Saturday, December 2

According to Wikipedia, Alepa “is a grocery shop chain in the Greater Helsinki region of Finland. It is currently owned by HOK-Elanto, a part of the nationwide cooperative S Group. Alepa was founded in 1918, when Edvard Pajunen and his wife founded a shop in Sörnäinen, Helsinki.

The original name of Alepa was Alennushalli Pajunen (Pajunen’s Discount Hall), named after the founder. The Pajunen family sold the chain to HOK in 1987.

As of May 2017, the chain includes 112 stores in Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Hyvinkää, Kerava, Klaukkala, Järvenpää and Tuusula. Outside of this region, the S Group uses the brand Sale for similar stores.”

It has one unique selling proposition: its locality. Whereas most Finnish grocery stores cluster in malls or have grown into hypermarkets, Alepa still has what the English would refer to as corner shops; albeit ones that open 24 hours a day. It has decided to capitalise on this by marketing hyperlocal merchandise, branded with the Helsinki slang name for the locality of each shop.

I discover that we live in Vartsika and, learning this, I head off at once through the snow to get my 2€ Vartsika winter hat.