Are your shopping habits changing?

[markwilding]

Mercadona only come to the Basque Country a few years ago so my wife tended to get the shopping from Eroski before they came. I used to go to Aldi or Lidl and or Carrefour to pick up some British or other products that were difficult to find in Eroski. Mercadona arrived and she started to buy most things from there.

When prices started to rise, we began to make an effort to keep the weekly shopping cost under more control and looked around at prices (We are lucky in the fact there is an Aldi, Lidl, Eroski and Mercadona all next to each other so It's not a big deal to check out prices.) What we tend to do is always go to Mercadona because we are familiar with prices but will visit Lidl or Aldi first to try to reduce the weekly spend. The latest change is to buy Lidl's own make dishwasher tablets. In general. prices are cheaper for similar products, not always but because of the steep increase in price. we have felt the little extra effort has been worth it.

I'm not sure how long this will,last and we might well go back to doing the shopping as we did pre-inflation but for the moment, we will be controlling supermarket outgoings.

[peteroldracer]

Worth checking for an EconomyCash supermarket in your area. We find them and Consum generally good value.

[Wicksey]

I noticed that Mercadona's prices really jumped up around the time of the haulage drivers' go slow. Some items seemed to rise a lot, cat food more than 10% but then it has come down a bit recently. Lidl is the other place we shop regularly. Eroski and Carrefour can be pricey and we only go there on odd occasions to buy a few particular items, and although some of their own brands are pretty good value we wouldn't do a week's shopping there. We don't buy much meat or alcohol, but we do eat a lot of nuts which are surprisingly expensive, as is cheese which we are partial to.

We do like certain things from certain shops and have tended to stick to buying what we normally have done in the past. The only thing I really check the prices of is the fruit and veg which seem particularly expensive these days. Peaches and nectarines have been 2,50+ a kilo and watermelons have been 1,49€ a kilo at times, which to me seems a lot. I'm sure the watermelons used to be around 49c a kg in season, so have only bought one small one this year. The few peaches I have bought have never ripened properly either, so I have been reluctant to buy them. I tend to buy veg when it's in season and local.

Food is our biggest regular expenditure and as we don't eat out much and don't have coffees or drinks out either, we just buy what we want. The running costs of our campo house are low, it's about half of what we spend on food, so we can afford to eat fairly well at home and I do enjoy cooking (although not so much in the height of summer, when we tend to eat mainly salads).

[fyfin]

We haven't changed our habits at all. Mercadona once a month and local supermarkets as and when we need something. Local market for fruit and veg. We now buy the dog food from Zooplus as it's better quality that Mercadona who changed their supplier or at least where it was manufactured.

[BENIDORM]

Being an ex-shopkeeper I have always tended to compare prices ,quality etc.
So really our shopping habits are almost back to pre-covid days, apart from still getting a home delivery from Mercadona now about every 6 weeks, all the bulk and heavy stuff.
We always visit different supermarkets when we are travelling around, gives a bit of variety and sometimes cheaper products.
Mercadona does get number one place in our list of supermarkets, never been overcharged or had bad produce etc.and the stores and staff have improved greatly over the years, compared to when we first started shopping with them over 30 years ago.
And we do buy more items online now, mainly from Northern Europe, not UK, although I did purchase some brita filters from uk last week, a bit dearer than before, but arrived in 7 days with no extra to pay...

[Pamela1]

No, i hate shopping so the sooner it's done the better. Mercadona in Spain and Morrisons in the Uk.

[katy]

In Spain I used to do big monthly shop in Gibraltar at Morrisons. In Spain was Alcampo odd things from Mercadona but was just a small one. I do online Tesco order for all basics here. Fresh goods from Waitrose.

[markwilding]

Even the big monthly shop has disappeared from our habits but that might be because my son tends to go to his grandmother's to eat these days.
I would not even have considered Lidl or Aldi as an option when I lived on the UK. I used to think they sold poor quality products. I'm not sure if I was mistaken or they have improved over the years.
Back then there was a weekly big shop in a massive Sainsbury's, and we liked Marks and Spencer for some things too.

[Wicksey]

Lidl and Aldi never existed really when I lived in England. I can remember normally discerning friends here saying they bought a lot in Lidl and when we went it was an awful scruffy shop, but that was very early 2000s probably. Lidl is a bigger shop locally than Aldi and I think it's very good. (Even my posh father in law shops there now.)

They sometimes have special weeks of items such as Middle Eastern food, so I can stock up with things I can't usually buy. I always buy cans of dolmades (we have Turkish pides for dinner tonight) and this week I stocked up with naan breads and samosas as it was Asiatic week. They had an English week a while back and got some very tasty chutney plus we always buy a few cases of real ale, something we always used to miss here, 6 x 500L bottles for 6,99€. I always joke and say when we next move house I have to be no more than 20 mins from a Lidl!

[Pamela1]

I don't shop in M&S for food items very often, usually party food for New Year but i have found that their products look better than they taste so over the years i know which items to leave on the shelf..I tend to notice what people are buying when they load their shopping at the till and the mainstream shoppers in M&S seem to be ready meals people..I doubt families could afford to do a weekly shop at M&S.
I very seldom go to Lidl in the UK because i couldn't get a full shop, besides that the fruit and veg doesn't last and items like cucumbers are huge because they have been forced. Aldi always looks so disorganised and the store gives the impression of 2nd rate food and products.Lidl moved out of their premises in the local town near us in Spain and built a brand new bigger store, Aldi took over Lidls old store but it gives exactly the same impression as the store here in the UK..I know many people like Aldi but it's not for me.

[Manchesteral]

In general my shopping habits have not changed, I still buy the same amount of stuff as I always have although nowadays I rarely buy fish or prime cut meats on principle, the price of fish has almost doubled in my part of the world and fillet steak etc has risen by about 50% I won't pay it on principle !

[elusive]

I don't shop in M&S for food items very often, usually party food for New Year but i have found that their products look better than they taste so over the years i know which items to leave on the shelf..I tend to notice what people are buying when they load their shopping at the till and the mainstream shoppers in M&S seem to be ready meals people..I doubt families could afford to do a weekly shop at M&S.
I very seldom go to Lidl in the UK because i couldn't get a full shop, besides that the fruit and veg doesn't last and items like cucumbers are huge because they have been forced. Aldi always looks so disorganised and the store gives the impression of 2nd rate food and products.Lidl moved out of their premises in the local town near us in Spain and built a brand new bigger store, Aldi took over Lidls old store but it gives exactly the same impression as the store here in the UK..I know many people like Aldi but it's not for me.

We used to get the dinner for £10 in M&S which was always handy and nice Their food was always better quailty but you paid for it. Mainly rich pensioners buying ready meals and workers getting their sandwiches and salads where we lived. We use mercadona here for big shops and use carrefour, ( they do a great family sized paella in the counter deli section
very tasty and only 6 euros). lidl,aldis for odd items that we like. In the uk we rarely used lidl except for odd bits as there was far more choice from all the other big supermarkets something you don't get in spain

[Pamela1]

Elusive i have noticed that even in mercadona the choice on some items is very limited. I hate the taste of Spanish brand butter and there is no other option in mercadona, at least not the one i use. Once i shopped around looking for an alternative and found a Dia supermarket which sold Irish butter so that was a good result, however when i returned to the store a few months later it had disappeared from their shelves, is that because of Brexit?I or because maybe the Spanish are not buying it.I guess not being located in a prime tourist spot where there are lots of Brits doesn't help but the small corner shop in the village sells Hienz beans and sauce which i thought unusual but perhaps not.

[katy]

There is no Lidl or Aldi close for me in UK. Bought odd things when in Spain as was close. About the only place could get decent wines other than Spanish for a change. Bought some Muesli at Lidl and it tasted disgusting. Have bought French butter in Spain. I like M&S British butter, seems more spreadable when taken out of fridge.

[katy]

I don't shop in M&S for food items very often, usually party food for New Year but i have found that their products look better than they taste so over the years i know which items to leave on the shelf..I tend to notice what people are buying when they load their shopping at the till and the mainstream shoppers in M&S seem to be ready meals people..I doubt families could afford to do a weekly shop at M&S.
I very seldom go to Lidl in the UK because i couldn't get a full shop, besides that the fruit and veg doesn't last and items like cucumbers are huge because they have been forced. Aldi always looks so disorganised and the store gives the impression of 2nd rate food and products.Lidl moved out of their premises in the local town near us in Spain and built a brand new bigger store, Aldi took over Lidls old store but it gives exactly the same impression as the store here in the UK..I know many people like Aldi but it's not for me.

The M&S offers such as Pasta meals 3 for £8 (Used to be £7) are good value. Prawn Alfredo and macaroni cheese good. Much better than similar at Waitrose. Fresh meat is good too but I have a good local Butcher nearby.

[Wicksey]

Things seem to be coming and going in Lidl. I used to buy their ryevita style crackers but these have gone from our branch, as has the Russian salad and some of the other bulgarwheat salads they always did. I guess they change their suppliers to get the best deal fairly regularly. Their milk brand has changed as well (formerly had the Bienstar rating but this one doesn't and is now 83c a litre, when it used to be about 57c).

When visiting the UK the meal deals are pretty good. My OH said he bought them when at the FiL's as they were such good value and included a decent bottle of wine too for a tenner.

Our local British shop now stocks taramasalata so I am not really craving for anything that I can't get any more Real ale, decent bread and now tarama ..... things have improved vastly since we first moved here 22 years ago. As you can tell, I like my food and a big variety is important. It may seem nothing compared to the amount of choice in a UK supermarket, but I frankly find them far too big and it takes me ages to find anything.

[Pamela1]

Know what you mean Wicksey. That's why i go mostly to Mercadona near us and Morrisons in the Uk..i know my way around. Nothing worse than going somewhere different if you are not used to it and it seems to take forever, my aim is in and then out in as little time as it takes.
I cast my mind back to the day when i first went to my OTH 's village, the only tins on the shelf in the local store were peas and they were small tins at that. There was always as a good stock of Cola coa even if a bar of chocolate seemed non existent, also lots of those thin plain biscuit's which come in a large pack they dunk in their coffee in the mornings..I used to sit and watch the children play when they all came outside from their afternoon siesta, quite often with a half baguette of bread drizzled with oil in their hands....While kids in the Uk in our area used to sit with a slice of bread and marg dipped in sugar, although the boy next door used to get his mother to dip it in the frying pan dripping. Times have changed even in many homes in Spain, not everyone bothers to preserve fruits and pickles as they used to and very few make their own chorizo and sausage.Must admit it took me a long time to get used to the flavours..

[BENIDORM]

Pamela 1,
Bread and dripping..yum yum, my taste buds are singing.......

[Wicksey]

I remember bread and dripping on white bread too Gordon. There used to be white fat on the top and if you dug down in the cup it used to be kept in, there was tasty brown jelly in the bottom. I can still remember that taste, although I don't think I could eat it now.

When we first came here in the 1990s there was only one supermarket on the coast that I can remember and it was mainly tins of fish and rotting veg covered in fruit flies. The cold meat and cheese counter was joined to the raw meat counter, and the bloke serving often had a fag hanging out of his mouth, in the days when everyone used to smoke everywhere. He used to only wipe his hands on an old cloth after handling the raw chicken before then slicing the cooked meat or cheese. Oh so glad when decent supermarkets arrived on this part of the coast!

[Supersue]

Anyone know why Lidl haven't had beetroot for a couple of years at least not in Granada area. It was good quality, better than Mercadona's which we find tough. Tried some from Consum in Loja which was OK. Mercadona sell Merluza Rebozada, pack of two on the chill shelf. Bit of oil in the frying pan ,about 12 minutes turn over 3 or 4 times. Make a gorgeous fish butty. Yum Yum.