Mr Grumpy

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Shopping of any description (or at least as the non-Spanish would understand it) is always difficult in Spain. As with so many aspects of the lifestyle here, on the surface it can often seem idyllic, but when you look below the surface you will see the many annoying problems.

Almost every book and magazine on the subject of relocating to Spain will paint a rosy picture of getting up every morning to buy fresh bread from the local bakery and then strolling around the market to buy fresh produce. But is this ever the case?

Any newly arrived expat starts off by intending to do all of the weekly shopping at the local family stores and the market stalls in the Town square - we’ve all been there and we’ve all done that. It’s probably only after a few weeks that the realisation dawns that whilst the quality of the food is undeniably great, the range is largely seasonal – and let’s face it, any Brit will tell you that things can get pretty hairy on a Saturday morning in Tesco’s if they run out of Papaya or Guava – we love our choice of products. You can imagine how well it is taken if things like Onions or apples are not available anywhere to be seen in the market that week!

It is this reason, along with many others, that gives us Brit’s one of the excuses we need to head for the Supermarket.

Then there’s the issue of communication – half of the fruit and veg - let alone the meat and fish – that I see on many of the market stalls is completely alien to me so I don’t know the word for it English, let alone Castilian or Valenciano. And even if I did I wouldn’t know what to do with it.

Another reason to head for the Supermarket – It’s easier to go for the brand names and commercial presentation that is easily recognisable.

Anybody who lives beyond staggering distance of the town square will know that it is also necessary to take the car with you to cart all the shopping back home - which brings the whole issue of parking into the equation. Parking in almost every town centre is usually either done illegally (more often than not on a roundabout or zebra crossing) or simply not available. Add in the extra traffic on market day and it can be a nightmare.

So easy parking becomes another attraction of the supermarket.

It’s also impossible to get all of the shopping done at one stall – as every trader only seems to have two or three products on offer – sometimes only one (enter crazy garlic stall lady) and therefore queuing 15 minutes, behind the locals who have nowhere better to be, at 6 or 7 separate stalls can become a little trying. Neither myself nor my partner have the time to spare to write off an entire morning shopping for what would be just a fraction of our weekly requirements.

So once again, it is easier to go shopping to a ‘one stop shop’.

So, for a variety of reasons, the majority of Brits in Spain are drawn towards shopping in the Supermarkets – but the problems don’t end there! Rather than being the massive corporate giants that are seemingly everywhere in the UK, where there are multiple brands of almost every product available on sale, the reality is a little different in Spain.

It seems that many of us fall into the habit of doing the weekly shop in more than just the one Supermarket. There’s the LIDL or ALDI for the basics – especially the bottled water as many of these products are much cheaper than the other supermarkets, and make the trip worthwhile. Then there’s the Larger Spanish Chain Supermarket to buy the Meat and Fish, bakery products and so on.

The final supermarket that divides opinion is the British Supermarket, Iceland, with it’s dozen or so shops throughout Spain. I love Spanish food and Spanish products, but being a busy guy and having the typically English penchant for convenience food, it too has it’s place as a Supermarket that I have to visit.

Most Spanish Supermarkets will only offer a small selection of questionable frozen Pizzas, or maybe a tin of soup or pre-packaged tortilla as a nod towards the dreaded convenience food.

In a society where many families live in a multi-generation house, I think that it’s great that Grandma can prepare a 3 course meal from scratch every night of the week, but in the real world myself and my partner both work and have a toddler to run after aswell, so don’t have this luxury. Every once in a while we just like to put on a DVD and chuck a curry in the Microwave.

Whilst that doesn’t make me the devil incarnate, it means that I have to go to Iceland to do this and fall into the trap of buying a trolley load of other stuff that I don’t really want or need aswell.

…So last month when a local entrepreneur started to offer deliveries to Spain from a number of UK Supermarkets, you can imagine how this set the cat amongst the pigeons.