OCU survey leaves Mercadona out of Spain's cheapest supermarkets

OCU survey leaves Mercadona out of Spain's cheapest supermarkets

The Spanish consumer organisation OCU builds two shopping baskets every year and compares prices at 1,194 stores across Spain. In the standard basket, with 156 leading-brand products, the cheapest are Supermercados Dani, Familia, Sangüi, Bon Áren and Alcampo. In the economy basket, with 83 own-brand items, Alcampo, Lidl, Gadis Hiper and Carrefour come out on top. Mercadona appears in neither. The very point the company led by Juan Roig used to tout as its strength — cheap own-brand products — is exactly where the statistics fail to back it up.

What OCU measures and why Mercadona doesn't make the cut

OCU separates the results into two lists. The first, the standard basket, includes leading-brand products and groups fresh perishables into a common category. The second, the economy basket, takes the 83 cheapest items at each store, which are usually own-brand products. That is the category where Mercadona used to boast of ruling the roost. The available data point the other way: Alcampo, Lidl, Gadis Hiper and Carrefour beat it.

The chain ranking of the standard basket is led by Supermercados Dani, with stores in Granada, Málaga, Almería and Jaén, trinc by Familia, Sangüi, Bon Áren and Alcampo. At the other end, Sánchez Romero tops both of the most expensive categories, with its Madrid store as the single priciest. Ercoreca and El Corte Inglés trinc in the standard basket, and Sorli Discau in the economy one.

The story of rising prices

When it comes to perception, the complaint keeps coming up: the Mercadona basket has become more expensive. Some put price hikes at up to 15% on certain products and mention the tinned mussels, said to have gone from 1 to 1.15 euros, or minced meat now above 2 euros. There are also claims of a change in taste in longaniza sausages and packaged minced meat. These are personal accounts, not official figures, but they paint a picture of a weekly shop that has gone from 50 to 80 euros in a few months, according to several stories.

The contrast with the competition shows up in specific products. A two-litre bottle of mineral water costs 0.42 euros at Mercadona and 0.27 at Lidl, according to the prices circulating in the conversation. In milk, Mercadona's own brand costs around 56 cents a litre versus 80 for a commercial brand. A 500-gram pack of oats can be found for 1.10 euros at El Corte Inglés and 1.40 at other chains.

The hidden cost of buying cheap

The argument that keeps Mercadona afloat is not the unit price but the final bill. People keep saying that you walk into Lidl or Alcampo for groceries and walk out with beers, chocolates and weekly deals nobody needed. The cheapest supermarket, the reasoning goes, is the one that doesn't tempt you. Add to that the logistics: large stores far from the centre, an hour of shopping plus petrol, versus a neighbourhood store you can get round in less time.

Quality is the other battleground. Some argue that Mercadona's own brand gets it right 95% of the time, while others reply that its fresh produce — meat, fish and fruit — is mediocre and better bought at the market or a specialist shop. The comparison with DIA's own brand mostly ends in favour of Hacendado, though with caveats: DIA's chocolates and some dairy products are considered superior.

Where filling your trolley costs the most

The study also ranks cities. The cheapest for the basket as a whole are Córdoba, Vigo, Granada, Murcia, Pontevedra, Palencia and A Coruña. The most expensive: Pamplona, the Basque cities — except Vitoria — and those in the Canary Islands. The difference in prices within the same country depending on your postcode is no small matter for a family doing the weekly shop.

How much does price weigh in the decision of where to shop, and how much does the habit of having a store two minutes from home?