Supermarkets and Groceries in Finland

Grocery shopping is one of the first things you do as a newcomer to Finland, and it works a little differently than you might expect. Two big Finnish chains dominate almost everywhere, prices are high by European standards, and there are a couple of local quirks — loyalty cards that pay you cashback, a bottle-deposit machine in every store, and strict rules on where you can buy wine. Here is how to shop well from your first week.

The Two Big Players: S-Group and K-Group

Finnish grocery retail is unusually concentrated. Two domestic groups together account for the large majority of the market, and between them they run the store you will shop in most weeks.

S-group is the larger of the two and is structured as a cooperative. Its grocery formats, from biggest to smallest, are:

• Prisma — large hypermarkets on the edge of towns, with the widest range and generally the lowest prices in the group. Good for a big weekly shop if you have a car or live near one.
• S-market — mid-sized supermarkets, the everyday workhorse found in most neighbourhoods.
• Alepa (in the Helsinki region) and Sale (elsewhere) — small convenience stores for top-up shopping, open long hours but pricier per item.

K-group (the listed company Kesko) is the second major group. Its formats are:

• K-Citymarket — hypermarkets comparable to Prisma.
• K-Supermarket — large, well-stocked supermarkets often with a strong fresh and deli range.
• K-Market — smaller neighbourhood stores, individually run by entrepreneurs, so range and quality vary from one to the next.

In practice, most areas have at least one S-group and one K-group store within reach, and people often hold loyalty cards for both and shop wherever is convenient. S-group is the larger chain by market share, K-group is second, and the discounter Lidl is the clear third.

Lidl: The Budget Option

Lidl is the German discounter and the main low-cost alternative to the two Finnish groups. It is the third-largest grocery retailer in Finland and typically runs noticeably cheaper than equivalent S- and K-group products. The range is smaller and more own-brand, the stores are no-frills, and the weekly offers (in the leaflet and the Lidl Plus app) are genuinely good for stocking up. If money is tight as you settle in, a Lidl shop for staples plus an S- or K-store for anything specific is a common strategy.

Lidl does not participate in the Finnish loyalty-card systems below; instead it has its own free Lidl Plus app with digital coupons.

Loyalty Cards: S-Etukortti and K-Plussa

Two loyalty schemes are worth signing up for because they are free and the rewards are real money, not gimmicks. You scan the card (or app) before you pay.

S-Etukortti (S-group) is tied to S-group's cooperative. According to S-group, members earn Bonus — cashback of up to 5% of total monthly purchases across the group, paid into your account, with a small extra benefit when you pay with an S-Etukortti payment card. Because S-group also runs ABC service stations, Sokos department stores, hotels and more, the spending that counts toward Bonus adds up across categories. The catch: joining makes you a asiakasomistaja (customer-owner) of a regional cooperative, which means paying a one-off participation share that is refundable if you ever leave. You join the co-op closest to where you live.

K-Plussa (K-group) is Kesko's scheme. It gives points and personalised member offers across K-stores and partner businesses (fuel, restaurants and others). According to K-Plussa, there is a small one-off card fee, sometimes waived in promotions, but no co-op membership to worry about.

Both cards can be added to a phone app, and you do not need a Finnish bank account or even a henkilötunnus (personal identity code) to sign up in most cases — though linking a card and managing your account online is easier once you have Finnish online banking IDs.

Opening Hours: Shop When You Like

Finland fully deregulated retail opening hours on 1 January 2016, scrapping the old rules that limited evening and Sunday trading for larger stores. Since then, according to the Finnish Government, shops set their own hours freely.

In practice this means:

• Large stores (Prisma, K-Citymarket, bigger S-markets and K-Supermarkets) often open early and stay open late — frequently 7am to 9pm or 10pm — seven days a week, including Sundays.
• Small neighbourhood stores (Alepa, Sale, K-Market) tend to keep long daily hours too, which is what they are designed for, though some close a bit earlier on Sundays.
• Public holidays are the exception: hours are reduced or stores close entirely on days like Christmas, Midsummer and May Day. These are decided store by store, so check the specific shop's hours online before a holiday rather than assuming.

The big behavioural difference from many countries is that Sunday is a normal shopping day in Finland. The one consistent exception is Alko (below), which stays closed on Sundays.

The Bottle Deposit System (Pantti)

This catches almost every newcomer out, so learn it early: most drink containers in Finland carry a deposit (pantti) that you pay at the checkout and get back when you return the empty.

According to Palpa, the company that runs the national system, the deposits are:

• €0.15 for aluminium cans
• €0.10 for glass bottles
• €0.10, €0.20 or €0.40 for plastic (PET) bottles, depending on size

You return empties to the reverse vending machine (a pullonpalautusautomaatti) found near the entrance of almost every supermarket. Feed in your cans and bottles, and the machine prints a voucher you can spend at the till or, in many stores, redeem as cash. Keep your empties together at home and bring them on your next shop — over a few weeks the refunds are not trivial, and it is why you will see people, including students, collecting returnable bottles. Containers in the system have a clear deposit mark and barcode; loose glass jars, milk cartons and similar packaging are not part of it and go to normal recycling.

Buying Alcohol: Grocery Store vs Alko

Where you can buy alcohol is one of Finland's distinctive rules, and it changed recently.

Since June 2024, ordinary grocery stores may sell alcoholic drinks up to 8% alcohol by volume (ABV) — raised from the previous 5.5% limit. That covers most beers, ciders and long drinks, and now a selection of lighter wines too. You will find these on normal shelves in S-markets, K-stores, Lidl and the rest.

Anything stronger is sold only at Alko, the state-owned alcohol retailer with roughly 360 shops nationwide. Alko is where you buy most wine, all spirits, and stronger beer. It is a deliberate part of Finnish alcohol policy, not just a quirk — and it shapes shopping habits, because a "proper" wine run means a separate trip to Alko.

Two practical points:

• Age limits: you must be 18 to buy drinks up to 22% ABV (so all grocery-store alcohol and most Alko products) and 20 for anything above 22%. Expect to show ID — a passport, Finnish ID card or driving licence — regardless of how old you look.
• Hours: grocery stores may sell alcohol only within set daily hours (roughly morning until 9pm), and Alko is closed on Sundays and keeps shorter hours than supermarkets, so plan ahead for the weekend.

For more on the monopoly system, see our dedicated guide to buying alcohol and the Alko system.

What Food Costs (and How to Spend Less)

InfoFinland is blunt about it: the cost of living in Finland is high, and food in particular is more expensive than the European average. As of 2026, expect groceries to be a meaningful part of your monthly budget — check our cost-of-living guide for current sample figures.

Ways newcomers keep the bill down:

• Buy own-brand. Each group has a value label — Pirkka (K-group) and Rainbow and Kotimaista (S-group) — that is materially cheaper than name brands for staples like pasta, frozen vegetables, dairy and cleaning products.
• Shop the discounter. Use Lidl for basics and the two big groups for specific items.
• Watch the evening markdowns. Stores discount fresh items (bread, meat, ready meals) nearing their best-before date, often with stickers in the last hour or two before closing — bigger stores have the best pickings.
• Use the loyalty apps. Both S and K push personalised offers and coupons through their apps; activating them before you shop is free money.
• Mind the deposit. Always return your bottles and cans — it is, in effect, a small recurring discount you have already paid for.

Paying at the Till

Finland is close to cashless. According to InfoFinland, it is very common to pay by debit or credit card, and in most places you do not need cash at all. Contactless card and phone payments are accepted essentially everywhere, including small shops.

If you are still setting up a Finnish bank account, a card from an international money service like Wise or Revolut in euros works fine for groceries and avoids foreign-exchange surprises in your first weeks, before your Finnish online banking and loyalty cards are fully linked. Self-checkout is widespread in larger stores, and many supermarkets also offer self-scanning, where you scan items as you shop with a handheld scanner or the store app and pay at the end.

Online Groceries and Specialty Shops

You do not have to shop in person. The two big groups both run online stores — S-kaupat / Foodie (S-group) and K-Ruoka (K-group) — offering home delivery or click-and-collect from hundreds of stores nationwide. On-demand apps like Wolt and Foodora also deliver groceries from supermarkets and convenience stores, usefully fast but with delivery fees that make them better for top-ups than a full weekly shop.

For ingredients the big chains do not stock well — South Asian, East Asian, Middle Eastern, African and other specialty foods — most larger cities have ethnic grocery stores and well-stocked market halls (kauppahalli). Helsinki has a particularly good range. If a recipe from home is missing an ingredient at Prisma, a specialty shop or an Asian/African store nearby is usually the answer, and prices there can be better than the big chains for spices, rice and pulses.

A Practical First-Shop Plan

For your first week, a simple routine covers most needs:

1. Sign up (free) for S-Etukortti and/or K-Plussa, plus the Lidl Plus app, so you start earning from day one.
2. Do a stock-up shop at a Prisma, K-Citymarket or Lidl for staples and household basics.
3. Use a nearby S-market, K-Market or Alepa/Sale for fresh top-ups during the week.
4. Make a separate trip to Alko if you want wine or spirits — and not on a Sunday.
5. Keep a bag for empties by the door and feed the reverse vending machine on your next visit.

Once you know the chains, the cards, the deposit machine and the alcohol rules, grocery shopping in Finland becomes routine fast — and you will be quietly clawing back Bonus and bottle deposits like a local within a month.