Mercadona

Cooking for an entire family on Christmas Eve is a dying tradition. And the explanation is in Mercadona

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The usual thing at this time of year is that most family gatherings become a single topic: What to have for dinner on Christmas Eve? And on New Year’s Eve? Is the menu repeated from other years? Is the entire purchase completed or are there still issues pending? That was the usual. At least until, in one country at a time less fond to cook and more to the already prepared foodanother question began to form: Why spend hours in the kitchen on the afternoons of December 24 (and 31) if we can order dinner to a restaurant, catering or the super trustworthy? It may seem like a simple anecdote, but it says a lot not only about Christmas but about how homes and our consumer habits are changing. An afternoon locked in the stove? That Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve are special events, no one doubts it. Neither do they both basically revolve around the table. However, that is one thing and quite another that we are willing to spend hours locked in the kitchen to prepare appetizing dinners for a regiment of relatives, something not so strange just a few decades ago. In 2019 the German supermarket chain Aldi made a poll in which he asked the Spaniards the same thing: how much time we spend preparing Christmas lunches and dinners. Their conclusion was curious: although on average we dedicate 137 minutes to them, the vast majority of those interviewed (62%) aspire to cut that time between stoves, leaving it at 112 minutes at most. Who cooks then? Others. It’s that simple. It is not easy to measure the trend, but a Google search is enough to find articles from regional newspapers that talk about how more and more families order the main Christmas meals and dinners from restaurants, hotels or catering companies. It occurs in the Community of Madrid, Galicia, Aragon, Catalonia, Castile and León either Estremadurato cite a handful of examples of a trend that actually transcends communities. Not only that. In addition to families willing to pay to get rid of the burden of preparing dinners for 10, 12, 14… diners, we find companies willing to cover that growing market niche, some as relevant as Mercadona, the supermarket chain with higher quota of the country. Christmas Eve ‘made in Mercadona’? That’s how it is. Since the end of November, Juan Roig’s company has announced its ‘Ready to Eat’ oriented towards parties, a section that allows you to order canapés, stuffed chicken, suckling pig, lamb… in advance to be served during the nights of December 24 and 31. “Just heat and serve,” Mercadona boastswhich highlights how the service allows families to save time “without having to worry about the kitchen.” It makes complete sense if you take into account that the Valencian company has been betting for years precisely because of that line of business and Roig himself has publicly acknowledged who is convinced that in the middle of this century kitchens will disappear from Spanish homes. His prediction points in a clear direction: supermarkets will no longer be just the places where we shop, they will be the food references where we will buy dishes and even where we will consume them. Don’t we cook anymore? Not quite. We continue cooking, although it is true that we do it differently and less and less. He gave us a clue recently a study published in TIJGFS which leaves out a revealing piece of information: 59.1% of Spaniards We still cook practically every day, which means that most of us still use our ovens and vitro. The other side of that figure is that there is 40.9% who never cook or do it very rarely and that percentage has been growing in recent decades. The CIS has also confirmed that the majority of their respondents (46.5%) believe that home cooking is losing ground to fast food. If that were not interesting in itself, there are other indicators (from the food industry) that suggest changes in consumption: for example, we increasingly demand less fresh bread and fisha latter product that begins to associate to leisure outside the home. And what happens at Christmas? Beyond our general eating habits, Christmas has its own peculiarities. Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve dinners are not ‘normal’ dinners. Firstly, because a higher degree of elaboration than normal is expected of them. Second, because it involves cooking for many more people than those who are part of the usual family nucleus: on December 24 and 31, cousins, in-laws, brothers-in-law, nephews sit at the table… Which ends up easily translating into groups of more than ten diners. Is that important? Yes, if we take into account that we increasingly live in smaller apartments and families are smallerwhich translates into a series of practical complications: How to cook for 12 people in a tiny kitchen with a two-burner vitro? Where to store so much food? Where the hell can you seat 12 or 14 people in a room where there is furniture for one couple, who is the one who really eats in that house the rest of the year? It was done until now, right? Yes. But times change. And that is something that is easily observed when going out into the street. looking at statistics. The fact that there are more and more single-person households or households made up of two people and fewer than three, four or more members means that there are fewer people accustomed to cooking for groups. We are also less willing to spend hours in the kitchen, as stated in 2019 Aldi and confirm the boom of ‘Tardebuena’ and ‘Tardevieja’. We enjoy the afternoon more the 24th and 31st because we spend less time between pots. There is another factor and it is economic. In restaurants and catering establishments there are different rates, but they usually guarantee two things: fixed prices and menus and guaranteed product. Nothing about being surprised that the kilo of lamb has … Read more

Mercadona has bought the company that has been supplying pallets and boxes for decades. And there is a very simple reason

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Let Mercadona monopolize 30% of the supermarket business is no coincidence. The success of Juan Roig’s chain responds to a cocktail in which, among other issues, its bet on white labelsthe ready to eat dishes and geographic dispersion. Another key to that equation is your supplierswho are responsible for supplying you from cheeses or kebabs to services. Now the chain has decided take the reins from one of those external firms, Logifruitthe same one that has been supplying it with boxes and pallets for decades. There is a word that explains it: logistics. What has happened? That Mercadona has decided to take over the Valencian company Logifruitone of the key suppliers of its logistics, since it supplies it with the boxes and pallets it uses to transport goods. It has been the Valencian chain itself that has been in charge to announce the acquisition, although without revealing the amount or the dates. In your statement Juan Roig’s company simply emphasizes the importance of the purchase for its internal operations and advances an important piece of information: the 1,600 Logifruit employees will join Mercadona’s team directly. What is Logifruit? A crucial piece in the functioning of the Valencian chain. The company was founded in 1996, has 16 logistics platforms and manages more than 18 million of boxes, boxes and reusable pallets designed for the transport of goods. Its network of facilities is spread across a good part of the peninsula, with 14 nodes distributed throughout Spain and two others in Portugal. Is it just another supplier? No. And not only because your rental model of reusable packaging has earned it a strategic role in Mercadona’s structure. Unlike other suppliers of Juan Roig’s company, which maintain extra business avenues (even if they are minority), the history and work of Logifruit is closely linked to that of the supermarket chain. The company itself explains on his website which started in 1996 as a “logistics operator to provide service to Mercadona’s fruit and vegetable suppliers.” Almost 30 years later, that link remains key for both companies. Why’s that? By defining your “interest groups” in the sustainability report 2023, Logifruit identifies the five major actors that shape its business: the workforce, the companies that supply materials, machinery and services, society as a whole, capital and customers. And among the latter he specifically cites two: Mercadona and its suppliers. In fact, although Logifruit talks on its website about “more than 1,095 clients”that ecosystem seems to basically pivot around Roig’s chain. The diary Five Days assures that, in its latest financial report, the box and pallet company recognizes that it did not have “other clients outside of the pool of services established for Mercadona and its suppliers”. At least by the end of 2024. Do we know anything more about the company? Yes. And it helps to better understand the movement that Mercadona has just made. Last year Logifruit invoiced around 164 million of euros (7% more) and obtained a net profit of 5.2 million. Its assets amount to 22.3 million and its liabilities include debts with financial entities, although most of them mature in the long term. The other piece of information that helps understand Roig’s movement is that in 2024 the company rented packaging worth 54 million euros to Mercadona and its suppliers, according to the documentation consulted by Five Days. What does Mercadona say? That the purchase will help it achieve two of its “objectives”: “unify all its logistics processes” and “continue consolidating the efficiency and sustainability of its distribution network.” “The agreement, pending approval by the Competition agencies and the corresponding administrative authorizations usual in this type of operations, will allow Mercadona to capture important synergies and further optimize its resources,” the Valencian firm stands outwhich hopes to “strengthen” its assembly line. And Logifruit? Logifruit also highlights the historical link between both companies. “When we began our collaboration with Mercadona, in 1996, we took on the challenge of offering a service that met their needs and gave them competitive advantages. Three decades later, I am proud to be able to say that Logifruit has overcome that challenge,” celebrates its president. In its financial report the company itself recognized that it would be “complicated” for Mercadona to find a substitute capable of supplying boxes and pallets in the short term and that this operation would also require a high investment. Is it something exceptional? Yes. And no. In addition to his commitment to the white label, the prepared food and geographical dispersion, Mercadona’s commercial success relies heavily on its network of suppliers. Although it is not common, this is not the first time that he has decided to integrate into his structure one of those companies that help him articulate his business. It already happened in 2010 with the Caladero packaged fish company, although years later he sold it to Profand. Images | Logifruit 1 and 2 and Andalusian Government (Flickr) In Xataka | Mercadona has grown so much in Spain that for the US it is no longer just a supermarket chain: it is a “cultural phenomenon”

Mercadona invests heavily in AI. And it has an advantage built over 40 years

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The general overview. Mercadona has a turnover of 38.8 billion euros annually without being the cheapest supermarket in Spain. The slogan ‘Always Low Prices’ was left behind a long time ago because its focus became different. Their secret today is not in the price, but in constantly anticipating what their customers need. Now it wants to scale that capability with AI. Why is it important. Sergio Pajares, the company’s Director of Technology, sums it up bluntly in statements to The Spanish: The company does not seek to have AI for the sake of having it, but rather to develop “the best AI to sell lettuce.” A way to make it clear that they do not want a simple technological showcase, but rather tools that solve tangible problems of daily business. The context. Mercadona has been optimizing its supply chain for forty years and accumulating knowledge about what works in its stores and logistics blocks. That advantage built year after year is what now powers its AI models. It is not about integrating any API and bragging about innovation, but about training systems that understand the internal reality of the company. In detail. The company has developed an AI tool applied to product master data, the heart of its system. Automate the generation of information when new assortment arrives. And it detects inconsistencies that could break the chain: from label errors to coding mismatches. Pajares defends that therein lies the competitive difference: “There are very advanced models to program applications, but none natively understands how software is developed within a specific company.” The key is that the AI ​​knows and interprets Mercadona’s own context, in this case. Between the lines. The strategy has two speeds. For business processes, such as planning employee vacations that do not compromise operational continuity, the company trains its own models. For more standard tasks, such as automatically recognizing supplier invoices, use off-the-shelf generative AI, while maintaining flexibility to switch suppliers when appropriate. Yes, but. Mercadona does not want technological disorder. It has defined an internal strategy that standardizes developments, guarantees common practices in quality and security, and prevents each team from creating its own isolated solutions. “AI cannot grow in a disorderly manner,” insists Pajares. This last point is key: in many companies, AI has been assumed as an engine that each team executes independentlyoften with different tools between teams, complements disconnected from each other. Mercadona seeks that cohesion between departments. The background. Pajares is clear: it is not about having the best algorithm in the world, but about knowing where to apply it. “In technology we tend to fall in love with the algorithm; in real life, intelligence lies in knowing where to apply it,” according to The Spanish. Mercadona’s bet is to predict demand with more precision than anyone else. Four decades of data on purchasing behavior, product rotation and logistics efficiency are your moat particular. And AI amplifies that advantage. In Xataka | Mercadona grows, but the “shopkeeper” model is dead: Spain has lost 142,000 businesses in 10 years Featured image | Mercadona

A cheese giant is slowly taking shape in Spain thanks to a key ally: Mercadona

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The long list of Spanish companies that grow in the heat of Mercadona adds a new name: Entrepinaresa company dedicated to the production of cheeses and dairy products that started 40 years ago in Valladolid and today manages centers spread throughout Galicia, Castilla and Madrid, in addition to generating employment for something more than 1,500 people. Although the signature presume to be “the largest cheese manufacturer”since more than 20 years has a key alliance with Mercadona. And that is helping it expand. Why is it news? Because their 2024 accounts have just been released, a year during which Entrepinares managed to skyrocket both its turnover and its profits. The first section rose to the 665 million euros8% more than in 2023. As for the second, EBIDTA (earnings before taxes) reached 64 million, which represents an increase of 16%. Both indicators are partly explained by an increase in production: in 2024, 100 million kilos of cheese came out of the Entrepinares factories (8.3% more than in 2023) and around 35 million kilos of dairy products. In addition to being the main supplier of Mercadona cheeses, the company saw how it was reinforced its foreign activity, with exports to more than 50 countries. Is there more data? Yes. We know that the company dedicated 41 million to investments in search of greater efficiency, which raises the mobilization of resources for that purpose above the 140 million in the last four years. Thanks to this commitment, it has managed to gain a prominent place in the sector at a national level. In fact it leads the sectoral ranking of cheese manufacturers (at least based on turnover volume) prepared by elEconomista. Regarding staff and internal resources, the firm has more than 1,500 workers, collaborates stably with more than 700 farms and a large score of cooperatives and manages four production centers spread across Valladolid, Fuenlabrada, Villalba and Los Yébenes. Added to these are a logistics and packaging center in Valladolid and two other plants specialized in whey treatment located in Castrogonzalo (Zamora) and Vilalba (Lugo). Why is it important? Because of the data itself and its context. Entrepinares is not the only Mercadona supplier that has grown in recent years coinciding with the expansion of the Valencian chain, which has managed to strengthen its position in the market with a business share that It is already on its way to 30%. One of the clearest examples is that of the group Martinez Familywhich integrates several business lines and operates as a strategic supplier to Mercadona. It was recently revealed that the company will invest around 150 million euros between this and the next year to reinforce its Traditional Dishes facilities and keep up with Mercadona. Months before it had emerged that last year its billing increased by about 8% and its net profit 16%. Are there more cases? Yes. Another Mercadona supplier that has managed to grow is Ozturk Quebapa firm based in Toleado specialized in the production of kebabs and meat products that has been supplying the Juan Roig chain for years. Last year it invoiced around 63.8 million euros and this year it hopes to exceed 75. For now, in the first semester it reached 37.8 million. Its expansion is prior to the agreement with Juan Roig’s company and the firm exports to other nations, but Ozturk recognizes that “with Mercadona everything changes.” Mercadona’s leverage is also serving Sefood Group. Its subsidiary Leroy Processing Spain hoped in the spring to close this year with a turnover of 160 million euros30% more than last year. The company has been dedicated to the production of Japanese food for a few years and has managed to make Mercadona one of its main clients. The Roig chain also has among its suppliers: Profand and Panamar, Tarradellas House and Summer. Images | Entrepinares e iStock In Xataka | Mercadona has found a vein to grow beyond its white label and prepared food: tourism

Mercadona has found a vein to grow beyond its white label and prepared food: tourism

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Hotels, restaurants, agencies, guides… When you think about those who are making a fortune with the tourist boom In Spain, the mind goes directly to the hospitality industry and related businesses, such as holiday apartments. There are, however, other sectors in which the flow of visitors is felt with similar force, such as commerce or food. They show it with astonishing clarity the data from one of the firms most relevant of the retail national, Mercadona. In their stores, tourists represent such an important business niche that this year they will leave 1.8 billion of euros and will account for 4.5% of gross sales. One figure: 126.3 billion. That tourism is a huge business is nothing new. The INE estimates that last year the accumulated spending of foreign visitors in Spain was close to 126.3 billion euros16.1% more than in 2023. And everything indicates that this progression will be maintained in 2025. First, because the flow of travelers keeps growing at a good pace. Second, because this greater influx comes accompanied by an increase of spending: between January and October of this year alone, tourists spent around 118.6 billion eurosa figure that takes into account international tourism. A percentage: 4.5%. The increase in tourists is felt in vacation rentals, restaurants, hotels… and the accounts of one of the large Spanish retail chains, Mercadona. Yesterday Expansion public an article which shows how the footprint of foreign visitors in the Valencian chain has not stopped growing in recent years, both in net terms (millions invoiced) and in the weight that these incomes have in the company’s accounts. If in 2021 Juan Roig’s chain earned 750 million euros thanks to sales to tourists, which represented 2.7% of gross income that year, in 2025 the picture is very different. If Mercadona’s forecasts are met, 2025 will close with a sales volume to tourists of 1.8 billion euros, which will increase its contribution to the company’s total gross turnover to 4.5%. The data They are calculated thanks to purchases paid with foreign cards and are interesting because they show a sustained progression during the five-year period. One year: 2021. The last five years have been anything but boring in the tourism sector, which has gone from suffering the hangover of the pandemic to achieving record results. The INE tables show that in 2021 Spain received 31.2 million foreign tourists, 71.6 in 2022, 85.2 in 2023 and 93.7 in 2024. This year in October it already exceeded the 85 million. This rise has been even an increase in tourist spending: 34.9 billion in 2021 to 126,100 in 2024. All this data seems to have been clearly reflected in Mercadona’s accounts. According to the information to which you have had access ExpansionIn 2021, tourists left 750 million in the chain’s stores, which represented 2.7% of its total gross income. In 2022 these values ​​were already at 1,060 and 3.4%, respectively; In 2023 they amounted to 1,340 and 3.8% and in 2024 they reached 1,550 and 4%. If the forecasts are right, this year will close with sales to tourists worth 1.8 billion euros, 4.5% of gross sales. One question: Was it expected? Yes. And not only because of the increase in tourism, which translates into a greater number of potential foreign buyers. The supermarket employers’ association, AEDAS, calculate that in the most touristy areas these represent around 18% of the total consumers. And if Mercadona stands out for something, it is for its extensive presence in Spanish territory, with more than 1,600 stores spread throughout Spain and a wide presence in the Valencian Community. In fact, at a general level it is estimated that its market share in the sector it’s already around 30% (a high percentage that even exceeds some regions), far above the rest of its competitors. Images | Pedro López (Flickr) and Mercadona Via | Expansion In Xataka | Action supermarkets have gone from being unknown to conquering half of Europe. In Spain they will not have it easy

Mercadona has grown so much in Spain that for the US it is no longer just a supermarket chain: it is a “cultural phenomenon”

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The US Government has noticed a growing “cultural phenomenon” in Spain, one especially interesting for its exporting companies and which comes accompanied by millionaire turnover figures. What phenomenon is that? Mercadona. Literally. In your report Retail Foods Annualthe US Department of Agriculture dedicates special attention to Juan Roig’s company and slips that its weight in the retail It already transcends the limits of the retail sector. He even theorizes about the formula for his success. Under the spotlight of Donald Trump. It is not strange that Mercadona makes headlines. After all, it has become a crucial piece of the retail Spanish. Your market share in the sector around 30% (in some regions already exceeds that percentage), far above other competitors such as Carrefour, IFA or Lidl, and has been expanding for the country. What is much less common is for the Valencian retail chain to make headlines because it has caught the attention of US officials, which is exactly what has just happened. Table extracted from the report of the US Department of Agriculture. Attention, USA exporters. Mercadona is cited at least seven times in a report 10 pages published a few days ago by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), a document designed primarily for exporters from the country interested in the Spanish market. In it, the Washington technicians review the billing figures of Juan Roig’s firm, highlight its high weight in the sector (well above competitors such as Carrefour, Lidl, DIA or Eroski) and reflect on the keys to its commercial success. To be more precise, USDA recalls that last year Mercadona recorded sales worth an estimated $34.5 billion. The figure does not exactly match the disclosed by the company, but it is more than double that of Grupo Carrefour (12,000) and well above other well-established chains in the country, such as Lidl (7,500), DIA (6,150), Eroski (5,800) or Alcampo (5,500). “Mercadona occupies first place in the food retail sector in Spain, with sales almost three times higher than those of its second closest competitor,” check the reportwhich theorizes about the bet that has given the chain a market share of almost 30%. The formula for success. USDA highlights two features of the Valencian company. First, its Spanish food offering. Second, its strategic commitment to retail brands, especially Hacendado. “Private labels are very popular in Spain, driven by consumer attention to prices and quality. According to a study by the Aldi chain, Spanish households allocate 44% of their purchasing budget to private label products,” collect the reportwhich goes so far as to refer to the company as a “cultural phenomenon.” Is it something new? No. Washington is not the first to focus on the Valencian chain’s commitment to its own brands. A report from Kandar presented in 2024 by Promarca already pointed out the clear increase in distributor brands in Spanish supermarkets, a general trend that was accentuated in the case of Mercadona. Its external brand offering was cut by 45% between 2018 and 2023, while the value share of white label products reached 74.5%. Other sector reports have highlighted the same idea in recent months: Mercadona’s growing commitment to its brands. Added to this strategy are others deployed by the firm, such as the interest for foods already cooked and ready to eat. Roig himself has recognized openly that he is convinced that mid century Kitchens will disappear from Spanish homes, so people will eat prepared dishes. It is so sure of this that Mercadona has been betting on its section for years. “Ready to eat”. X-raying the sector. Beyond Mercadona, the report from USDA reveals some reflections on the food distribution sector in Spain. Its technicians are struck by, for example, the pace of opening of new stores (244 only between January and April of this year), the promotion of self-service stores and regional super chains (key piece of the national sector) or “the growing popularity” of healthy and convenience products. “Consumers are combining physical and online channels, favoring digital platforms for larger purchases and in-person purchases of fresh products. Retail strategies focus on efficiency, AI technologies, personalization and healthy products,” he comments. the USDA studywhich draws attention to the high “fragmentation” of retail trade and the concentration of the food sector, with Mercadona leading the way. Images | Mercadona, Gage Skidmore (Flickr) and USDA In Xataka | The shadow companies that are making gold with Mercadona: the silent success of Familia Martínez or Profand

Mercadona has become the queen of Spanish food. And in the process it is making gold for some suppliers

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The forecast was shocking. So much so that it generated a considerable stir. In spring, during the presentation of Mercadona’s annual report, Juan Roig predicted that in a matter of 25 years, kitchens will disappear from homes because people will eat outside the home or eat ready-to-eat dishes. That conviction (which Roig preaches since at least 2019), added to the commitment to white label and local stores, has turned Mercadona into a heavy weight of the retail sector, with a market share that is close to 30%. Not only that. By the way, the Valencian firm is making gold from a few companies that have become allies of its food strategy. One figure: 150 million. Its name may not tell you much, but if you shop frequently at Mercadona (for food) it is quite likely that you have tried the products of Martinez Family. The company is made up of Embutidos Martínez, Platos Tradicionales, Cinco Tenedores and La Pila Food and is a key supplier to Mercadona, basically in its prepared food offering. The group (Also of Valencian origin) manufactures lasagna, gratins and roasts. So far nothing exceptional. The curious thing is that recently Familia Martínez revealed which will invest a whopping 150 million euros between this and next year to reinforce the Platos Tradicionales facilities and keep up with Mercadona. To be more precise, he wants a larger surface area for barbecues, for which he will gain 20,000 m2 in Buñol; and provide a 3,500 m2 logistics center in Torrent, a space for distribution and storage with capacity for 1,000 pallets. Why is it important? For several reasons. The main one is what it reveals to us about both Familia Martínez and Mercadona. And in turn what that tells us about consumer trends. The commitment of the Valencian supplier coincides with the growth of the offer of ready meals and the so-called “fifth range“, processed, cooked and packaged foods. As a reference, the Spanish Association of Prepared Dish Manufacturers (Asefapre) calculates that the consumption of its products rose 6.6% last year in Spanish homes. “These investments are not just figures, they are a sample of our commitment to accompany the growth of our great client,” confirm the CEO of Familia Martínez, Raúl Martin Calvo. And in Mercadona (around 85% of your business) the bet is clear. Juan Roig’s chain takes years expanding its “ready to eat” section, with foods already prepared for consumption. The last annual report from Mercadona shows that in 2024 the service was available in 1,200 stores in Spain and 60 in Portugal, an expansion that “has not stopped growing”. Is it a special case? Familia Martínez is not the only one that is growing thanks largely to Mercadona’s tailwinds. The Country posted this saturday an article about Ozturk Quebapa firm based in Toledo, founded in 2015 and specialized in the production of kebab and meat products. Again, its name may not sound familiar to you, but if you like the traditional Turkish meat that Mercadona sells, you have probably tasted its creations. Ozturk is a supplier for the Hacendado brand for a few years. Its history predates the pact with the Valencian chain, but as they admit in Ozturk “with Mercadona everything changes.” The company saw its activity increase and acquired a second plant. Now it also sells to countries such as the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Finland and France. According to precise The Countrylast year it had a turnover of close to 64 million and its forecasts are to exceed 75 this year, a scenario that does not seem unattainable if one takes into account that it reached 37.8 in the first semester. Add and continue of names. Familia Martínez or Ozturk are examples of companies that are growing driven by Mercadona’s strategy in food, but not the only ones. The sushi offer of the Valencian chain gave wings for example to the Norwegian Leroy Seafood Group. In May Info Retail informed that its subsidiary Leroy Processing Spain It closed 2024 with a turnover of 122.5 million euros and its objective is to reach 160 in 2025, with a growth of 30%. The firm landed in Spain more than a decade ago and began making sushi and Japanese food long before 2021, but even so Mercadona has played a strategic role the last few years. Profand, Panamar and Tarradellas. Three other relevant names in Mercadona’s food supply. The first, the Galician fishing company Profand, is an integrated supplier to the Valencian supermarket chain, which has helped it market a whopping 78 million trays of fish throughout last year, with a growth of 13%. The signature itself stood out that nuance in a statement in which he celebrated having overcome the 1 billion of cash. In 2023 Panamar too saw rebound its turnover after becoming a supplier of bread to the Valencian chain and Tarradellas House wave Estiu refrigerator They have found in it a valuable pillar. Everyone benefits from the formula that is driving the Roig chain: its ability to gain market share in a sector highly disputedthe commitment to white label and local stores and the conviction that domestic kitchens actually have the years counted. Images | Mercadona In Xataka | Action supermarkets have gone from being unknown to conquering half of Europe. In Spain they will not have it easy

The ChatGPT Atlas agent made my purchase at Mercadona and now I have a pantry full of garlic

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a week ago I tried the new ChatGPT Atlasthe new OpenAI browser and, although it has a lot to improve, it seemed like a threat to Google’s dominance with Chrome. Today I put it to the test again, this time with a Plus subscription, and I wanted to check if agent mode is capable of hmake the purchase at Mercadona. Posing the situation It was the first time I used ChatGPT for something like this and I didn’t want to just give you a list. of the purchase, so first I asked him for ideas to make healthy recipes that are delicious. He offered me several options and when I decided on one of them, I activated agent mode and asked him to buy the ingredients at Mercadona. We have already talked about AI browsers are vulnerable to prompt injection attacks and OpenAI knows it. Before starting, a message appeared alerting me that using agent mode carries risks and I could use it with or without the session logged in. In my case I have chosen the logged in session because I wanted to see it work more easily, but as a precaution I have first deleted my payment details on the Mercadona website. Making the purchase Once the risks have been accepted, agent mode has been activated and the mouse has started to move through the Mercadona website interface. The sidebar shows the model’s entire thought and decision-making process while buying the ingredients to make a chickpea curry. In the video you can see the entire purchase process. The agent has been making decisions when he has found several items to choose from. For example, the recipe required an onion, but decided that it was more practical to buy a 1kg package. However, when choosing spinach, he decided that a package of baby spinach was better than the large package that is much cheaper. When he finished choosing ingredients he asked me to check it and I asked him to change the spinach. He has done it without question. The process has stopped when it has run into an insurmountable obstacle: it only had 10.28 euros and the minimum order on the Mercadona website is 50 euros, so I asked it to also include the ingredients of another of the recipes that it had suggested to me at the beginning, one for baked salmon. Since that one didn’t reach the minimum order either, I told him that I wanted to make it for four people and please don’t give me frozen salmon, but fresh ones. The agent adjusted the quantities and changed the salmon for a fresh one, but it still didn’t reach 50 euros, so I asked for something more creative.: to look for the most viral Mercadona products recently and add them to the basket. The purchase is made for you, but there is a problem When he was done, it was time to check the basket. I found that I had added garlic and also purple garlic. The normal garlic was fine, but the purple ones? I have reviewed the chain of thought and he was confused looking for purple onion. Mercadona calls it “red onion” and the agent has decided that it was better to add purple garlic because the color matched, even though they were a different ingredient. Regarding the viral products, I have chosen an advent calendar with makeup, smoked raclette cheese, cookie nougat and pistachio cake. The total amount was 66 eurosit is true that I have not expressly told you to adjust to 50 euros, but it seems to me that you have gone a little overboard. The agent has taken control of the browser and done exactly what he wanted: make the purchase for me. However, there is a problem and that is It’s very slow. I haven’t helped much either. Not having anticipated that there was a minimum order and the additional requests that I have been making, such as changing the quantities or choosing products by itself, has made it even slower. In total he has been thinking for almost 15 minutes, but if we take into account only the first part of the purchase for the chickpea curry, it has taken 2:14 minutes. More than two minutes to add eight items to cart. All the time I had the feeling that I would already have the order finished and paid for. Regarding reliability, I have to say that He has made fewer mistakes than I expected, but it is still necessary to check what you have added to the basket at the end because you can sneak in some garlic instead of onions, and I already have enough garlic in the pantry. Much more practical in other scenarios One of the use scenarios that OpenAI gave in the presentation of its new browser was precisely to make the purchase. After trying it, it is clear to me that the ChatGPT Atlas agent mode has a lot of potential, but not for making the purchase, that’s why I have tried another scenario where it can be much more useful: organize a trip. I asked him to find places for me to go on a getaway over the December long weekend, that were less than 2 hours by car from Valencia, with a specific budget and to look for them on Booking and Airbnb. In six minutes he gave me options for two different destinationsorganized in a table with price per night and highlights. Once I have decided, I only had to give him the personal information to complete the reservation. To organize a trip it is practical. Making the purchase is simply adding things to the cart, a much more mechanical process that we can do manually in a very short time. If we also encounter obstacles such as the minimum order or we are not completely clear about what we want, we end up losing more time than gaining it. Where the agent does offer more … Read more

Chinese hypermarkets are in crisis and have found the solution: follow the Mercadona model

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The golden age of Chinese hypermarkets is coming to an end. With the economy stepping on the brake, these mastodons are in a tighten and desperately seek new formulas to hook consumers who look more at the pocket. In this new panorama, the solution seems to be betting on the strategy that Mercadona dominates perfectly for years. What’s happening. The great Chinese supermarkets are having You would be difficult to survive. In recent years, Carrefour has closed more than 140 stores, Tesco has disappeared and last year the main leading hypermarkets had Important losses. With The economy in decelerationChinese consumers are more cautious when spending and that is causing the main chains to change their strategy drastically, as reported in Bloomberg. The Mercadona model. Many neighborhood stores and more white brands, this is how some Chinese giants are adapting to this new era. The own brands were not usual in China, but currently they take more and more space in the halls of the main chains. In addition, they are beginning to change their store strategy, favoring the proximity of smaller stores instead of hypermarket that forces us to move by car and plan a larger purchase. Adapt or die. Chinese hypermarket chains are transforming with smaller formats and their own brands. Walmart, with its stores proximity to Lo Carrefour Express and its MarketSide brand, is a good example of this trend. The Wumart Group has launched Six stores with discounts in Beijing and FreeShyppo, from Alibaba, already has more than 300 stores under its cheap chaopa brand. Approximately 60% of the products found in these stores are white brands. This strategy responds to the search for savings and convenience by the consumer. The Pangdonglai case. It is a Henan supermarket that has achieved viral success. Its strategy is based on exceptional customer service, good treatment of unique employees and services such as ticket offices with dog water and personalized preparation of the purchase basket. But the main secret of their success is that they have placed their profit margin in 30%, which allows them to keep low prices all the time, without having to resort to specific promotions. Despite having been born in a smaller city, its model is so influential that Yonghui Superstores, the fourth chain of China, is reforming its stores following its example. Image | Wikipedia In Xataka | The US studied what would happen if it enters war with China. Now he has started a career desperate to double missiles

The Mercadona Crusade against Home Kitchen is working. The question is what nutritional cost we are accepting it

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In the last eight months, Mercadona has won seven more tenths in market share and already reaches 27.3%. It is a real barbarity that reaffirms it in the lead and moves it away from its closest competition: Carrefour. But the most striking is not that. The most striking thing is that, According to the dataeverything is because The crusade against the future of the kitchen at home Juan Roig is paying off. We knew that the world has been quitting for decades, what we didn’t know is that this was going to go so fast. What we do not know, in fact, is what consequences all this has in the medium term. Are we putting the foxes to monitor the chicken coop? A future, but now. Because, although Media Spain threw himself on Roig when he assured “in the middle of the 21st century there will be no kitchens”, the truth is that right now more than eight million Spaniards resort to the prepared dishes of the supermarket. In fact, Statistics tell us data That, in the last decades, home cuisine had been in clear decline. Millennials “ate 30% more often in restaurants than any other generation; when they cooked, they spent less time (one hour less than the X generation) and, when they bought, they opted more by prepared meals, pasta and sweets than the rest.” They are USAs, but We can find similar trends in all western countries. There was a small change with pandemic, but things They seem to be returning to their channel. 17 kilos per head. That is The amount of prepared dishes they consumedon average, the Spaniards in 2024. 6.6% more compared to the previous year. And in these data we do not take into account that The tendency not only “translates In a greater offer of prepared dishes, but also in a simplification of fresh products, destined to reduce the time we dedicate to the kitchen. “ The reasons are clear and understandable: According to Kantar consultancy“comfort, lack of time and the increasingly elaborate and healthy proposals by supermarkets” are the factors behind this change. But this is true? I refer, specifically, to “healthy proposals.” And not with respect to traditional precooked dishes, which that (a priori) is evident. But, with respect to the general diet of consumers. That is: this movement is improving our diet or not? The question is pertinent. Above all, because we have the problem of ultra -processed. It is increasingly evident (Ylgreat studies confirm this) that there is a “positive correlation between the consumption of these foods and A list of up to 32 health problems ranging from cardiovascular mortality to depression. “ We talk about an increase of about 50% in the risk of death related to cardiovascular problems, a similar increase in the risk of anxiety and “common” mental health problems, and a 12% increase in the probability of developing type 2 diabetes. Even more The data show An increase of 21% in the risk of death for any cause and one between 40 and 66% of the risk of death by heart attack. The invasion of the defendants. In 2010, ultraprocessed food represented 31.7% of the Spanish diet and 80.4% of all added sugars. That is, the weight of the processed food in our diet tripled between 1990 and 2010 (from 11% to 31.7%). In parallel, the weight of added sugars has gone from 8.4% of our daily energy intake at 13%. It is a serious problem and becoming aware of it has made, as we said, the products are healthier than before. But the emergence of these pre -cooked dishes much more attractive, convenient and accessible raises doubts. Are we facing a new phase of that trend? Will our diet worse? Answers are missing. It is soon to see how all this is affecting (and will affect) the food of citizens. Do not forget that, as we often repeat, not all processed foods They suppose a health risk. But what the historical experience tells us is that we cannot leave everything in the hands of the companies in the sector: without an ambitious regulation and a committed public opinion, the situation can become against us. It is, it seems, the ideal moment to use this boom in favor of public health. Then it will be much more difficult. Image | JJ Melero In Xataka | Juan Roig believes that cooking at home has no future. There are eight million Spaniards who are already giving the right

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