For foreigners living in Spain, or thinking about where to settle, the weekly food shop is a meaningful part of the cost of living.
Knowing where to find the best supermarkets in Spain can make a noticeable difference to household budgets. This is particularly true as a new OCU study finds that choosing where to buy groceries can save an average of €1,310 a year.
That is equivalent to 20% of the average annual grocery spend of €6,602. The gap is especially striking in and around Madrid, while several locations in the Valencian Community offer some of Spain’s lowest supermarket prices.
OCU compared 101,520 prices at 690 stores, including major online supermarkets, across 189 Spanish cities.
Grocery prices in Spain continue to rise
The overall cost of OCU’s basket rose by 1.8% compared with its previous study. Although this was the smallest annual increase in five years, OCU said food prices remain exceptionally high after increasing by 39.5% over the past five years.
Fresh food saw the strongest price growth, rising by 4.7% on average:
- Fish prices rose 8.6%
- Meat increased by 3.7%
- Fruit and vegetables rose by 3.5%
Among individual items, tomatoes recorded the largest rise, up 33.2%, followed by lemons (25.2%), cauliflower (22.8%) and aubergines (20.4%).
Some products became cheaper. Paper napkins fell by 30.4%, Canary Islands bananas by 22.6%, artichokes by 15.1% and mashed potato by 14.8%.
Where supermarket shopping costs the most in Spain
Madrid had the largest potential saving between the cheapest and most expensive supermarkets: €4,381 a year.
Nearby Alcobendas, Pozuelo de Alarcón and Majadahonda each recorded a possible annual saving of €4,270. Other cities with wide supermarket price differences included:
- Las Palmas de Gran Canaria: €2,167
- Castellón de la Plana: €2,094
- Zaragoza: €2,023
- Toledo: €1,987
For households comparing the cost of living in Madrid with other parts of Spain, the figures underline how much supermarket choice can affect day-to-day spending in the capital and its surrounding municipalities.
Cities with the cheapest supermarket prices in Spain
OCU identified Torrent, Villarreal and Santa Pola, all in the Valencian Community, as the cheapest cities for grocery shopping.
The Valencian Community and Murcia were the cheapest autonomous communities overall, followed by Asturias. By contrast, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León, Catalonia, the Basque Country, La Rioja, Navarre and Cantabria were listed as the most expensive regions.
The difference between stores was much smaller in some towns. In Mieres, shoppers could save €381 a year, or 6% of food spending, by choosing the cheapest option. The potential annual savings were also limited in:
- Puerto Real: €434
- Santa Pola: €447
- Torre-Pacheco: €452
- Villarreal: €454
- San Vicente del Raspeig: €454
Spain’s cheapest supermarket chains in 2026
According to OCU, the cheapest supermarket chains were:
- Supermercados Dani
- Family Cash
- Tifer
- Alcampo
- Supeco
The most expensive chains were Hipercor, El Corte Inglés, Supercor and Sánchez Romero.
At store level, the Alcampo hypermarkets at Bonaire shopping centre in Aldaia, near Valencia, and Coia in Vigo were the cheapest in Spain. The most expensive were Sánchez Romero stores in Arturo Soria, Castelló and Paseo de la Castellana in Madrid.
Eight chains lowered their overall price level: Consum, Familia, Supeco, E.Leclerc, Aldi, Mercadona, Lidl and Carrefour Market. BM Urban and Ahorramás were the only two major chains OCU identified as raising prices above general inflation.
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