SEARCH | Which supermarkets have increased prices the most and the least? Which are the cheapest and most expensive in your city?

Prices have risen on average by 14.1% in the last year, an increase that, together with that in 2022, means that the shopping basket has become more expensive by 30.8% in the last two years.

This is one of the main conclusions of the study that, like every year, the Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU) has presented after visiting 1,108 establishments in 65 cities, in addition to online supermarkets.

From these stores, the consumer organization has collected 155,489 prices for a shopping basket made up of 236 products from sixteen categories, including food, hygiene and drug products.

The OCU spokesperson, Enrique García, insisted that “the objective of the study is to help consumers save on their shopping basket” and has revealed that the average annual savings that families can obtain by purchasing in the most cheap prices stands at 1,056 euros, which represents up to 17.5% of the spending that an average household spends on the shopping basket (6,019 euros) in a year.

The most and least affordable chains

Thus, for local chains, the cheapest are Supermercados Dani and Más Ahorro, Deza and Súper Carmela. At the regional level Tifer, Cash Fresh and Familia and at the national level, Family Cash, Alcampo, Supeco, Consum and Mercadona.

For their part, national hypermarkets are the commercial format where it is cheapest to buy. Alcampo is the cheapest option in 23 cities in the study, although Mercadona is close behind, at 21, and Family Cash and Tifer are further away, at six each.

The most expensive chains in the different areas -local, regional and national- are, according to OCU, Sánchez Romero and El Economato; Condis and Caprabo, and Coaliment and Amazon, respectively.

Depending on our place of residence, the savings also change due to “the greater or lesser breadth and diversity of offer”. The document specifies that the maximum possible savings can be achieved in Madrid supermarkets, where the consumer can reach 3,928 euros per year. At the other extreme is Cuenca, where the difference between the most expensive and the cheapest supermarket is only 430 euros.

Increases of almost 17%

On the other hand, the report highlights that the price increase has reached all supermarkets, but not all chains have transferred it with the same intensity, with percentages ranging between 8 and 16.8%.

In this way, the large chains that rise the most are E. Leclerc (16,8%), Supeco (15,8 %), Carrefour Express (15,3 %) y BM Urban (15,1 %). At the opposite extreme we find Mercadona (10%), Eroski City (8.8%), Eroski (8.1%) and Masymas (8%).

On the other hand, the document highlights that the most economical cities to make the purchase are Teruel and Córdoba, in addition to Castellón, Ciudad Real, Burgos, Vigo, Lugo, Zamora, Cádiz, Puertollano, Jerez de la Frontera, Cuenca and Palencia. On the other hand, Palma de Mallorca, Getxo, Madrid and, above all, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria are the most expensive.

As for the autonomous communities, La Rioja, Galicia and Murcia are the cheapest compared to the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands, the most expensive.