SVT visited a medium-sized ICA store in Kvissleby, south of Sundsvall. Trader Erik Geijer, like his colleagues, has come under fire as prices rise.
"There's no one who can make a living from this, everyone is a loser," he says.
Opportunities to experiment with prices
It's all about your purchase prices and what you can get out in competition with others, isn't there an opportunity to experiment with that?
"It should, but as the market looks right now, a lot of people are living on the knife edge, so there's not much opportunity for that.
Varied profit
The store has a turnover of about 180 million, but it is not a profit every month according to Erik.
"September to November we did 750 thousand back, December a plus result, January back and February I don't know yet," he explains.
Invested in the store
He says that the store had a good result during the pandemic but that much of the surplus went to investments.
"We have invested in new refrigerators and freezers, more environmentally friendly technology, but if we had not done well, we would not have been able to invest.
Hatred and threats have led ICA to centrally warn traders and staff, but in Kvissleby the store has so far not been subjected to threats.
"I'd say it's trolls on the internet who bring out the threats, but it's a tougher situation," Geijer says.
In the clip: Hear Erik Geijer talk more about what the price situation means for food retailers, and how it affects competition.