Mercadona - Grocery shopping list

The Mercadona app offers convenient access to online shopping at your regular supermarket. If you are in eligible postal codes, you can easily shop from your phone with a range of features. You can view product details, add items to your cart, revisit past orders, adjust your cart as needed, and buy your usual products without the need for lists.

Origin and History

Mercadona S.A. was founded in 1977 within the Cárnicas Roig group, owned by Francisco Roig Ballester and his wife Trinidad Alfonso Mocholi, with the aim of expanding the commercialization of meat and branching into the grocery business. According to one of the couple's children, Juan, the name Mercadona was chosen to mimic the name of an Italian pasta brand, Mercadonna, but modified slightly; however, other sources suggest it comes from the Valencian phrase mercat de dona ("market of the woman").

In 1981, Juan Roig purchased the company from his parents, which at that time had eight grocery stores in Valencia, with the support of his wife and siblings Francisco, Amparo, and Trinidad.

The expansion strategy initially involved acquiring other companies in the sector that were beginning to feel the pressure from French capital. In 1988, Mercadona acquired the 22 supermarkets in Valencia of Superette, followed in 1989 by the acquisition of Cesta Distribución and Desarrollo de Centros Comerciales to establish a presence in Madrid, in 1991 by acquiring Supermercados Dinos and Super Aguilar, and in 1998 by acquiring the Catalan chains Almacens Paquer, Superama, and Supermercats Vilaró. Alliances were also formed, such as the one with Almacenes Gómez Serrano in 1997 to enter the Andalusian market.

The aforementioned concentration also placed Mercadona in a difficult situation at that time, but despite lucrative purchase offers for the company, Juan Roig decided to retain it and explore management models that would allow for growth. In 1990, Juan Roig and his wife Hortensia acquired the majority of the company's shares.

As an initial response to this concentration, Mercadona implemented a price reduction policy with suppliers and invested heavily in advertising and promotional offers, which advertised products at extremely attractive prices, compensating for the lost margin with other products. However, the results were not as expected, leading to a re-evaluation of the situation with the introduction of a model called Total Quality Management and a strategy known as Always Low Prices, which were launched in 1993.

Between 2017 and 2022, the company undertook a comprehensive remodeling of all its stores, focusing on sustainability and energy efficiency, as well as improved space distribution and greater emphasis on fresh products (for example, by introducing orange juice machines).

By 2018, the company's workforce consisted of 85,800 employees, with 36% men and 64% women. The company invested €1,504 million in that year. For the period from 2019 to 2023, Mercadona planned an investment exceeding €10 billion, allocated for store renovations and new openings, logistics automation, digital transformation, online sales, and expansion into Portugal.

In 2019, it began its international expansion by opening its first store in Portugal. The following year, it planned to open another ten stores and aims to reach 150 supermarkets in the neighboring Iberian country in the coming years. The food company invested €160 million between 2016 and 2018 in its internationalization process and estimated investing an additional €100 million in 2019.

**Updates**

Thank you for trusting Mercadona. We regularly update our app to enhance your shopping experience. Download the latest version to enjoy all the new features and optimizations available.

This update fixes minor bugs and improves performance.

Key benefits of this new online shopping service include:

- Expanded delivery hours from 7:00 am to 10:00 pm, Monday to Saturday*.

- Choice of 1 or 2-hour delivery time slots* to minimize waiting time.

- Guaranteed maximum quality and freshness through our 3-temperature delivery vehicles.

- Trained Mercadona staff handle, prepare, and deliver your order from the fulfillment center.

- High-quality product images.

- Zoom feature allows checking nutritional information, ingredients, and allergens on product photos.

- Personalized customer support via chat from 7:00 am to 10:30 pm, Monday to Saturday, and through the toll-free Mercadona Customer Service helpline 800 500 220.

*Delivery days, hours, and slots are subject to availability based on geographic location.