Mercadona has fired its benefits but has also closed stores for the first time in years. The reason: the “stores 8”

For the first time in decades, Mercadona reduced its physical network while firing benefits 37% to 1,384 million euros. No other Spanish chain approaches that figure.

The paradox has a name: “Stores 8”, a format that can double profitability but forces to close establishments incompatible with it.

What is happening. The chain went from 1,681 stores in 2023 to 1,674 in 2024, closing 49 establishments compared to 42 openings. It is not crisis: it is strategy. “8” stores “need spaces of 1,500 square meters to be efficient, impossible in much smaller stores, why they will work decades ago.

“We are a assembly chain and the less variability it has, the better it works,” said Juan Roig in the presentation of 2024 results, according to Valencia Plaza.

• A well -located store 8 absorbs customers from several nearby small stores, concentrating traffic at more profitable points.

It is a calculated cannibalization.

In figures:

• 1,431 stores already function as store 8 (85.5% of the total).
• 10,000 million invested in 7 years of transformation.
• 3.88% record marginup to foreign chains such as Walmart (2.88%) or Costco (2.95%).
• 419 million allocated in 2024 only to adapt stores to the new model.

The context. “8” stores “are diaphanous spaces with large corridors, advanced technology and new sections such as” ready to eat. ” They reduce energy consumption by 40% and improve purchase experience, but demand specific locations with good accesses and parking.

Roig admits to make “frequently unpopular decisions” closing stores due to “small size, access problems or lack of profitability.” The model prioritizes operational uniformity over territorial capillarity: better few perfect stores than many mediocre.

Yes, but. Nor are they “perfect stores.” Roig himself says it And his own name says: they are called that because “to get to 10 they must still incorporate new elements and services demanded by customers.”

Deepen. Mercadona is changing its commercial map by store. The objective is to complete the 100% transformation in 2026, sacrificing less efficient establishments to concentrate investment in Premium locations.

Operational perfection has become its competitive advantage, even if that means leaving some neighborhoods without a merchant as hand as before.

Outstanding image | Mercadona

In Xataka | Juan Roig believes that cooking at home has no future. There are eight million Spaniards who are already giving the right