Costa Brava supermarkets

With the exception of doctors and dentists, there is probably nothing in day to day life I dislike as much as shopping. I would avoid it completely but for one big problem; I need to eat.

Now, I know that we should all shop locally and support small businesses. That means visiting numerous stores though and, depending on where you live, may not be possible in one town anyway. For me it’s 5 kilometres to the nearest shop, so I can’t just nip to the corner store.

However, I can get in and out of a supermarket within 30 minutes – plus driving time – with at least a week’s worth of groceries. My philosophy is to hit one shop for everything I want, pay, and get home as fast as possible.

So, the main priorities for me and the supermarket are:

1. How close is it?
2. Can I get ALL the stuff I need?

Actually, I’ve never been able to manage #2 completely because of the difficulty in getting ingredients for curry – instead I stock up on those when I make one of my rare visits to Barcelona – but apart from those all we need comes from one shop every week to 10 days, and sometimes longer if we’ve stocked up.

Over time I have tried out a number of different stores. These days we shop almost exclusively at Mercadona although sometimes in the summer we will shop at a different store, depending where on the coast we are, following a day on the beach.

The ones I have direct experience of are as follows:

Mercadona

Mercadona is a Valencia based company that has been expanding massively over the last few years. My first experience of it was in Barcelona, but found the fruit and veg were pretty poor quality, although it was generally comprehensive, and didn’t use it much for that reason.

However, they operate a number of big stores now on the Costa Brava, including Platja d’Aro, Sant Feliu de Guixols and l’Escala, where the quality of the fruit and veg is better (although they use far too much paging for my liking).

They have a fish counter and butcher in house and, while many of the products they stock are own brand, prices are competitive. The newer stores are all purpose built with easy parking, so you can zip in and out in no time at all.

Bon Preu/Esclat

I’m not sure why this Catalan company operates stores under both the Bon Preu and Esclat brands as I can’t see any different in the stores. They also have a loyalty card that can be used in stores of both brands to earn points towards gifts that include wines and ham, but the real advantage with the loyalty card is the discount it gives you on fuel.

In the last couple of years Bon Preu as started adding petrol stations to its store locations offering fuel significantly cheaper than Repsol or any of the other big brands. The price is generally offered 3 to 5 cents cheaper than Repsol but if you use the loyalty card that discount can add up to 8 or 10 cents per litre. That can really add up!

The petrol pumps are modern and you pay at the pump, which makes things easy too, but while the supermarkets stock a reasonable range of products, they also tend to be quite expensive.

Valvi

Another Catalan supermarket chain is Valvi, which appear to focus on tourist resorts. They have the basics that allow you to get through a holiday, but quite limited in scope. They are also pretty expensive so unless you have no option – and in many holiday resorts you may not – use them as a backup store.

Carrefour

Carrefour is a large French chain with a number of large shops. They do have an excellent range though and many have good sellection of foreign goods – marmite and Coleman’s mustart anyone? They sometimes also stock (depending on the location) things like popadoms and curry pastes for when you want a taste of “home”.

Día

These stores are dirt cheap, but with a very limited selection and, as a franchise operation, they vary greatly. Stack ’em high and sell it cheap is the motto; I’ve never been a fan.

Condis

Another Catalan owned supermarket that you find principally in Barcelona although you may still come across it in some Costa Brava towns. Reasonable selection, but probably too small to truly stock everything you will need.