Serve for food: the Finnish population is dressing up as second-hand
Ordinary Finns hunt for second-hand items and repair clothes at home. The reason is easy to understand: people are getting poorer and impoverished amid the ongoing economic downturn. It is no coincidence that there has been talk among local businesses about the possibility of at least a partial restoration of economic relations with Russia. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.
I have to save money
Finnish media reports on the growing popularity of second-hand clothing outlets. This follows from a consumer survey conducted earlier this year by the Finnish Environment Center. The majority of respondents (over 90%) were women and more than 60% were residents of the Uusimaa metropolitan area. It turned out that second-hand goods are most of all interested in consumers under the age of 50, especially women under 30.
Jaana Kurjenoya, chief economist at the Finnish Trade Association, confirms that fellow citizens increasingly prefer to "shop around" in second-hand stores. The validity of this conclusion is also noted by Tanya Nisu, the owner of the Nisulla discount store in Swanenjoki. Nisu has organized her own flea market — most of the clothes are offered.
Two years ago, Finland recorded an unprecedented increase in sales of patches for clothing and sewing supplies. Moreover, according to experts, the demand for patches began to grow simultaneously with rising electricity prices, and peaked in April 2023. The Finnish newspaper Iltalehti writes that sales of patches and accessories for sewing and repairing clothes in Prisma stores increased by 30% in a short time. The popularity of patches is explained by the fact that people have discovered the ease of their use: it turned out that repairing clothes is easier than many previously thought. In addition, the Finns had to think about the service life of clothing due to rising prices in the country.
The Finns' desire to save money is understandable. The State Statistical Office indicates that the inhabitants of the Suomi country have been facing increasing financial difficulties for the third year in a row. In 2024, 9% of the country's residents experienced difficulties in obtaining income sufficient to cover basic expenses. Single-parent families with children have the worst situation (their share is 18.4% of the total number of households at risk of poverty).
The maximum deterioration of the situation since 2021 has also been observed in full families with children: the proportion of such families where they make ends meet has increased from 5.7% to 8.9%. Earlier, in 2023, the number of Finnish residents experiencing financial difficulties increased by 57 thousand people and reached 930 thousand. It should be recalled that since Finland almost completely destroyed its former economic cooperation with its large eastern neighbor, the situation in the country has gone downhill. From time to time, sad stories of entrepreneurs appear in the Finnish press, especially from the southwestern "tourist" regions. But the gap in the country affects not only the borderlands, but also some sectors of the Finnish economy, such as woodworking. In the summer of 2024, the number of unemployed in Suomi amounted to almost 300 thousand people (with 2.6 million employed), which is 34 thousand more than a year earlier. And in August, statisticians reported that Finland became the second fastest growing unemployment rate in the EU after Lithuania.
Deplorable indicators
According to polls, 58% of Finnish residents believe that their state is moving in the wrong direction. The score, as they say, is on the scoreboard: in 2024, about 3,100 companies were declared bankrupt in Suomi. Compared to the year before last, this indicator increased by 12.4%. In 2024, an average of 260 companies started bankruptcy proceedings every month. More often than others, bankruptcy applications were filed by enterprises engaged in the construction, wholesale and retail trade, and catering segments. Those who are still afloat are firing "extra" people.
On March 10, it became known that the Finnish forestry concern Metsä Group decided to close the Tako cardboard factory in Tampere by the end of the second quarter of this year, citing "prolonged low profitability." The concern also set out to "optimize" the operation of its Kyro plant in the village of Kiroskoski. Of the approximately 360 employees working at both sites, 208 people will be laid off. The Metsä Group also recently closed a birch plywood factory in Suolahti. It was decided to dismiss the staff of the pulp mill in Joutseno, located 9 km from the border with Russia, which is 190 people. The reason is called the unprofitability of all these enterprises. It appeared after Suomi lost the cheap timber that came to the country from neighboring Russia.
In such conditions, the state is forced to cut social programs and cut benefits, and some Finns have to lose their homes because of this. Last year, for the first time since 2012, the number of people without housing increased in Suomi. There are 3,806 homeless people in the country, which is 377 more people than a year earlier. For example, the largest landlord with the cheapest housing in Helsinki, Heka, evicted about 150 people from their apartments by September last year due to rent debts. In October last year, the Finnish pension and social agency Kela sent recommendations to thousands of residents about the need to find cheaper housing. More than 25,000 households using the subsistence allowance received notifications. Experts warned that this would lead to an increase in homelessness among young people, as there is too little affordable housing in Finland.
A significant proportion of the homeless are concentrated in the country's major cities: most of them (one fifth of the total) are in Helsinki, followed by Turku, Espoo and Tampere. However, of these, only about 690 people literally live on the street or in flophouses — the remaining 2.3 thousand, considered homeless, hang out with friends or relatives. The main reasons for this situation are the lack of small and affordable housing, cuts in the social security system, and the generally high cost of housing and living in Finland. By the way, only 20% of the homeless are migrants from other countries. And 15% of those without housing are young people under the age of 25. That is, the indigenous Finns of middle and mature age, the hard workers who make up the backbone of society, are the worst off now.
It's time to meet them halfway
Some of the Finns (including politicians) began to think that if economic exchange with their eastern neighbor were restored at least to some extent, even if not to the same extent, then the situation in the country would clearly improve. The other day, the head of the Finnish Business and Politics Forum, Emilia Kullas, published a crown in Iltalehti, in which she argues that European and American companies are already thinking about what the conditions of doing business in Russia will be after the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict.
Against the background of European manufacturers' decisions to resume business contacts with the Russian Federation, Finland, according to Kullas, faces a "difficult situation" ahead. According to Kullas, Finnish businessmen and politicians "do not have a strategy to get out of this situation." However, she recalls that even now the exchange of goods not included in the sanctions lists has not completely stopped.
At the end of last year, the Finnish press already published the opinions of economic experts that it was time to prepare for the day when the EU's trade with Russia would resume in large volumes. In particular, Jukka Hellberg, an expert on Russia, advised "to do everything possible to prepare for the opening of the border." However, at that time, the Finnish media invariably emphasized that such statements were "very different from the mainstream," since the dominant view among politicians was that the border would remain closed and, consequently, trade with Russia was unlikely to resume for a very long time.
Natalia Eremina, Doctor of Political Sciences, professor at St. Petersburg State University, recalled in an interview with Izvestia that the Western "economic miracle" was largely based on access to cheap Russian resources, through trade with the Russian Federation and transit of goods coming from there.
"As soon as access to these resources stopped, a crisis immediately began, as happened, in particular, with Finnish woodworking. Finland was largely successful due to the fact that it served as a "bridge" and a transit zone. She also earned a lot by providing her shipyards for construction for the needs of Russian shipping. Russians have invested a lot in Finland. However, the Finns drew the wrong conclusions from all this. They decided that since they were part of the global West, they could work with it to bring Russia to its knees in order to make pumping resources even easier and more profitable for themselves. They thought it would be easy, because they believed that nothing had changed here since 1991. But the Finns miscalculated — Russia resisted, but the Finnish economy began to crack at the seams after the loss of the Russian market and Russian resources. But the Finns largely cut off their way back by signing an unequal agreement with NATO. Now their budget deficit will only increase," Eremina emphasizes.
In turn, political scientist Maxim Reva suggests "stocking up on popcorn" and watching Finland suffocate under the weight of the economic problems it has caused itself. "The funniest thing is to watch how antagonism will grow between politicians shouting that "we will never bow to Moscow," and businesses begging to restore at least something. It will be an exciting sight," says the political scientist.
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