Guide to grocery shopping in Spain – Gourmet, discount and local supermarkets

Upon arriving in the new country, one of the important things you need to know is the grocery buying points. Like many other countries, there are a lot of supermarkets, hypermarket chains in Spain. There are also gourmet stores, ecological stores for better taste or special needs. Since the internet business is growing rapidly, buying grocery in eCommerce or apps have also become part of some people’s lives. Here in this article, we will talk about everything you need to know about where to buy groceries in Spain.

1. Hypermarkets and supermarket chains

Hypermarkets and supermarkets are the most grocery places that people tend to visit. In Spain, some of the most famous chains are:

• Mercadona: the most famous Spanish supermarket. Mercadona are famous for:
  • Great balance between variety and proximity: If you want to find something that is not easy to find in other supermarkets, try to look for it in your mercadona supermarket. However, not like other hypermarkets, there are more mercadona stores and it´s averagely more accessible.
  • Products produced under its brand: especially the food products because most of them are gluten-free
• Carrefour: This famous French hypermarket chain has the second-highest market share in Spain.
  • It´s easy to find convenience-style stores in most living districts, called ¨Carrefour express¨, with a selection of the most easy-to-sell products.
  • Hypermarket-like Carrefour are not many. There are usually only 2-3 Carrefour markets in big cities.
• El corte inglés: El corte inglés is not only an upmarket commercial center. Some big and flagship stores usually contain a supermarket based in the basement.
  • More and better products: The supermarket of El corte inglés is usually considered as a high-end supermarket. There you can easily find products of selection, and even products from gourmet brands.
• Eroski/Caprabo: a supermarket that originated in the Basque Country. This supermarket has more than 1000 stores across Spain.
  • In most places, it is called Eroski. In Cataluña, it is called Caprabo.
  • They have hypermarket style installations as well as convenience style smaller stores. 
• Alcampo: This is another French supermarket chain.
  • It can usually be found on the outskirts of the city.
  • Recently, the company has opened more Alcampo express stores within the city.

Except for the supermarkets mentioned above, in some autonomous regions, there are some regional supermarkets chains. For example:

• Cataluña: Bonpreu, Sorli…
• Andalucía: MAS
• Calicia, Castilla y León: Gadis

2. Discount supermarket

The discount market is another popular type of supermarket that people tend to frequent. These supermarkets tend not to have delicate and beautiful store designs but have many products in bulk. In Spain, there are three main discount supermarkets:

• Lidl: a famous German discounter. It offers a great range of discounts. People are especially crazy about their small household appliances and flash offers.
• Aldi: another German discount supermarket, with different products and
• Dia: a Spanish discount supermarket. It stocks many private labeled products and other national brands. It usually has a better variety of products than its German counterparts.

3. Are all supermercados/supermercats supermarkets?

The title seems like a tongue twister…But that’s the final point that we are going to make! In some cities, you might see stores named supermercado/supermarket (in Catalan), plus a name or a noun. Sometimes, they are small local supermarket chains. But in some cases, they are convenience stores. In other cities, this kind of store is named alimentación.

• They might have longer opening hours, and some of them can even be open 24h.
• The products are usually higher priced than in supermarket chains we mentioned above. That can be seen like the Premium you pay for the convenience they give.
• They are nearer to residential districts.
• Some of them might have more variety of products: eg. different flavors of potato chips and drinks.

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Our contents will be updated according to the most recent legislation. Last update: 04/11/2021