Madrid: grocery shopping and cooking at home?

Greetings all;
I was wondering if anyone could tell me where the cheapest place to load up on groceries in Madrid is. I dont think that I will be able to afford to eat out that much and I love to cook. Is good coffee expensive? How about the basic staples; flower, rice, beans, sugar ect.?

Compared to the UK Spain is very cheap even El Cortes Ingles which is a department store chain with a supermarket with a reputation for being pricey.
Otherwise, there are a multitude of very cheap supermarkets, some independant, some chains (Casino, Carrefour).
For fruit and vegetables there are also many markets, although these are not necessarily the cheapest place to shop.
I reckon you could probably eat well for 20-25 euros per week, including coffee.

You can eat well for less than 25€ a week if you do your shopping right.

The cheapest store, by far, is the German chain called Lidl . After Lidl there is Dia . I´m not certain about Lidl, but in Día you pay for the grocery bags...so to save a few more cents, bring your own bags. I recommend Día for the day to day dry goods...flour, sugar, canned products, coffee, frozen veggies, pasta, rice, etc. I prefer to buy my fresh products (vegetables and meat) at the individual fruterías and carnicerías).

Good coffee is not at all expensive and there are many different brands. What makes it particularly good is how you prepare it. It´s best if prepared with an expresso pot, however a French press also gets good results.

A standard sized pack of coffee (can´t remember how many grams, maybe 500?) will cost you under 2€.

Why not just go to the many markets which are dotted around Madrid? They are wonderful and full of the freshest produce possible. You have a great one near Plaza Mayor - Mercado de San Miguel, Mercado Maravillas is near Cuatro Caminos metro and Mercado de la paz is near Serrano Metro. Dia is another very cheap supermarket which many people use - just off C/Velazquez you will even find one more or less next to a Ferrari showroom! If you're looking for coffee, you'll find excellent coffee at reasonable rates in La Mexicana - they have many outlets around Madrid - the most central is in c/Preciados near Metro Sol - there is another one near Metro Goya.

It's true. There's about 1-3 little grocery stores for ever 2 city blocks. LOTS to choose from in the Madrid city. And probably one panadería on EVERY block. Mmm.. I miss the bread.

Chica is right, if your looking for a cheap stock up store Lihl and Día% are the best places to go. Día% is in every part of the city and burbs. I live off shopping there for food and the one I go to has great fresh fruit and a bakery. Bags are only 3 cents each so no need to bring your own. www.dia.es

Thank You to Everyone;
I am so relieved to read all your replies that the food is cheap. I love to cook and quite frankly was starting to worry seeing all of the posts on how expensive dining out is.

If you ahve access to cooking facilities, you should be able to do reasonably well. You'll find that some things are cheaper than in the US, but that most are slightly more expensive. Excluding housing, it's still the best value for money I have seen in any EU country.

This belief that there are small groceries and bakeries easily accessable to everyone in Madrid is exagerated. While my neighborhood does have a couple small grocery stories within four blocks of me, I would equate their selection and prices with a "stop-and-rob" in the U.S., and there is no true panaderia that I have found, and I walk my dog all over the place! The bigger stores near me are Corte Ingles and Caprabo, and neither is very cheap, although Corte Ingles does have cheaper prices on some of its store brand items than I've seen in Alcampo or Carrefour. Coffee generally comes in a 250 (just under half a pound) gram vaccum packed foil package and will run from about 1.25 euros for the store brand to 4.00 euros for the expensive French or Italian imports. If you are dying for Starbucks, they sell their coffee here, but is much more than anyone else.

For those working 8:30 - 8:00 weekdays, trying to make the rounds of markets and smaller stores isn't worth the effort. Yes it's the lifestyle, but leaves me no time on my days off to enjoy the rest of the lifestyle!!!! Oh for the days of full Sunday opening hours!! The other problem with the smaller stores (and Lidl and Dia) is the lack of parking and you do need something more than a small shopping cart to carry home a week's worth of groceries for a family of four. When I was living on Fortuny, I did not find the Dia to be particularly cheap or well stocked. It's more that 2 kilometers to any Lidl from my apartment, and none have parking, so it's generally off to Alcampo on Pio XII or Carrefour Hortaleza.

Enjoy your stay in Madrid!

thank you

Hello Caysalbanks. I noted u love to cook. Any particular specialty or favourite recipe?

I agree with just about everything ChrisR is saying with one exception about the small shops and markets. You do get known there and it can be quite fun and good for the confidence to go into a market and have friendly service. I use the market opposite La Vaguada if anyone knows the area.

For the rest Al Campo is hard to beat on price although the check out staff do take being surly to an extreme. Dia I agree tends to have a very limited selection.

Generally though the markets are dearer than the big supermarkets, but not by too much. The danger is that if this way of life in Spain is not supported it will go, as it did in the UK when the supermarkets there opened bigger and bigger stores, killing off all independant grocers, butchers and fishmongers etc.

One last comment. If you want to prepare yourself for the sticker shock of buying food in Spain, check out the Corte Ingles and Carrefour websites (I'm too lazy/busy right now to look them up!) where you can actually order food for home delivery. It gives you a reasonable idea of what you will be spending for just about any type of food.

Just as a little extra note, I can't remember which chain it was, which is horrible because I was at this place all the time, but if you would spend at 6,000 pesetas (now about 30 Euros I think)they would deliver your groceries to your home. I don't know if that is the case everywhere, but it was where I used to go. The store is by Guzman el Bueno, next to a small club called Cats, its one of the large chains and not expensive either. Anyways if you buy a lot this helps out a great deal. But it used to be very hard for me to spend that much in one shopping trip unless my roommate and i were both buying our groceries together.

In the Canary Islands, there is a chain called HiperDino which does home deliveries as well. I don't know if this was the store you were talking about with the 60E minimum for delivery?

Most of the larger chain supermarkets (Alcampo, Mercadona, Carrefour, Caprabo, Hipercor, Gigante, etc...) offer a home delivery often times within the hour to homes in the immediate vicinity.

I wouldn´t say that checking out El Corte Inglé´s website for food prices is the most accurate place to look. Most Spaniards I know do not do their grocery shopping at El Corte Inglés! However, Carrefour´s website is a good place to look to get general ideas.