The sweet tax in Sweden is less severe than it is in Finland. Cheaper sweets, soft drinks and alcohol prompt Finns to border-hop, as well as tobacco products whose sale is prohibited in their home country. In one shop in Haparanda, north-eastern Sweden, the lighter taxation can be seen as a steady influx of Finnish customers.
The price difference is only part of the appeal of Haparanda, a stone’s throw from the Lapland city of Tornio, as the easternmost Swedish settlement is also a point of interest for its varied product selection.
Spirited Swedes offset canny northern Finns
Snuff, electronic cigarettes and mild alcoholic beverages are found in most country-hopping Finns’ shopping carts, even though prices in Sweden don’t fall quite as low as in Estonia. Cans and boxes of beer and wine, not cartfuls of hard liquor, are the number one products.
Shopping trips to the Nordic neighbour barely feature in Finnish national economics due to the small population of Northern Finland, even though some 2-3 million euros are spent on the other side of the border. Swedes making similar alcohol runs to Finland balance out the overall losses.
The exchange rate between the euro and the Swedish krona also has a negligible effect on cross-border buying.
