And The Best Supermarket Is.......

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Wicksey
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Re: And The Best Supermarket Is.......

Postby Wicksey » Sun Sep 17, 2017 1:11 pm

costakid wrote:Carrefour Rincon have a massive selection of Foreign beers. They also put beers in the international food section.
We used to get the Greene King from the English aisle of the international section at the back left hand side of the shop, but the last two occasions in the past few months they did not have it and had a much smaller choice. We looked where the rest of the beers were but the foreign ones seemed to be mainly German or Belgium ..... it's got to be Greene King/Ruddles for Him Indoors.

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Re: And The Best Supermarket Is.......

Postby Miro » Sun Sep 17, 2017 10:25 pm

olive wrote: Seriously Mercadona, good though they are, just do not have the lines of a UK supermarket.
Never thought a supermarket would be one of the things I miss from Spain, but oh how I wish our old local Mercadona was here too! It stocked exactly what we needed, and very little that we never used. In particular, they had a great fresh fruit & veg section, decent fresh meat section, & fresh bread baked all day long. It seems to me that British supermarkets (especially the big ones) stock aisle upon aisle of stuff that I don't even know what it is, and certainly mountains of stuff that we will never want or need - like frozen roast potatoes & "portions" of cucumber. :crazy: Perhaps these are the "lines" olive refers to? We now have within easy walking distance: Farmfoods, Sainsburys, Iceland, Lidl, Asda, Morrisons - and by car Tesco & Aldi, not to mention the plethora of Home Bargain / B&M type places that also seem to stock a huge array of foodstuffs & other household products. We tend to use the first four mentioned most, simply because they're the nearest, but not one of them is as satisfactory as our old Mucky Donna.
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Re: And The Best Supermarket Is.......

Postby BENIDORM » Mon Sep 18, 2017 8:56 am

Country Boy,
Liptons is long gone and I think that the site is now a MacDonalds Restaurant.... :(
We did have a Maskoms near us , but it closed down.....

Miro, ....Our Man in Uk... :lol:
Thank you for your good honest report and very interesting ,and it would seem that most people actually prefer the 'old fashioned approach' to shopping with their preference being Mercadona, still family owned I believe.

Wicksey & Co.,As for beer stocks, well I do prefer wine, but do stock up on different beers available from Lidl from time to time, and I noticed that they even had some make your own beer kits recently...

Regards,
Gordon

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Re: And The Best Supermarket Is.......

Postby Manchesteral » Mon Sep 18, 2017 11:25 am

Wicksey wrote:Aren't you in Gran Canaria? I had a feeling that Hiperdino were part of Supersol but I may be wrong. When in the Canaries I always head for the local Mercadona as I know everything that it stocks and it's quicker to find all the usual stuff I buy.
'
Didn't know that Hiperdino was part of that group, I'm in Las Palmas and haven't seen a supersol here perhaps in the south but not up here, Seems to be mostly hiperdino and a few Spar express !

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Re: And The Best Supermarket Is.......

Postby Wicksey » Sat Sep 23, 2017 10:19 am

Think I may be wrong there about it being part of Supersol. I think we saw Supersol products in the shop and presumed it was a Canarian branch of the company but I don't think that's correct. Hiperdino is the big local company that seem to be everywhere in the Canaries but now they have Mercadona and Lidl then I prefer them then I'm there.

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Re: And The Best Supermarket Is.......

Postby Bronze » Tue Sep 26, 2017 3:24 pm

Maybe Amazon for your specialist beers and ales....no idea on cost comparison to supermarkets...but delivered to your door, or close by!

http://amzn.to/2wUajtV
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Re: And The Best Supermarket Is.......

Postby knowal » Wed Sep 27, 2017 12:21 pm

In Spain, prefer Dia, Lidl then Mercadona only when we have to.
Mercadona expect you to queue for too long and their prices are generally higher.
Dia have lots of special offer coupons if you have a Dia card (if you can be bothered).
Lidl have to be watched that their checkout prices match the displays, especially on reduced items.

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Re: And The Best Supermarket Is.......

Postby Wicksey » Sat Sep 30, 2017 3:29 pm

Bronze wrote:Maybe Amazon for your specialist beers and ales....no idea on cost comparison to supermarkets...but delivered to your door, or close by!

http://amzn.to/2wUajtV
Blimey that's expensive .... I saw 7.29€ and thought that was for 6 but it's just for one with 9.99€ P&P! In Carrefour we bought some 500ml cans for about 1.49€ last time and other brews were about 1.59€. Best deal was when Lidl had it's UK beer week and some were only 99cts a bottle. Just having our last Golden Hen tonight :(

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Re: And The Best Supermarket Is.......

Postby El Cid » Sat Sep 30, 2017 4:11 pm

The latest survey puts Alcampo as the best value in Spain.

https://elpais.com/elpais/2017/09/28/in ... 95409.html

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Re: And The Best Supermarket Is.......

Postby BENIDORM » Sat Sep 30, 2017 4:27 pm

Regretfully, for me it would be a 45 minutes drive each way to the nearest Alcampo and would cost me at least 10 euros in fuel.. :(

So Mercadona still is the best for me with Lidl ( 2 minutes away from our Mercadona ) as a good top up store for other items.... :thumbup:

And from my own experience I've found the costs and quality of Mercadona hard to beat....

Regards,
Gordon

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Re: And The Best Supermarket Is.......

Postby Miro » Sun Oct 01, 2017 11:55 am

Never thought I'd find a thread about supermarkets so interesting!
I haven't seen Alcampo since we lived in Mallorca - I didn't know there were any in Andalucia. I've probably passed the one in Marbella, just don't remember noticing it.
Interesting too that so many people are mentioning Lidl as one of their favourites. After struggling a bit in the beginning when we returned to the UK earlier this year, we're now reasonably clued up as to where to get what - and Lidl in fact comes out pretty well on top. As with our local Mercadona, they sell nearly everything we need, and apart from the junk counters down the middle (which admittedly do sometimes have some good stuff - and Mrs.M just loves rummaging!!) don't sell too much rubbish that we don't need. They're even the best place for beer, and for some strange reason, Carlsberg is cheaper than their own brands. :thumbup:
Just read that our local Homebase is closing down to make way for a Sainsbury's superstore. It's a shame for two reasons: apart from B&Q, which seems horribly expensive for just about everything, there is no other DIY type store - we need a Leroy Merlin or Bauhaus here; and the smallish Sainsbury's in town, easy walking distance for us, will close down within 5 years of the new superstore opening - which is a car ride away. That will leave us with Farmfoods & Iceland, and just a tad too far to walk with 2 cases of beer, Lidl. Having bought in a location that's just about perfect in every way, I seriously hope that in the years to come we don't find that we have to start using the car more and more just to go shopping for daily necessities :thumbdown:
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Re: And The Best Supermarket Is.......

Postby peteroldracer » Sun Oct 01, 2017 1:20 pm

"we need a..... Bauhaus here"
Really? Apart from their arrogant customer misservice attitude I found them very expensive compared to Leroy or sister-company AKI.
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Re: And The Best Supermarket Is.......

Postby Miro » Sun Oct 01, 2017 1:41 pm

Admittedly I hadn't used Bauhaus for a while, only Leroy. No Wickes nearby, but looking at their prices online, I thought they were rather pricey too. Fortunately we have Screwfix & Toolstation, but for some things Homebase seems quite reasonable
Don't worry about what people think, they don't do it very often

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Re: And The Best Supermarket Is.......

Postby BENIDORM » Wed Oct 04, 2017 8:47 am

Miro,
I'm also surprised that most of us are having in-depth conversations about shopping in supermarkets and other stores, but maybe it's because we have more time on our hands or and buying food and other items is an important part of our lives.
I think everyone is now more aware about what they eat and use so it's an important issue and getting the best value in quality and price does now play a big part in securing a good lifestyle.
What we try to do is obtain what we need as close to our home as possible and if we can't obtain it locally we buy it online..after making many comparisons with regard to quality, price and delivery.
We do buy most replacement electrical goods from our local shops, we have 2 in our village with quite a good selection or they can obtain for us within a few days and sure we do pay a little more, or do we ?
By the time that we've taken into consideration the fuel, time, hassle etc. of traveling to big stores, it probably works out cheaper buying locally and when it comes to after sales service ,well really no problem, always had prompt same day responses and solutions.
And, when we for instance recently bought a washing machine, it was delivered within the hour, unpacked, fitted and checked by the deliveryman who wouldn't take payment or tip and said 'pop' into the shop next week to pay, after we are sure that we are happy with the goods.

So I'm very happy with our situation and I'm not a lazy person, but the time and effort saved enables me to get on with more interesting things.!
Regards,
Gordon the Happy Shopper.....


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