Are there shopping centers in Madrid comparable to
the large Carrefour's in France? I like to wander thru those big, local stores that carry almost everything, and less expensive than ECI.

Carrefour is everywhere in Madrid and in the rest of Spain

You may go to their homepage: Carrefour Spain and see where they are placed.

The same way, when I was in the USA I would have filled a cart with goods and would have brought home with me

Fernando

You can also try Alcampo and El Corte Ingles. Both of which have stores throughout Spain

Many thanks for the responses ...I did go to the Carrefour site, but I could see nothing that tells me where the stores are located in Madrid. The virtual visit to a Hipermercado is fantastic!
Can anyone tell me what subway stop one of the big ones might be near? I'll be staying at the Europa at Puerto del Sol and the underground is
so easy to use. I will be in the area March 14-19, after a week near Avila.

Yes, I LOVE El Corte Inglés and all of the big hipermercados like Carrefour, but it is the small mercados and "mom and pop" stores or ultramarinos that really give Spain its unique flavor. I read an article about these hipermercados taking over in Italy that I think relates to our beloved España You can read the article HERE . What do you all think?

I do not most of my regular grocery shopping at the the Carrefour at Mar de Cristal on the #8 pink line

You might want to try Pryca! It's a hypermarket like Carrefour.

Oz, living in the center of a city like Madrid offers a lot of advantages, but a few serious disadvantages, one of them is the "poor supermarket situation" around Sol, Huertas (where I live), etc....Having explained this, Carrefours are very big stores and none of them is very centric or is located downtown, maybe you could check the Champion supermarkets for a more convenient location. But if you still are interested in the Carrefour chain, they do list all the Madrid stores in their webpage under Guia de Hipermercados - Com. de Madrid.

Eddie, Carrefour IS Pryca (or viceversus). Two years ago Carrefour and Promodes, the two companies propetaries of Continente and Pryca merged into a single one (Carrefour), so all their big stores changed their names to Carrefour.

Fernando

If you are looking for cheap grocery shopping, then don't forget to check out DIA. They are located throughout Spain and I know that there is one not to far from Gran Vía. The theme is "autoservicio" so don't expect a lot of customer service, but if you know what you need then you can get out the door quick and cheap.