The Thrift Stores of Finland and Sweden

An unexpected treasure trove of trinkets

I’ve never heard anyone talk about being excited to visit Finland or Sweden because they were looking forward to checking out the many secondhand stores that you find in just about every city and town in those countries.

I can’t imagine that if you ask travelers who have visited these countries to list what they appreciated, that secondhand stores would show up on anyone’s list.

And yet, the few souvenirs I have kept from these countries are all from these stores. I have been to Finland once [Helsinki and Turku] and Sweden twice [first time Lund, Linköping, Norköping, Stockholm; second time Stockholm, Göteborg, Malmö].

I usually look for items that are useful in some way. In the case of these pieces that I purchased in Sweden, I went the decorative route. The container for mustard does not hold any mustard, just as the one for ginger only rarely contains ginger. They sit on a shelf in my kitchen as a means of giving a little visual interest and color where there had not been any:

Myrorna is the name of the Swedish store that seems to be located in every town I visited. I quickly came to recognize its familiar blue and red signage.

It’s a different perspective there than it is here

Not surprisingly, people from different cultures, or even within the same country, offer divergent perspectives about buying used items.

A Finn told me, “In your country you brag when your car is brand new. Here, we brag when we are still driving our car that is more than twenty years old.”

Useful? Decorative? It varies

I usually don’t have anything particular in mind when I enter a secondhand store during my travels. I say usually, but that is not always the case. When I was in Turku, Finland, I encountered some unexpected cold and rainy weather, for which I was not prepared.

There is a Finnish chain of secondhand stores that advertises it has items that cost €4 on Monday, €3 on Tuesday and Wednesday, €2 on Thursday and Friday, and €1 on Saturday. It being Tuesday when I was in Turku, I perused the €3 rack, saw several jackets, and I purchased one of them to wear for the day. It very nicely did the trick.

When I departed Helsinki at the end of my visit, I left it with the owner of the Airbnb where I had stayed.

In Helsinki, I encountered another item I knew I could use: a long-handled shoehorn. For the price of €1.50, I couldn’t resist. I kept this with me throughout the trip, brought it home, and still have it with me. I use it almost every day.

I love that in these two countries, there seems to be no need to impress anyone else with shiny new luxury items. To my way of thinking, the Swedes and the Finns are keeping it real.

Can you imagine an entire mall of secondhand stores?

Since I visited Sweden I learned about a shopping mall located about seventy miles from Stockholm, in the town of Eskilstuna. It is called ReTuna.

This mall is a way to promote the re-use of items, with people coming long distances to shop for used goods of all sorts. I have not visited this mall, but I imagine that if I lived anywhere nearby, I would enjoy observing what it had to offer.

What about you?

Do secondhand stores interest you in any way? Do you shop in them at home? Could you imagine purchasing souvenirs, either useful or decorative, in any of these shops?