Shrimp sandwich day

A sandwich with a day of its own

On 14 October Sweden celebrates Shrimp Sandwich Day, an occasion created in 2009 by Arlanda Airport in Stockholm, where the räkmacka has long been one of the most popular dishes on the menu. It is an open sandwich with shrimp, egg, mayonnaise and dill, and it carries more than its ingredients suggest, because it belongs to Swedish everyday culture rather than to any formal tradition. That is exactly what makes it useful in an office, since it needs neither explanation nor ceremony.

A lunch that brings people together

The day is a good reason to put an informal lunch in the calendar. Not a corporate event with an agenda and a booking, but a decent table, decent food and an hour where the conversation is allowed to go somewhere other than work. Those hours are remembered far more often than the meetings that were scheduled months in advance.

The mistake is turning it into a production. As soon as the lunch acquires printed napkins and a hashtag it stops being a lunch and becomes a campaign, and everyone at the table can tell the difference. Keep the branding off the table and put it on the things people take home instead.

Items from our foodware collection and kitchen accessories do the useful work here: boards, bowls and serving pieces that get used again the following week rather than only once. A cooler bag is worth having if the lunch moves outside, which in October in Sweden is still possible, though not for much longer.

A gift in the spirit of the day

Corporate gifts arrive in December along with everyone else's, and that is precisely why a small gift on 14 October gets remembered: it arrives alone and nobody was expecting it. A water bottle or a thermos in a cloth bag makes a simple set that suits the season, when the mornings turn cold and people start carrying something warm again.

A paper bag with treats or a small selection of sandwich ingredients works just as well and costs a fraction of the alternative, because the surprise lies in the date rather than in the contents.

It is worth saying plainly that this is not a gift that grows into a programme. It is one delivery in one week, and nobody will ask for it again in March, so when a client wants something that runs all year we say so and build a different arrangement.

Merchandise for the autumn office

The middle of October sits in a gap: the summer merchandise has been handed out and the holiday season has not started, so nothing is planned and nothing arrives. Shrimp Sandwich Day fills that space and gives a reason to do something for the team at a point in the year when nothing else is in the calendar.

A hoodie or a jacket with the company logo fits the week the weather turns, and an order placed for October also avoids the queue that forms in November, when the whole category is chasing the same deadline.

The part nobody enjoys is sizes. Clothing for a whole team means somebody has to collect them, and half the answers come back late or not at all, which is why we hold the range in stock and let people order what fits. That removes the guesswork, though it does not remove the waiting.

Shrimp Sandwich Day is a reminder that even the most ordinary things deserve their moment, and good merchandise works on the same principle: it is used on ordinary days, by people who never had to be persuaded to keep it.

Four things that fit the occasion

The sections above are about the day itself. These four items are the ones that most often end up in a set alongside it, chosen for the part of the year when nobody remembers an ordinary Tuesday in October.

All-over Large Chev Printed Polo: a Callaway polo with an all-over print. It is the most expensive item on this list and the only one that people choose to put on themselves.

Louise Stoneware Mug: a stoneware mug with a calm, matte surface. The least original item here, and the one still standing on a desk in April when October has long been forgotten.

Utah Tritan Bottle 500ml: a 500 ml Tritan bottle that moves between the desk, the bag and the car, and survives being dropped in all three.

Blaze Mini Turbo Blaze: a small torch from our own Blaze line, useful in exactly the season this day falls in, when the way home is already dark at four in the afternoon.

Shrimp Sandwich Day is a simple reason to make a working day better and to get the team around one table. Add a few things that will still be in use after October, and the impression it leaves does not end with the last sandwich.