MM, I think that's a great idea, if travelers to Spain are willing to take the trouble to purchase and transport things. I was trying to balance the time and effort out for the parties involved, but if, as you say, it's very difficult to ship things from Spain, perhaps "no vale la pena."

Just as a frame of reference, you can do a little virtual shopping at the supermarket at http://www.elcorteingles.es ... you just have to enter the online "supermercado" and type in a postal code (28027 is where my friend lives in Madrid). Obviously, you can't buy from there, but you can see what things cost--the chocolate a la taza that I mentioned above ($5, plus shipping costs, in the US) is 1.47 euros there.

And MM, you already know that olives like you describe cost under 1 euro a can in Spain!

Happy browsing!

[ 02-05-2002: Message edited by: taravb ]