Rob Horgan
SUPERMARKETS in Spain have been applauded at the Supermarket Trade Show in Tokyo.
At the Japanese trade show, the business models of Mercadona and SuperSol were highlighted as ‘the best’ among international supermarkets.
Now in its 50th year, the Supermarket Trade Show was attended more over 100,000 visitors from across the globe.
The managing director of the Spanish Association of Distributors and Supermarket Ignacio Garcia Magarzo gave the main seminar at the event.
Spanish supermarkets have no choice. A small 24 hour Sainsburys would knock the socks of Mercadona. The Japanese need to look a bit more carefully as rheir research is totally flawed. Some supermarkets in Spain,, such as Eroski, have made some big improvements in stockng non-gluten and other such specialist items, but comparing the UK and Spain on choice of products is a no brainer.
If the Alhaurins/Coin examples of Mercadona and Supersol are anything to go by does their business model take into account dirt and grime especially in their awful plastic shopping baskets, do they ever get inspected? The range of products other than Spanish hams, their own wines and seafood counters are nothing like the quality found in most British supermarkets and Spanish vegetables/fruit are a real let down considering they grow most of it in Almeria!
They certainly knock spots off the likes of Asda and Tesco, and if you’re looking for dirty baskets plenty of those in London supermarkets. Having said that the German firms Aldi and Lidl are probably the best of the discounters (I quite like Dia though), and Waitrose is probably the best supermarket in the two countries of Spain and UK.