Safeway vs. Mercadona: Battle of the Grocery Heavyweights

We’re nearing our 6-month anniversary here in Spain, where we are greatly enjoying every single day. All the while, we’ve been shopping for groceries around town two or three times a week. Mostly because we walk everywhere and we buy a little here and a little there, whether at Piedra, Dia, Carrefour or Mercadona. All these supermercados are less than 10 minutes’ walk from our apartment in Córdoba’s historic district.

As we’ve gotten to know Córdoba and Spain, we’ve been delighted to see the different foods that are available. And how much cheaper it is to eat in Spain. From the beginning, we felt like our grocery bill was a good deal lower here than in the United States. Our gut-feel put Spanish groceries at about 2/3 the cost of American groceries. But unless you put them side by side, you can’t really say this is true, with 100% confidence.

So we figured it’s time to take a look.

We headed to Mercadona on Monday with our little grocery cart — not just for little old ladies!

If you shop by foot you need a carrito, as they’re called here. Also called carros. When you get to the store, you’re not permitted to wheel around your little cart, but the stores have little parking stations inside the front where you can securely leave your carrito until you check out.

Another note: we went on Monday because all the larger grocery stores are closed on Sundays. Only the neighborhood Carrefour Express — part mini-mart, part grocer — is open on Sundays.

This past trip to the grocer we didn’t go there with an intent to look at prices. We simply shopped from the grocery list that clings to the front of the fridge by magnet and which fills up with stuff until we have to go with our carrito for a shopping trip. For a big grocery run we often head to Mercadona, about a 10 minute walk from home. That’s where we bought the things on the list. So, that’s what we’ll compare.

Below is the bill of goods, the Mercadona receipt. We checked out with 25 items for a total of € 51.34, tax included. At a an exchange rate of $1.134 to the euro, we paid $58.24 for this grocery run.

Getting to an apples to apples comparison took some leg work. I gave the Safeway web site a location of Folsom, California, where we bought groceries for many years. Wherever possible I picked the “Safeway Select” product, which is usually more reasonably-priced then the name brands. I looked for similarly-sized items, not comparing the 5-gallon price at Safeway to a 12 oz. size at Mercadona. Apples for Apples, ounces for ounces, etc. Safeway online is quite good at showing prices per ounce, so I converted either grams or milliliters to ounces for comparison.

Here’s an example:

We bought a Ranch Dressing here that was 250ml, for € 1.35. On exchange, we paid $1.53 for what converts to 8.5 ounces of dressing. At Safeway, the store brand goes for 16¢ an ounce or about $1.35. 18 cents less than what we paid in Spain.

Well, heck, you’re probably saying, see how much cheaper Safeway is? Mhmm, yes we do.

Read on.

Let’s take a walk through that receipt and see how Mercadona and Safeway compare.

You’ll note that the U.S. prices that were cheaper are in green, on the right. 6 items were less expensive at Safeway than Mercadona. Total savings there? $2.31 Hmm, that’s exactly how much more Best Foods Mayo costs there than Hellman’s costs here.

And so it went. You can see the bottom line. In U.S. dollars, we paid about 58 bucks for our 25 items. Which would have cost nearly $110 at Safeway. And we didn’t even buy eggs! Plus, remember that all taxes are already in the price at Mercadona. What you see on the shelf is what you pay at the check-out.

[A couple of notes on the methodology. First, goose liver pate is no longer available at stores like Safeway. I consulted Whole Foods to find a pork pate for comparison, instead. Second, I didn’t see fresh fava beans at Safeway, known here as Habas. So I compared fresh green beans.]

So, how about some staples we didn’t buy on this trip? Here’s a few… again, comparing Mercadona to Safeway:

It’s about double again if you take out the crazy-priced sunflower oil at Safeway. (You don’t commonly see vegetable or corn oil in the stores here so there was no way to compare these general cooking oils. In Spain, the world’s largest producer of olives, it’s olive oil — everywhere all the time. But they also have sunflower oil at the Mercadona, so that’s we compared.)

I’m not bragging or crowing in bringing you this objective comparison. But I’m definitely kind of in disbelief that the cost difference in this shopping trip at Mercadona wasn’t just 1/3 less than at Safeway, but nearly half as much. We hadn’t done the math before. Now we know. Now you know.

As far as food goes, Spain is an ideal place for retirees like us.

All that said, there surely are things that are more expensive in Spain than in the U.S. Gas prices, for one thing. Energy prices, i.e., home utilities, are also more expensive.

Next… I guess we’ll have to write up a comparison of dining out in Córdoba vs. the U.S. Spoiler alert: It’s pretty much the same story as groceries, including drinks. But we can have that meal together another time.

Saludos de los dos!