Following on from a post on another thread, where do you buy most of your supermarket shopping?
We find we can't get everything in one particular supermarket and have to visit several for the things we want. We do try to get fruit and veg from the local markets as they are much cheaper and often fresher but do have to use supermarkets now and then.
We are lucky in our area as we have a Consum, Mas y Mas, Aldi, Lidl, Mercadona and even a Food Co (formerly known as Tesco) all within walking distance although the Mercadona one is a bit of a stretch.
Consum has a great butchers counter, a great deli and a marvellous fresh fish counter. The butchers are very skilled and will cut your selection to what you want and trim it for you. Even fresh legs of lamb (if I take out a mortgage to get one) and they will cut it in half for you as well as pork chops with the rind still on. The deli counter has a great range of cold meats, pates, cheeses and so on and you can choose how much you want. They also do good quality halloumi cheese. The fish counter has some excellent ladies who, once you have chosen your fish, will head and tail it, gut it, fillet it and very carefully get rid of all the bones so you end up with ideals fish fillets. The fruit and veg section has a lot but we find it quite expensive and some of the items are not the best quality. Bread and cake section also not particularly a great selection except the large cakes. Beer and spirit selection is very good.
Mas y Mas and we normally only use it for certain things. The butchery counter is very good although more expensive. The fish counter is very poor and, whilst they clean the fish, they don't fillet it and just gut it. Other items are quite expensive but their fruit and veg is quite good and they have the best range of condiments and sauces of any. Teriyaki, Soy, Zigeuner sauce, Mexican hot and medium sauces and even Jack Daniels rum bbq sauce and all very reasonable priced. Also have halloumi cheese like Consum. Wine selection is also very good.
Aldi which someone says they don't use which surprises me. There are things we can get there that we can't get anywhere else. Lollo Rosso lettuce, sour cream (at a reasonable price), fruit and veg usually with good offers on certain days. For example, fresh strawberries are half the price of Mercadona at the moment and the same type and region. Possibly one of the best wine selections around as well. Their own brand cereals are also great quality and thinks like corn flakes and bran flakes very close to their expensive branded ones at a third the cost. Most other supermarket own brand cereals are very sweet and hard, we find. Their bakery section is also excellent with a great choice.
Lidl we try and avoid. The whole experience is quite poor with too few checkouts open and queues going up the food aisles. Also find the quality of meats is not very good except the steaks which are very good. Chicken quite poor quality as is mince meat. They have a great cheese selection especially a mature or vintage cheddar which is the best we've found and very reasonably priced, Their ice cream is also the best around from choc ices to tubs and a great variety. Just the disorganised mayhem that always seems to be going on.
Mercadona just a bit further away but we find their fruit and veg is excellent although a little more expensive. Also the range is not quite as good with most lettuce being the pre-packed variety. No butchers or deli counter except for a serrano ham section and everything else is pre packed. Even legs of lamb are deep frozen. They have a good range of bread and pastries although we prefer the ones at Aldi. Their cleaning materials are about the best around and far surpass the own brands at other supermarkets. We don't use it for a lot but probably about third out of all of them. Beer selection is also very limited. Cheeses are a good range though the cheddar is very gritty and no halloumi cheese.
The Food Co (formerly Tesco) and I'm surprised it is still going. Items are few and far between and they can't supply things like pork pies, Cornish pasties, sausages etc anymore. Bread is generally frozen and quite expensive and doesn't last long once defrosted. We did like the Oat bread but found it went green after a couple of days so now stick to buying from the Spanish ones, Aldi with a rustic loaf where the slices are what we expect of UK loaves. Other things are very expensive, for example a frozen leg of lamb at 30 euro, frozen fish at double the cost of fresh fish in other places. Avoid the veg section as things are really expensive. Charlotte potatoes were 2 euro a kilo bag which went up to 2.25 then 2.50 and the size has been reduced to 750g. Parsnips at 4 euro for a 500g pack when you can get them at the market for 2 euro a kilo, eggs (proudly labelled as coming from UK) a good euro more a dozen than elsewhere. Sometimes has good deals on beers but never on wines which are quite expensive.
Still, it would be a boring old world if we were all the same. Just some thoughts on our lot so does anyone have favourite places where they do most of their shopping? For us tomorrow is the market at San Miguel which is mainly fruit and veg.
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