I started shopping in Mercadona by chance: I moved to Spain and it was the closest supermarket to my flat.
After 6 months doing the shopping in different places, I realized that it’s one of the best supermarkets I have ever bought in: good, nice and economical. It’s pretty full at peak hours, so you better go at other times of the day.
Why is Mercadona the favourite supermarket for the Spaniards?
Mercadona is a family-owned supermarket chain fully funded with Spanish capital that was founded in Valencia in 1977. In 1981, Juan Roig bought the company from his parents, who began marketing meats, and then he expanded the business to groceries too.
Mercadona comes from “mercat de dona”, which means “women’s market” in the Valencian language (the regional language in Valencia): back then, women were the only one to go grocery shopping.
In 2018, Mercadona already had 1636 supermarkets spread across all S and Portugal.
Mercadona’s goal is “to fully meet all the needs of food, home cleaning and personal hygiene of its customers, as well as the needs related to the care of their pets,” according to the company’s president.
We now examine the keys to its sucess:
1- The client
In the Mercadona philo
sophy, the client is the boss.
In fact, the goal is to assume the responsibility of prescribing “The Chief” (customer) the best option to meet your food needs, home cleaning, personal hygiene and pet care.
Not in vain, 4.6 million families rely on this chain of supermarkets annually. In this sense, the group seeks to satisfy, in order of importance, the head (client), worker, supplier, society and capital.
2- Employees
One of the characteristics of Mercadona is that its employees are happy to work in the establishments of the group. The salaries it offers are higher than the average in the sector.
3- The success of the white brand
Farmer, Deliplus or Green Forest are three of Mercadona’s most popular teachings and one of the keys to its success. Mercadona also works with 2,000 other suppliers and purchases products from around 20,000 SMEs, most of them in Spain.
4- Constant improvement
The Mercadona model always looks to the future. The soundproofing of their establishments or the reduction to the minimum of consumer complaints to the customer service telephone are some of the company’s improvements.
