It’s a question every parent of young children faces. How far would you go for some cheap diapers? Would you drive 300 miles, and then drive 300 more? What about with a long ferry ride thrown in? And across international borders? Now, this might sound like bargain-hunting ad absurdum, but it’s not. It’s capitalism. Just ask the entrepreneurial Poles and Lithuanians who think half-priced diapers are too good a business opportunity to pass up.
There are lots of ways supermarkets can get customers in the door, and away from the competition. But in parts of Norway, cut-rate diapers have become the preferred lure. It’s set off something of a price war, which would be great news for Norwegian parents if they could actually find diapers in stock. They can’t. As Reuters reports, prices are so enticingly low that foreigners, mostly Poles and Lithuanians, have started trekking to Norway for the sole purpose of buying up every last diaper they can find.