Sweden Shop

This place is AMAZING!!! Always always find some kind of treasure here. Pretty much all my kitchen hardware is from here. The charm alone is to die for. Only downside is its a bit pricey. But it’s definitely a must visit regardless.

Fun shop to visit, with a wide variety of unique gifts from Sweden including housewares, crystal, ornaments, books, fabric, shoes, clothing, even Swedish meatballs in the freezer! Good place to browse around if waiting for a table at Tre Kronor. Support your local independent businesses, especially a place like this that keeps Swedish culture alive.

Been visiting this shop on occasion for many years and am glad to see it remains. Much of their merchandise is so very nice, however, I am hoping they will be able to carry even more items as the original owners did. The new shop owners are great and I wish them the best of luck. Do not hesitate to stop by — you’ll be glad you did!

The Sweden Shop is a cute little shop of fun, quirky, and sometimes useful Swedish goods. The variety is mostly food, dishes, ornaments, toys and children’s books.
There are some great gifts here for anyone who adores Sweden or Swedish culture, including bottles of Glögg and housewares.
The few things that did catch my eye were quite pricey, including a burlap make-​up bag for $ 17. My mom loves those little Swedish horses but most items like the $ 20 dish towel would’ve made her wallet unhappy too. This is not IKEA, guys.
The pricetags may be up there, but if you are looking for something truly unique, perhaps you could justify it. I wouldn’t mind stopping in here again just to browse.

What’s not to love about this little treasure?
There are many unique little trinkets and toys here. There is a whole section with kitchen themed items that I bet you’ve never seen before in your life. They have some bath soaps, natural bath products, a few specialty food items, lots and lots of kids toys, books, stuffed animals, puppets, games, and everything in-​between. If you want to find a unique and special gift for somebody then I would absolutely recommend coming by this shop to check things out!

The place is cute but they never return emails. A company’s response time is representative of their professional capabilities and dedication to customer service. A simple auto-​response serves as confirmation.
As someone with physical limitations, I expect small businesses to adapt to standard forms communication, at least. Its sad when businesses shut out customers.

An adorable store! Tons of unique fabrics to choose from! I can easily spend an hour here as there’s so much to look at. Tons of Marimekko fabrics, bags, candies, dishes, books etc… I’m Danish, so for me to have a store like this here in Chicago makes me feel at home :)

A great little shop to check out while waiting for your table at Tre Kronos. From A-​Z they have the Scandinavian culture covered, clogs to cameras and cookbooks and kid stuff too. Will be a great go to for holiday gifts that don’t come from a big box!

It looks folksy and seems small then you go inside and the seemingly endless shelves, cases twist and turn until you are dizzy with cutesy charm.
They sell ready Glögg in bottles and a sweet little spice kit– if you are feeling adventurous and willing to make your own. Bottles as well if you are not so adventurous.
Sweets, candies and cookie-​like things I did not buy, mostly because classic black licorice doesn’t look so pretty stuck in my teeth though it does have pretty packaging.
Beautiful brightly-​printed dish towels perfect for housewarming gifts. Some are framed and look adorable as art. I cook and never have enough dish towels. Takes notes, this is a hint.
I am a bit clutzy and was intimidated by the glassware and by proximity, even the plastic around the glassware. There appeared to be women oohing and ahhing over it… so if you are into glassware, have at it but make sure I’m over there… way over there… petting dish towels.
Really cute cards and boxed sets– because you always have a need for Thank Yous. I saw a Boston Terrier winter set I had to hold myself back from buying for a friend– I mean c’mon everyone who has a Boston Terrier needs a $ 20 Boston Terrier boxed card set right? What if the Boston is wearing a trapper hat? Aw c’mon… you know you want it!
Also beautifully hard-​bound copies of Dante’s Inferno? This I really lust after and want. Now.
I don’t know why Dante is on the shelf, but I’m grateful– it is a gorgeous bound volume and as soon as I get my copy home, I will post pictures.

I had fun looking around this shop but didn’t feel the urge to buy anything in particular. I wanted to bring a small gift to my fiancé’s mom but I couldn’t find anything that fit the bill. If I had been shopping for a child I would have had more luck though. I ended up just buying some candy. The owner was really nice, as others indicated.

The only false advertising with the name is that the Sweden Shop actually carries goods from many Scandanavian countries — not a bad thing. They carry a little bit of everything — clothes, shoes, toys, stationary, nicknacks, food, kitchen supplies, etc. Many things are not cheap, but reasonable for the quality, making it an ideal place for a unique, special gift. Plus it is a great place to kill time while waiting for a table at Tre Kroner.

I work close by and love to browse through here on the lunch hour. Every once in a while I buy a little something for a friend, but otherwise I just love being transported to another world for a few minutes — especially during the holidays. The smells and music are just so relaxing :)

What a cute store with a very nice owner. We came to eat and saw this store. We went in, and saw that it was divided into 3 sections. There was the housewares (breakable so we didn’t go over there with my tiny humans), knick knacks and then a «children’s» and fabric section.
i did purchase some fabric, a St Lucia ornament and some pepparakakor (ginger cookies).
My daughter ran away with 3 stuffed dala hast, a blue, orange and pink. She wanted to buy them, it was a little to rich for me at $ 22.50.
Like I said a nice store and my husband says the prices are similar to those in Sweden.
Check it out, it’s a nice change.

I stopped in after breakfast at Tre Kronor. I suspect they are related or have the same owner or something because I heard the wiatress at Tre Kronor suggesting to people that were on the waiting list to go look in the Sweden Shop while waiting for a table to open up.
Anyway, I’ll echo what others have said here. There is great stuff in this store, and the store is rather large, but very expensive. I suspect it is expensive to import stuff from Sweden so I guess it’s not their fault, but it’s hard to find anything here unless you have a few hundred dollars to spend on a couple of gifts.

I came across this shop after a random stroll down Foster. It is conveniently located next to Tre Kronor, and I was most lured in because I will be traveling to Norway, Sweden, and Denmark next month. After walking in there, I was pleasantly surprised! What might not look like much of anything from the outside, was a real treat inside. They had not only Swedish products, but products from all over Scandinavia. Many items were slightly pricy, but it is to be understood when importing them on to US soil. Not really in the mood to shop, I walked out with a Freia Firkløver bar and a card. I defintely plan on round 2 next time I’m in the Windy City.

cute store.
If there were more than one store where I could get Marimekko or Ittala, this store would not be the one I shop. But since there isn’t many… I wish there were more marimekko stuff…

3 Words to start this review: Flicka Ricka Dicka.
What’s that you ask? Only the coolest team of triplets in Sweden. They do EVERYTHING. In my picture, they are baking a cake. No, seriously though…
Location: 4 out of 5.
Well placed shop. Not too far away from the Foster Ave exit off of 90/​94, and strategically placed across the street from Tre Kronor. Easy to get to, but again, I would take ⁹⁰⁄₉₄ as opposed to Lake Shore, though it’s not impossible to get out there via Lake Shore either if you just take Foster Ave west past Kedzie.
Décor: 5 out of 5.
Tomte’s were in on my visit! Woo hoo… who doesn’t love hand-​made Santas and Mrs. Santas. The shop as a whole really makes you feel like you’re at home. There is this cool section to the right of the cash registers where the sweaters are that if you step a certain way, the entire floor creaks and the plates on the wall gently rattle. Not in a menacing way, but in a way that lets you know that this place is OLD.
Customer Service: 4 out of 5
Flicka and Ricka, where’s Dicka? Kidding — there were two young ladies working there when we entered. No real complaints about the way we were treated or the way that anyone else was treated. I got to hear some of their juicy gossip though, but hey — there were like…5 people in the shop and I just happened to be close to where the register was, so they shouldn’t be penalized for talking about things other than how cool the advent calendars are. Insert guffaw here.
Pricing…2 out of 5.
Question: if you won 300 dollars through the Illinois Holiday Lottery Scratch and Win comp, what would you do? I know what I would do — I would rush on over to Sweden Shop and buy a sweater that’s made in Norway! Seriously though — stuff here isn’t cheap. Might be foreign taxes on imports, tariffs, or it really may be that the materials used are that much better (very possible for the sweaters), but realize going in that if you buy something other than the menial trinkets, your wallet will feel a bit lighter. Example: our Tomte was 25 $, and it’s a pretty small guy. However, it’s a rare treat, so no bickering today. Also, T-​shirts ranged from about 25 bucks to 33. A little overboard, but once again, they’re imported from Sweden. Which brings me to an unrelated note: if you ever get a chance to go to the Old Town part of Stockholm, skip all the stores in the middle and walk down the hill to a huge shop that’s run by these two Asian’y looking people. Best prices in town.
Selection of items: 4 out of 5
It’s impossible to do every single thing well, but Sweden Shop seemed to have covered their most important bases: a few sweaters/​hats/​gloves in one section, a little section devoted to Tre Kronor and Dansko Clogs, a smaller children’s area, a seasonal Christmas type gig in the middle of the store, and of course, appliances and decorations all sporting that Swedish «je né sais quoi…» Yes, I realize that what I typed just now was French. But look at their cheese cutters and their lamps within a lamp, and you’ll understand what I mean.
Overall: 4 out of 5.
Cool place, a little pricey if you ask me, but I may just not understand how tariffs and all that jazz works. If I had some extra cash money, I’d probably splurge on one of the Scandinavian made sweaters. However, they do have a few cheaper items (ornaments, candy, etc.) that do say «sweden» on them if you’re just looking for a small trinket.

Let me preface my comments by saying that I’ve been shopping at this place for at least thirty years. I remember the place when it was just the two main rooms, which were often filled with little old Swedish ladies buying up solyas, lingonberries and Dalarna hester, those cute painted horses (Pam, correct me where I screw up.) I remember their semi-​annual sales and how they served coffee and marzipan cake from the Swedish Bakery. I’m telling you this so you understand why I’m not giving this place high marks. I can’t. Not anymore. Look, they don’t serve marzipan cake at the sales anymore, just regular coffee cake, which is nice, but it’s not the kind of over-​the-​top hospitality that I remember. And that, I think, pretty much explains what’s happening here. It’s not as Swedish as it was in a lot of ways. The cake is the least of it.
The new owners — I believe they also own Tre Kronor — have expanded the inventory in directions which seem quite sensible, so they get points there, but at the same time the prices have been rising to ridiculous levels. When virtually everything in the store would pay for your Julbord across the street, you start to wonder what’s going on. And the money sure isn’t going into fixing the place up or even keeping the merchandise particularly clean! The last time I was in there, the walls looked like they hadn’t been painted in decades, and there was a lot of water-​staining and missing plaster on the ceiling. The glass and crystal items were actually filmy. They didn’t shine, and they should have.
Now, I know Scandinavians and I can tell you without fear of contradiction that even if 90% of the people who walked into that store didn’t notice these problems, a true Swede would be wringing her hands and muttering about how the place was just filthy! (I’m not going to get on them about the dirty carpet; it was December and there was a lot of slush being tracked across the floor.) And while I would notice it anywhere, it seemed all the more egregious in a store which calls itself «Sweden Shop.»
To be honest, I only really go in there once or twice a year now. I find myself waiting there for my Julbord seating every December, and wondering if maybe the delays are intended to get people to shop. (Yes, I am something of a cynic.)
However, none of this detracts from the remarkable array of genuine Scandinavian merchandise, and for that alone it would win high marks. I just wish it felt more… well, Swedish

This shop carries the greatest Swedish stuff, and tons of it. If you are waiting for a table at Tre Kronor you should definitely stop in to browse around. The things are a little on the pricey end, especially considering Ikea is the exact opposite, but there are many hard to find items here. If you are looking for anything authentically Swedish, I’m sure they have it!
To note (as others have!), they have a great selection of Marimekko fabrics. I don’t know where else you can find this kind of selection in Chicago.

Full of wonders, awesome for interior design details. Dishes, glasses, Marimekko fabric, blankets, ornaments, childrens gifts, dolls — not just from Sweden but from the entire region — Denmark, Finland.
There are 4 rooms to this store, it is really big and when I go I have trouble leaving. This is probrably because I grew up in Chicago in the 70’s, when Scandinavian design was all the rage with the hipster parents. So it feels nostalgic to me.
It’s great for gifts but be prepared to fork out some serious cash. If your wallet is well-​stocked, like you’re an investment banker or something, you will have a great time. If you are like me you will be fantasizing about marrying a wealthy man so you can go back and buy up the store.
If you are not a wealthy person, the adorable Marimekko bag they give you with the trinket you have purchased is enough consolation.