly. Open-air farmers markets are not as common in Denmark as they are in some other European countries, like France or Italy. That said, there is a huge fruit and vegetable market in downtown Copenhagen called Torvehallene—the market halls. But this is expensive real estate, and these are expensive fruits and vegetables. Glamorous, shiny, and creatively displayed, but expensive. In smaller towns, you'll find some more authentic farmers markets selling mostly traditional vegetables. That means cabbage in different colors and shapes, round celery root, beets, carrots, and potatoes still covered in dirt. Basically the type of food you'd eat if you lived in Denmark in 1721 instead of 2021. If you're looking for inexpensive citrus or melons, try the local fruit and vegetable markets run by Danes of Middle Eastern or Asian origin. This is also the place to go if you want any foods that are not traditionally Danish—in particular, fresh spices and dried beans and lentils. The prices here are often about half of what you'll find in a standard Danish supermarket. You can also get huge bags of rice in these stores for say seventy-five crowns. That amount of rice would cost you 200-300 crowns in a traditional supermarket. Make sure to check the expiration dates on food in any market. It's illegal in Denmark to sell food after the expiration date. If you're in a supermarket and happen to find an item that is expiring that day, you can usually take it to the manager or cashier and ask for a discount, since the item will have to be thrown away the next day anyway. Most of the big supermarkets actually take the initiative and put food that's about to expire in a special last chance section. I've found some fabulous bargains here— very expensive food that is 50% off or more because it would have to be thrown out the next day. Even if you can't fit the item in your meal planning for that particular day, you can still put it in the freezer to eat at another time. Many Danish supermarkets and bakeries sell bread for half price after a certain time. In most supermarkets, it's 8 PM. And there's a very popular app called Too Good To Go that lets you find the location of all different types of last-chance food in your area. It offers incredible deals at bakeries, supermarkets, restaurants, sushi joints. The prices are low, and the business can avoid having to throw out food that's otherwise perfectly good. Some entire markets specialize in food that would otherwise have to be thrown out— maybe dented cans or outdated packaging, something that says Merry Christmas on it when it's April, or oddly shaped fruits and vegetables that don't look pretty but taste just fine. You can get some good bargains there, plus the satisfaction of knowing you're helping avoid food waste, which of course is very good for the environment. One less environmentally friendly way of saving money on food in Denmark is to actually leave the country. Right across the German border, there are shops that sell discounted beer and other canned drinks. You drive over the border, fill up your car with several cases, and drive home. If you live on the east coast of Denmark, you can go grocery shopping in Sweden. Drive across the Øresund Bridge or take the car ferry at Helsingør. The Swedish crown is weak compared to the Danish one, which will produce quite a savings if you're buying a lot. But the most important tip for saving money on food in Denmark is to make it yourself. If you come from a place where you're used to dining out a lot or getting takeout every day, you will not be able to afford that in Denmark. Prepared food in Denmark is expensive, unless you plan to live on hot dogs from the local sausage wagon. When you come to Denmark, bring recipes. You will need them. And that's the How to Live in Denmark podcast for this week. You can get our books, How to Live in Denmark, How to Work in Denmark, Working with Danes: Tips for Americans. They're available on Amazon, Saxo, Google Books, Apple Books, and Barnes Noble Nook. Come leave a comment Comment at howtoliveindenmark.com or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube. See you next time.
