Strikes affecting Finland's retail sector that began on Monday will continue this week, prompting some people to stock up on food.
Retail logistics sector union members began a strike on Monday that is set to end early on Thursday morning. A concurrent strike of retail workers is set to begin early on Wednesday morning and end on Saturday at 5am.
The Service Union United PAM, which represents workers, and the Finnish Commerce Federation employers' group have been negotiating terms of a two-year collective agreement.
Among other things, the union is seeking a 10 percent wage increase, in order to bring employees' purchasing power to the level it was a few years ago. The federation, meanwhile, has said such increases would be excessive.
The strikes will affect around 70,000 workers at about 3,000 sites. These include S Group stores, including Prisma and Alepa outlets, Kesko's K-branded shops and hypermarkets, as well as all Lidl, Halpa-Halli and Tokmanni stores.
Some people have prepared for eventual changes caused by the strikes, including by stocking up on food items.
'I did buy a little more'
On Sunday, Yle spoke with Kim Kannussaari, as he was grocery shopping at the Olari Prisma hypermarket in Espoo on Sunday.
"I did buy a little more. Then I won't have to worry about going to the supermarket in the coming days," he explained.
Grocery shopper Tiina Laanti voiced similar sentiments.
"Yes, the strike had a slight impact on our shopping. We'll put some bread in the freezer, for example," Laanti told Yle.
However Jemina Nascimento had not taken the strikes into account.
"The strike didn't affect my shopping. I bought food as I normally would," she explained.
According to Sampo Päällysaho, SVP of groceries at retailing cooperative S Group, some individual products might be in short supply in some stores, but no change has been seen in terms of people's purchasing behaviour.
He said an increased amount of customers seen over the weekend was likely partly due to the start of school winter vacations in Southern Finland.
"People who head to cottages and ski resorts bring food with them," Päällysaho explained.
He said that some customers were preparing for the week of unusual circumstances at stores, but noted that supermarkets were being restocked on Sunday night.
"So, there will be plenty of goods available tomorrow, as well," he said on Sunday.
"We intend to keep the stores open normally even at the end of the week, despite the strike," Päällysaho said.
Shelves stocked, then emptied
On Monday some shoppers were unable to find some of their favourite products, including Raija Tamminen, who was stocking up at the Prisma in Kouvola.
"The most popular yogurts were sold out," she explained.
Up north in Lapland, Tanya Nurkkala, a shopkeeper at the K-Market in Kemi, said that Sunday was busy. About one hundred kilometres south, in Oulu, shopper Dina Tarvonen said the local Prisma was low on bread, minced meat products — and bananas were also in short supply.
The Prisma in Northern Ostrobothnia's town of Kuusamo saw sales spike over the weekend, immediately after news of the strike was reported, according to the outlet's HR and division director, Mari Vartiainen.
She said that both locals and visitors were buying a lot of products all weekend.
Further north in winter resort town Saariselkä, the store shelves of the local K-Market were still full at the beginning of the week, as vacationers had already likely done their shopping in Rovaniemi and Sodankylä.
Yle found people in Helsinki mostly saying that the strikes weren't affecting their buying patterns.
According to Prisma's CEO, Ilkka Riiali, the hypermarket chain has seen only "minor hoarding", for some fresh items, including dairy and meat products.
"The shelves are constantly being filled, but they are also being emptied all the time when the store is open," Riiali said.
The Prisma store in Helsinki's Kaari district is usually open 24 hours a day, but that won't be possible during the strike week. However, Riiali was not yet able to say exactly what the outlet's opening hours would be.