Norwegians' shopping of chocolate, candy and non-alcoholic beverages abroad – Results from a nationwide web-survey in autumn 2022
Note
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The aim of this survey was to estimate Norwegians' shopping of sweets/chocolate and of sugary and sugar-free soft drinks/mineral water, and energy drinks abroad on day trips or over the Internet.
Summary
Cross-border shopping is defined as shopping abroad on day trips with no over-night stay. Internet shopping includes Norwegians' online shopping from stores abroad.
The aim of this survey was to estimate Norwegians' shopping of sweets/chocolate and of sugary and sugar-free soft drinks/mineral water, and energy drinks abroad on day trips or over the Internet.
On behalf of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Kantar Public conducted a nationally representative survey among adults, 18 years and older, in October-November 2022. A total of 3 097 panel participants participated in the survey. The results in this report are weighted for gender, age, and region to reflect the composition of the Norwegian adult population and estimate nationally representative figures.
The proportion of adults who reported having been on a day trip abroad in the last 30 days was 16 % (95 % CI: 14–17 %). Of these, 61 % had bought candy/chocolate, 42 % bought sweetened drinks and 40 % bought sugar-free drinks, while 26 % had not bought any of these items on their last trip. The proportion who had bought such goods was not different for men and women, but it was declining with higher level of education and was slightly lower in the oldest age groups. Most day trips went to Sweden (84 %). The average number of day trips among those who had been on a day trip was 1.9 times (95 % CI: 1.5–2.4 times). Distributed across all day trips abroad, the average amount of goods per trip was 1.6 kg chocolate/candy, 4.7 litres of sugary drinks, and 5.8 litres of sugar-free drinks.
Estimates of the total amounts of "cross-border shopping" are best done by comparing the results of this survey, which measures the content of an average trade, with the results from Statistics Norway, as they monitor the number of day trips abroad throughout the year. Before the corona pandemic, in the year 2019, adult Norwegians were on day trips abroad 9.6 million times. The total number of day trips for 2022 will be published in February 2023 (on ssb.no).
Only 3.2 % (95 % CI: 2,4–4,2%) reported having bought sweets/chocolate or sugary- and sugar-free soft drinks/mineral water, or energy drinks in online stores abroad during the last three months. In their last purchase, 56 % had bought chocolate, 45 % sweetened drinks, and 33 % sugar-free drinks. The internet shopping was most prevalent in the youngest age groups (8.7 % in the group 18–24 years), and more often reported among men than women (3.7 vs. 2.7 %). The proportion was declining with increasing education. The average frequency among those who shopped was 2.6 times (95 % CI: 1.8–3.4 times) during the last 3 months. For each trade, purchases averaged 1.6 kg of chocolate/candy, 2.3 litres of sugary drinks and 2.3 litres of sugar-free drinks. Roughly estimated, this equals approximately 0.4 kg of chocolate/candy, 0.6 litre of sugary drinks, and 0.6 litre of sugar-free drinks per Norwegian per year.
