Danish grocery stores have a new trick for boycotting U.S. products

[ResidentialBusiness]

Denmark’s largest grocery store operator is introducing a new symbol to its electronic price tags to make it easier to shop local and avoid purchasing American goods. Starting this month, black stars will appear on price tags for European-produced groceries in stores across Denmark, Germany, and Poland run by the Salling Group.

“We are making it easier to buy European brands,” Salling Group CEO Anders Hagh wrote in a LinkedIn post last week, citing consumer demand. Danish holding company the Salling Group operates multiple grocery stores chains and more than 1,700 stores.

[Image: Salling Group/LinkedIn]

Attitudes towards the U.S. have soured in Denmark as President Donald Trump has called for taking control of Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, and for putting tariffs on European goods. A YouGov poll released in January found Danes consider the U.S. a bigger threat than North Korea.

“We have recently received a number of inquiries from customers who want to buy groceries from European brands,” Hagh said. “Our stores will continue to have brands on the shelves from all over the world, and it will always be up to the customers to choose. The new label is only an extra service for those customers who want to buy goods with European brands.”

Trump’s trade war has elevated the importance of national origin “made in” labels as consumers look to purchase products made in their own countries, turning retail and grocery stores into the front lines of the trade war. For its part, Hagh said products in his company’s grocery stores can get the star “when the ultimate owner of the trademark is European.”

“We hope that customers will welcome the new information and will once again let everyone choose freely from our large selection of goods from all over the world,” he said.

The black star on the company’s electronic price tags might be a small in size, but the symbol could have an outsized effect. If the trend catches on more broadly with consumers across Europe, U.S.-based brands could suffer.

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