For years the plan was to take the car, go to the hypermarket on duty and spend a couple of hours walking through its aisles to collect everything we needed and a few other things that we could find because there was almost everything there. is passing away by leaps and bounds.
From the boom of the hypermarket to its decline. It was the 90s when they became popular, but there has been a change in purchasing and consumption habits that were catalyzed by the pandemic. The 2025 data from the consulting firm NIQ (former Nielsen) collected by El País They speak of a share of 10.2% of total sales in Spain. And last year it grew by 1.2% unlike the previous year, where it fell by 2%. The problem, in addition to its small piece of the pie, is that the majority of food distribution channels in Spain grew more.
The heirs of hyper. These Mercasa studies date from spring 2025 cited by The Economist where they reflect that supermarkets already concentrated 91.8% of the commercial surface in the state. And it is not the only one: the other alternative is proximity formats. It is true that the NIQ data shows that the medium supermarket (between 300 and 799 square meters) fell more than the hypermarket, but its share is four points higher.
The small supermarket (less than 300 square meters) and the large supermarket (between 800 and 2,500 square meters) are the big winners: the former rose two tenths with a sales increase of 9.1% and the latter did the same by nine tenths to reach 57.1% of the market and 7.6% of turnover. Here there is an absolute winner: Mercadona, whose new openings exceed 1,500 square meters and which has also been transforming its 1,600 stores for years to replace the smaller ones. And its strategy is paying off: its share has risen to 29.5% in 2025 despite having 10 fewer stores.
The Mercadona effect or how efficiency kills size. This change in trends opens a new battle for proximity: the growth is in the 1,500 square meter supermarket aka the Mercadona model or in the convenience store. Growing no longer means opening more centers, but rather having better centers: it pays more to close 10 stores because you have more efficient stores.
On the other hand, last mile logistics is gaining weight: it is easier and more affordable to serve an online order with a network of small stores scattered throughout the urban center than from a distant hypermarket. In addition, the franchise format allows chains to expand their brand without assuming operating costs.
The consumer has spoken. The NIQ consultancy reflects clearly this paradigm shift: purchase occasions per household have grown by 11% in 2025 and units per basket have decreased by 7.6%.
In short: we buy more times but less quantity, a trend that benefits local stores and penalizes hypermarkets. Kantar’s reading points to factors such as smaller homes, a higher average age, an urban context that favors this type of purchase over American car culture.
The chains are moving. The fact that the hypermarket is in decline, reducing its weight in the market, directly affects the operators that exploit this format, such as Carrefour and Alcampo, followed by Eroski and El Corte Inglés. In NIQ figures, the first lowered its share two tenths to 7.2%, the second fell from 3.1 to 2.9% and the Basque chain fell one tenth to 4.3% and El Corte Inglés did the same two tenths, to 1.6%. So they are adapting to this paradigm shift:
Cover | Carrefour
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