All the Stuff You Miss in Singapore

Scandinavian Shoppe in Singapore is the place for Scandinavians to look for all kinds of specialties from their own country that they haven’t been able to find anywhere else. In the shop, Mel Thøgersen and her staff do what ever they can, to ensure that there is always a wide range of different kinds of Scandinavian food, bread, cakes, different kinds of Scandinavian liquor, and not to forget many kinds of snacks, chocolate, sweets.
Mel Thøgersen and her husband Michael took over the shop in November 2007. The previous owner had used the name “So Delicious”, but it did not take long before the couple changed the name in order to describe more precisely that all the “so delicious” stuff was goods from Scandinavia. And lots of what you can find in the shop is not for eating – like a cheese cutter or new strings for your old cheese cutter.
“Before the shop came about, I was working for an American company designing HR systems. I was pregnant, and my husband Michael complained about my long working hours. He felt sorry for me, and he would like us to spend much more time together”, Mel Thøgersen explain.
“My husband had a friend whose girlfriend worked in this shop. That’s how we got in touch with the former owner,” she explains.
Since then Mel has been giving birth to two wonderful children, a boy named Noah, and a girl called Mikaela.
“They normally join me when I go to the shop, but today my mother is taking care of them,” Mel says, while she is pointing at a pushchair, belonging to the children.
“Scandinavian Shoppe” has most of what you will ever think of as a Scandinavian. The entire Scandasia magazine you are holding in your hands right now will be far too small to mention all the available goods.
The shop is also clearly well funded. You don’t find two or three glasses of marinated Herrings on the shelves, there are loads of goods all over.
“We get most of our things straight from Copenhagen. Also things from the other Scandinavian countries. All the fresh goods like cheese, butter, bacon, fresh bread, and much more, we get out here by air cargo. The rest take the journey by boat”.
Mel is happy for the changes in her working life. Her husband Michael Thøgersen was right. She was working far too much before, and the new life as a shop owner with two Filipinos assistants employed fits much better into to her life with two small children.
On top of that, she can enjoy the fact, that more and more people discover “Scandinavian Shoppe”, as the place to go for their favourite food, snacks and drinks.
“Most of our costumers are regulars. They come week after week, and we also have costumers who live in other countries in the Far East. They come here just before they are heading for the airport,” Mel Thøgersen says.
“It’s obvious that we have to charges a higher prize here in Singapore, compared with the prices in Scandinavia. Especially air cargo is very expensive. We do have costumers who are complaining about that, but most of the costumers understand that it has to be more expensive here. Instead of complaining, they should look forward to sitting in their Asian home and enjoy food from back home,” Mel says.

Scandinavian Shoppe
30 South Buona Vista Road, Singapore
Tel:+65 6476 2575
[email protected]

How to get there:
1. MRT to Buona Vista. Take bus no. 200. Get off at Lor Sarhad (the first stop after National Community Leadership Institute).
or
2. MRT to Harbour Front / Vivo City, Bus no 10, 30 or 143 to Redwood West. Walk 100 m up South Buona Vista Rd.