Mercadona held prices for a decade; cat litter rose 59%

14 years of receipts challenge the narrative on Mercadona

According to the data shared by the thread's author, Mercadona does not raise prices constantly. For more than a decade, they remained unchanged on dozens of staple products, not moving a cent. The author argues this isn't just bar talk: there is paper trail evidence. Someone who has saved every shopping receipt for fourteen years—claiming to have an entire folder full—states that the issue isn't frequency, but impact. When the chain decides to move significantly, it happens all at once and without warning.

What stands out isn't the method, but what it reveals about how official inflation measures compare to a family's actual basket. A juice costing €0.57 in 2008 and €0.58 in 2018, or a soda still priced at €0.26 thirteen years later, depicts a supermarket far more stable than the noise of annual price hikes suggests.

Prices Mercadona kept frozen for over a decade

The list is long and dated. Sliced bread (28 slices) went from €1.15 in 2008 to €0.95 in 2018: it dropped. One liter of pineapple-grape juice stayed at €0.57 in 2008 and €0.58 ten years later. The 1.5-liter soda didn't move from €0.26 between 2008 and 2021. Thick pickled cucumbers cost €1.40 in 2008 and €1.40 in 2021.

• Mineral water (6 liters): €0.63 in 2011 and €0.56 in 2021.
• Cat litter (5 kg): €0.90 in 2011 and €0.85 in 2021.
• Frozen three-delight rice (1 kg): €2.32 in 2012 and €2.32 in 2019.
• Iceberg lettuce: €0.85 in 2011 and €0.79 in 2022.
• Baguette-style bread (3 units of 250 g): €1.20 in 2011 and €1.10 in 2019.

The interpretation supported by these data is uncomfortable for both sides. For those accusing the chain of monthly hikes, because many products hadn't been touched in a decade. And for its staunch defenders, because the end of that freeze wasn't a gentle increase: cat litter jumped from €0.85 in 2021 to €1.35, a 59% rise, according to the same records.

Less weight and quality: the hidden price hike

The most common counter-argument to this static picture is that prices remain stable because product sizes shrink. Grammage is reduced in sliced bread, and water is injected into meat. One shopper describes how chicken breast releases liquid in the pan until forming a finger-deep pool of water, losing half its size during cooking—a phenomenon attributed to most meats and fish from the chain. Another points to ground meat, which expels water throughout cooking when fried without oil.

Whether this is generally true or limited to certain batches isn't resolved by the material provided. The defender claims to have pending a comparison between Mercadona's ground meat and another chain's, with measurements of expelled water at mid-cooking and end-cooking. The detailed breakdown, with photos of each phase, isn't fully reproduced here: the experiment's conclusion remains noted.

Why did rustic bread rise 40 cents in two months?

Because the freezing cycle breaks suddenly and then spikes, according to the price tracker. In February 2022, rustic bread cost €1.15, a price stable for years. In March, €1.40. And in April, €1.55. Three different prices in three visits, with the irony that the person recording them does so precisely to prove the chain doesn't change prices often. Another user notes croissants trinc a similar path: from €1.20 to €2.40 in a few months. Another participant cites mustard-style sauce jumping from €0.90 to €1.25, a 38% increase.

Here lies the nuance that dismantles both trenches. It's not that the rise is constant, but that it is discontinuous and brutal: a flat decade trinc by a step up that eats away any household budget margin. In that step-up, small things appear too, like the €0.15 bag at checkout or rice milk at €1 per liter bought just to try.

CPI that doesn't match the shopping basket

The underlying suspicion is that the official index poorly measures what a family pays. A participant notes that basic cookies, like toast or Maria biscuits, have gone from €0.95-€0.99 to €1.30-€1.35 in this chain and others. Such a rise in a necessity, according to this account, isn't masked by any statistical weighting. Hence the accumulation of receipts: to build one's own historical series, independent of what agencies publish.

Some also look at margins. If some items haven't risen in years, the explanation wouldn't be generosity, but that sufficient profit was taken from day one. This is a hypothesis, not audited data, but it fits the other half of the story: variety, quality, and real price depend heavily on which chain you buy each item from.

---

With these numbers on the table, it is reasonable to expect two things. That the chain will again freeze prices for years on the assortment it chooses to defend, and that the next step-up, when it arrives, will catch everyone off guard again. The folder of receipts will remain there to prove it.