The local supermarket – Samkaup

One of the things I am always curious about while travelling is how the supermarkets look from the inside – do they sell similar products  to home? And  more interesting – what odd things do they have in their assortment.

The first thing I noticed here was that groceries are 20-50% more expensive than in Dutch supermarkets. The Icelandic króna (1 EU = 160,55 ISK) makes it easy to fool yourself and actually feel a little wealthier with all those 1000 and 500 bills in your wallet. However,  it has the reverse effect when you have to pay 1200 for a piece of cheese.

Here in town there are two supermarkets: Samkaup and Bónus. The latter is the cheapest option but simultaneously the one that takes you half the world to get there – unless you have a car or a passion for walking (or a beautiful appearance that could be used for hitchhiking). Since I have neither, I went to Samkaup, a 5-minute walk from our front door. The products are kind of similar to what I am used to and I was not able to find the seal flippers, whale or head cheese that I thought I would find.

The Samkaup

Plenty of fruits and nice drinks

Pieces of shark - kind of odd to me

My favourite place in the supermarket - the cheeses

Svid - Sheephead.. Icelandic delicatesse

Dairy products

Skyr is a sort of strained yoghurt, very popular in Iceland

Hardfiskur - wind dried fish



Where is everybody?



Light beers - the only alcohol available in the supermarket

People here like knitting - there is even a knitting café