Mercadona

Mercadona has been filled with gels and shampoos that mimic luxury products: the silent revolution of supermarkets

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A light texture cream and minimalist container that could go through a Sephora launch, a Bombonera type bag that Remember Loewe or Jacquemusand a colony whose aroma evokes Carolina Herrera or Issey Miyake perfumes. All this coexists, at reduced prices, in the same place where fried and softening potatoes are sold: the supermarket. Between clonations or inspirations – not to open the legal melon – you can find global cosmetics and perfumery trends, including Korean skincareas well as viral accessories in a daily and massive context. A phenomenon that arouses passions on social networks and that, in Spain, has Mercadona as one of its main protagonists. Imitation as a strategy. According to Business InsiderMercadona, through its own Deliplus brand, accurately mimics makeup products and personal care of firms such as Mac, Benefit, L’Oréal or Urban Decay, with containers and textures that remind the original but at prices that rarely exceed six euros. Among the best known examples are the Maxi Volume mask (inspired by L’Oréal), the silicone base similar to Benefit or Illuminator and Coloretes that refer directly to The Balm and Nars. The formula works thanks to the massive distribution and indirect marketing that generate users and influencers by viralizing findings such as bath gel with amber and vetiver for 1.50 euros, described by the confidential as “a gel that smells of gods” and compared to high -end perfumes. In Xataka A feeling is growing in Europe and Canada: Boicote "National" The hole that leaves inaccessible luxury. This “corridor luxury” blooms at a time when traditional luxury has become more expensive until its clientele concentrated in the richest 1%. According to the avant -gardethe average price of luxury products has risen 25% since 2019, displacing the aspirational consumer that previously saved to buy a perfume or accessory. Today, more than 40% of the sales of many brands come from that 1% of greater purchasing power. The consequence of all this is a market hole that fill legal imitations, inspired products and, in the illegal field, falsifications. According to the countrydigital copies trade has exploded with apps and channels in Telegram, where young people buy and exhibit replicas without complexes. 54% of the B buyers see with good eyes that others carry falsifications, and 37% admit that it carries or carry them. In this panorama, legal clones such as those of Mercadona are positioned as an “safe” alternative, although they are part of the same conversation about value, authenticity and saturation. The origin of luxury by hand. The mixture of luxury references and daily consumption is not new, but in the last decade it has been normalized and even turned into a statement of style. The figure of the “luxury choni” – who combines gold logos with basic garments and low cost makeup – has permeated in artists such as Bad Gyal, capable of dressing in Versace and Use Mercadona Profiler. Also Rosalia, in its beginnings, sang in Aute Cuture: “In the Palace and in the Chinese”, encapsulating the coexistence of two consumption universes in the same aesthetic identity. This symbolic cross has found fertile ground in cosmetics, where the price does not always determine social recognition. An effective clone can grant the same symbolic capital as a luxury product, especially when social networks amplify the finding. The era of “dupe”. In networks like Tiktok, the term Dupe It has become a generational flag. Vogue Business has documented How gene generation has stopped hiding that uses imitations: finding and showing them is a source of pride. Brands such as Mcobeauty in Australia have grown thanks to this movement, while firms like Charlotte Tilbury have launched campaigns to claim their “original formula” and differentiate themselves from copies. In other markets, the line between inspiration and copy has been tested in court. According to Vogue BusinessBenefit’s demand against Elf Cosmetics for a mask similar to his Roller Lash failed: justice considered that packaging and components differ enough not to confuse the consumer. On the other hand, Mercadona does not fight on that forehead: its strategy is to identify and produce quickly, benefiting that in Spain, as in many markets, copying formulas or aesthetics without violating patents is perfectly legal. Beyond beauty: edible luxury. This phenomenon is not limited to cosmetics. According to Delishgeneration Z is moving aspirational consumption to food. In the United States, chains like Erewhon sell $ 20 with superfood and collaborations of Celebritieswhich are both a well -being product and a content for social networks. Logic is similar: to make daily consumption (makeup, breakfast, hydrate) into an act of visible and replicable status. Luxury is no longer alone in marble boutiques: it is in the glass Take Awayin the design bottle of design and, in Spain, in the supermarket perfume line. The debate: democratize or dilute. He Dupe It can be understood as democratization: put aesthetic and sensory codes available to a few people. But it can also dilute the value of the original and its promise of exclusivity. Marc Chaya, CEO of Maison Francis Kurkdjian, warned in Vogue Business: “Duping is a serious matter … some serve to remind brands that cannot abuse the price, but others flood the market without providing utility or purpose.” For the consumer, the dilemma is different: pay for history and prestige or for the effect and similarity. For brands, the question is how to maintain relevance when desire is satisfied with cheaper alternatives. {“videoid”: “x85k87i”, “autoplay”: fals, “title”: “Black Friday: how to know if an online store is reliable ️ Buy with internet security”, “Tag”: “”, “Duration”: “562”} Cart as a global showcase. It is not about replacing the traditional luxury experience, but about appropriating its symbols in times of inflation, precariousness and digitalized consumption. The “hall luxury” is a symptom of an era where the barriers between high range and mass consumption are increasingly diffuse. And there, in that hall where glamor coexists with the softener, a new chapter is being written in the history of consumption: one where a … Read more

Going to the hairdresser or putting bracelets is not enough for Mercadona to dismiss you

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An employee who had been working as a manager in Mercadona for more than twenty years had to face a complicated situation when, in August 2023, he began A medical leave For anxiety. While it is true that there are certain activities that a person on a medical leave should not do, the Superior Court of Justice of Castilla y León has had to remind Mercadona to go to the hairdresser or get bracelets is not sufficient reason for A disciplinary dismissal. Spied on the super. As detailed In the sentencethe farewell employee worked as a manager in a Mercadona de León supermarket since 2001. In 2023, she took a medical leave for anxiety. After a few months, Mercadona hired A private detective agency To monitor their daily activities while he was ongoing. In the report, the detectives recorded that the worker had gone to the hairdresser, wore bracelets and rings, spoke on the phone and had even made purchases in a Lidl supermarket of cleaning products and detergents. Farewell by allergic? At all times, the company had linked all these activities with an alleged allergyTo metals such as nickel and chromium, present on the bracelets, in smartphones, in elements of the hair washing area, etc., as well as chemicals present in cleaning products. According to the allegations of the company “it has superior respiratory tract hypersensitivity by general immune irritative reaction due to awareness of irritating agents present in the work environment.” The daily activities of the employee, so normal to anyone, were interpreted by the company as a “lack of will to take care” and a reason for Unjustified extension of its temporal disability. According to the company, the use of jewelry and contact with chrome surfaces were “behavior incompatible with their healing process.” So the company declared “that the employee was acting in bad faith” and that “she had lost her trust”, so he applied a disciplinary dismissal. At this point, it should be remembered that the reason for the medical leave It was for anxiety. The judicial reaction: it has anxiety, not allergy. The Social Court No. 1 of León initially gave the reason to Mercadona, but the employee appealed the sentence and raised it to the Superior Court of Justice of Castilla y León (TSJCyL), which corrected the company’s performance strongly. The court criticized that they were considered “activities that compromise the healing” completely everyday actions such as going to the hairdressing, carrying bracelets or making the purchase. In addition, the ruling highlighted the contradiction between the diagnosis of anxiety that justified the decrease and argumentation of the dismissal focused on reasons related to respiratory pathologies caused by supposed chemical sensitivity. TSJCyL: One More Thing. The TSJCyl judgment not only declared the disciplinary dismissal inadmissible, but declared it void, considering that it occurred in a clearly repressive context. The worker had denounced deficiencies in the prevention of occupational hazards before her medical decline. Therefore, a violation was evidenced to the right to non -discrimination due to disability and compensation guaranteethat is, the right not to suffer from Exercise labor rightsinterpreting the dismissal of the employee as a revenge that had nothing to do with her medical recovery. The sentence. The Superior Court has dismissed the decision of the Social Court No. 1 of León that in the first instance gave the reason to Mercadona, and goes on to condemn the company to readmit to the worker in your job and with the same conditions and pay for back salaries from the discharge of temporary disability after dismissal, at a rate of 2,089.58 euros per month. In addition, you must pay compensation of 7,500 euros for damages. In Xataka | 55,245 euros for eating a sandwich and a beer: Mercadona must compensate an employee for unfair dismissal Image | Wikimedia Commons (LBM1948), Unspash (Farhad Ibrahimzade)

We have been at Roig Arena, the stadium that the owner of Mercadona will open in Valencia. If you don’t have more screens it is because they can’t

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He already owns The most successful supermarket chain in the countryhas a foundation known for the Valencia Marathon Sponsorshiphas Your own startup accelerator And it is even owner of a basketball team. He only lacked the stadium. We talk, of course, Juan Roig. The owner of Mercadona has been embarked on the construction of the pavilion that bears his name and will be the new home of Valencia Basket, in addition to a space for concerts and shows. We have been visiting the works and if we had to summarize it in a word we are clear: screens. 1,700 square meters of screens, to be exact. The eye. Before entering we find a screen giving us welcome. They call it “the eye” and measures 10 meters high by 48 wide. Like the other screens, it has installed it LG that tells us the challenge that has meant such a large panel, resistant to the outside and also looks when the sun affects it. It is on the northwest facade of the enclosure and just at the time that there will be many events (about seven or eight in the afternoon) the sun will be putting on. This screen we have not been able to see it on because they were still installing it, so we cannot judge how it looks. Visuals will be projected in it to announce which event or game will have that day. Screens inside and out The videomarker. Within the sand is the jewel of the crown: a videomarker with 250 square meters of surface that, according to LG, has the highest resolution in Europe. It is in the center of the pavilion and forms four screens, but as it has the rounded edges and the image they project is continuous, it gives the feeling that it is a single panel that wraps the entire structure. In addition, in the inner face there are two more screens in which information will be seen from the basketball matches that are held. More screens. There is no thing left, the interior of the Roig Arena is literally lined on screens (see the first photo). There is a kind of band that they call ‘Ribbon LED’ that surrounds the stadium and separates the lower stand from the superior. And there is even more. Inside is also the largest videowall in Europe, with an area of 500 square meters. Both the Videowall and the Ribbon and the videomarker do have seen them on and has surprised us with the sharpness and luminosity. Folded and deployed bleachers Two ages. The enclosure has a particularity and that is that the capacity is variable. You can house 15,600 people in Basket mode and up to 20,000 in concert mode. This is achieved with a retractable bleachers system in the first level. In a basketball game they will be deployed, creating one more level of seats that extend to the edge of the field, while in the concerts they will fold them so that they are hidden on the sides and the track is larger. Investment. The idea of making a new pavilion for Valencia Basket years ruminating And finally Juan Roig confirmed that he would build an enclosure with a capacity for about 15,000 people. In 2018 He traveled to Berlin to know the Berlin Arenastadium in which the project was inspired, and the works began in 2020. The total investment in the enclosure will be, according to its general director, more than 300 million euros And there is already date for its inauguration: on September 6. Basket and more. In addition to being the new home of the Valencian team, which leaves the mythical (but quite outdated) La Fonteta PavilionRoig Arena was also conceived as a space for concerts and shows. In fact, although it does not open until September, they already have confirmed concerts for all next year, Many of them with Sold Out. Images | Xataka, Roig Arena In Xataka | Juan Roig believes that cooking at home has no future. There are eight million Spaniards who are already giving the right

There is a Granada cooperative demonstrating that the opposite model to Mercadona also works: Covir will

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The large supermarket chains have market share and penetration – or in An extraordinarily high profit margin for your sector-, but there are alternative models that without appearing at the top of those rankings, they are also successful in their own parameters. Covirán is a good case study: it is sustaining in Spain and Portugal, building an empire of proximity. Why is it important. Covirán represents the alternative approach to the dominant distribution model. Your growth strategy (rural, cooperative) goes against nature of a sector used to consolidation. This Granadina cooperative closed 2024 with revenues of 1,846 million euros (everything that is sold in all stores operating under its teaching), and with 617 million business figure of the gripo (which really invoices as a company). The negative reading is that it was just 0.13% more than in 2023. The positive reading is that the flat figure tells another story: it is changing its business model while conquering more territories. Its benefit was 2.34 million euros over 617 million. 0.38% that sounds low because it is, but that allows you to get benefit, unlike older groups such as

Juan Roig, president of Mercadona

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If someone put in the center of any city to ask passersby the name of the first business leader who came to mind, surely in their answers would appear names such as Amancio Ortega, Ana Botín, Florentino Pérez or Juan Roig. A similar exercise is what the corporate reputation consultant Merco has been doing in her Corporate and leaders business monitorcreating an annual ranking of leaders and companies with a better reputation. In the 2025 edition, the president of Mercadona appears as the best valued businessman in Spain. Juan Roig, the immutable It cannot be said that Juan Roig was surprised to lead this ranking. The president of Mercadona has been in this position for seven years, since in 2019 the founder of Mercadona dismissed Pablo Isla, at that time CEO of Inditex. This recognition of leadership is the result of the decisions that Roig has taken at the head of the supermarket chain that is transforming the Classic Supermarket Concepttowards a model in which Prima the profitabilitythe offer of New ways to consume its products and commitment to Mercadona digitalization. Beyond the immovable Juan Roig, in the list of improved leaders valued we find a greater female presence than previous years. The second position is occupied by Ana Botín, president of Banco Santander, followed closely by Amancio Ortega that, although it is true that he does not occupy an executive position or inditex or in Pontegadeahis leadership continues to be one of The best valued. Fourth, although a little further away, we find Marta Ortega, now leads with very good results The textile empire founded by his father. Close the Top 5 of this listing Ignacio Sánchez Galán, president of Iberdrola who asserts his two decades at the head of the energy to occupy this position. Leaders and their companies Although leadership influences largely the reputation of companies, there is not always a direct coincidence between the best valued leader and the best positioned company. An example of this is found in the RANKING OF BEST VALUED COMPANIES In Spain in 2025. This list is not headed by the Mercadona de Juan Roig as expected, but is Inditex, led by Marta Ortega that occupies fourth place in terms of better valued leaders. However, Mercadona occupies a very honorable second place on that list. Something similar happens with Banco Santander that, although it is true that its president occupies second place in leadership, we must go down to the ninth position of companies best valued in Spain to find Banco Santander. Inditex has monopolized the first position of that list for almost a decade thanks to Your successful modelwith the only exception of 2022. In that year, Mercadona dismissed Ortega’s textile, to lose the first position again the following year. The Top 10 of companies is completed by the Social Group Once, Repsol, Iberdrola, Coca-Cola, BBVA, CaixaBank and Mapfre. In Xataka | The list of the richest people in Spain in 2025: many changes in the figures, but not in the protagonists Image | Flikr (Informa Board), Gtres

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

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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

The magic number that puts Mercadona very much ahead of its competition and that has a hidden cost

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Mercadona has achieved something that seemed impossible in the saturated food distribution sector: A net margin of 3.88% in 2024. Well above not only Spanish or European rivals, but even world giants such as Costco (2.95%), Walmart (2.88%) or Tesco (2.87%). The figure, a trifle compared to other sectors, is stratospheric if we compare it with rivals such as Carrefour, with just 0.93%. Others, such as Dia, Casino or Auchan directly record losses. The supermarket business Historically operates with megic margins (1-2%) compensated for its high volume and cash flow. Mercadona, touching 4%, It is an anomaly. And he has achieved it mainly in the last five years, in which it has gone from 2.7% of 2019 to 3.88% of 2024. In addition, its net benefit has shot 37%, to 1,384 million euros. The 6 keys to unprecedented profitability “Total Efficiency” Model. The figures obey a polished strategy for decades. Juan Roig described the results of 2024 as “from ‘very good’ to ‘spectacular’” during his presentation at the central offices in Paterna. He attributed them to “the good progress of the economy, a great business model and brave decision making,” according to Castellón Plaza. One of Mercadona’s distinctive elements is its commitment to an “efficient assortment.” In other words: a short catalog. Other chains offer between 15,000 and 20,000 references, Mercadona has a rather lower number, prioritizing high -rotation products. It is one of the points that highlights the analysis of Food retaila strategy that “allows you to be more efficient, reach economies of scale and boost the quality of your own brand, all this while offering low prices.” That goes in the next point … Own brand domain. The weight of the distributor brand in Mercadona is overwhelming: its landowner brands, green or deliplus forest represent 58.2% of its sales, according to data from Actuality distribution About 2018. The chain then controlled approximately 44%of the total Spanish market of white brands, far ahead of competitors such as day (16%) or Lidl (11%). This strategy eliminates marketing costs and intermediaries associated with commercial brands. And allows you to set competitive prices without sacrificing margin. Mercadona has constantly invested in improving the quality of these products, developing them together with specialized suppliers to match or overcome the quality of leading brands. A unique relationship with suppliers. The Valencian chain has changed the distributor-professional relationship since the late nineties, when Roig promoted the “interproved” model. As it details INFORETAIL MAGAZINEMercadona “selected a manufacturer by category and granted long -term exclusivity to produce its brands”, working in “open book”: the chain knew the costs of the supplier and jointly set objectives of productivity improvement. Although this model has evolved since 2018 to a broader base of 1,400 “Totaler suppliers“, The philosophy of vertical integration and joint optimization remains. Mercadona negotiates block for all its stores, and that allows you to get conditions that other distributors do not get. The success of this symbiosis is such that, according to The economist“Mercadona suppliers are made of gold”, with growth of more than 10% in their sales during the last year. Logistics and automation. Mercadona operates one of the most sophisticated logistics networks in Europe, with 16 large highly automated blocks that supply their 1,674 supermarkets daily. In 2024, it allocated 276 million euros (26% of its total investment) to strengthen this infrastructure, according to Digital economy. The company has implemented advanced technologies such as the system Figa bridge picking (PPG) In its fresh warehouses, which speeds up the preparation of orders: it allows you to carry fresh products from the field to the store in 24 hours. Less losses and better perceived quality. This obsession with efficiency has raised productivity per employee at 313,545 euros per year, the highest in the sector. Almost null expense and marketing control. Unlike other chains with a lotHere is an example in this house) and not so much to announce products. Trust more on the mouth-a-or and the repetition of purchase. This savings in marketing, which for competitors can mean 1-2% of sales, is direct to the net margin. The company also maintains a relatively simple directive structure. In 2024, he even reduced his management committee to only six members, in front of the sixteen he came to have, according to reports Castellón Plaza. The six members of the Management Committee with Juan Roig in the presentation of results of exercise 2024. That committee came to have sixteen members. Image: Mercadona. No promotions or discounts. Mercadona has no loyalty program, points, coupons or specific discounts. Instead, opt for stable and competitive prices throughout the year. He no longer entrusts his motto ‘Always low prices‘which started at the end of the nineties, and in fact He has explicitly said that it is not his goal to be cheapbut the idea of ​​SPB remains in a certain way: fixed prices instead of specific offers. This saves you promotional marketing costs and constant price changes. In 2024 He reduced 2,000 pricesbut permanently and without this affecting its profitability, according to the company itself. In fact, its gross commercial margin remained stable at 24.7%, confirming that the increase in net profit (37%) compared to sales (9%) is mainly due to internal efficiency improvements, not to make products more expensive. Internationalization problems Mercadona has a 28% market share in Spain and is a baggy leader, but it is having difficulties when leaving other markets. In Portugal he has been for five years but “only” has sixty stores. Although the Portuguese is a market that has begun to give benefits (7 million euros in 2024), Roig has admitted that “it costs a lot” to grow there. As collected The avant -garde“after being forty years in Spain” it is not easy to adapt the model, and international expansion requires “generating managers in the country through internal promotion, which is a long process.” Mercadona has had to adapt its assortment to Portuguese taste and develop a local supplier network. According to Merca2although store sales in Portugal … Read more

While almost all Spain immersed in chaos, a place continued to function normally: Mercadona

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We are on Monday, April 28, 2025. Spain suffers the effects of a Mass blackout which has a good part of the country’s industry and commerce. All? No! A Valencian chain of irreducible supermarkets remains open and even speaks of “normality” in the middle of the chaos. His name: Mercadona. Under his label, the lack of supply that yesterday stopped the activity of other chains in the sector resulted in something different: Customer queues, Full carts and razed baldas. His They were not the only premises that followed at the foot of the canyon (Carrefour, Alcampo or El Corte Inglés had operational establishments), but it did stand out on a key front: neighborhood stores, closer to the citizen, which gave it considerable visibility. The big question is … How did he do it? Of blackouts and urgent purchases. If something demonstrated the pandemic, just five years ago, it is that the Spaniards do not like to play it. In exceptional situations, such as the announcement of an alarm or A mass blackout that leaves much of the peninsula without electricity for hours, we leave home, we go to the supermarket and We buy what is necessary To fill our fridge. Even in days like yesterday in which the fridge served rather. X is a barbarian mirror of that answer. A quick search shows tens of videos of saturated stores, long lines, empty shelves And people with loaded carts of water carafes. The funny thing is that all these videos are recorded in the same place: Mercadona. That the images have left some of their 1,600 establishments It is not surprising. Roig’s premises were operational and with supply while those of other firms in the sector They remained closed. “The bunkers would be landowned”. The situation was so curious and in a way he remembered the first days of the pandemic, that there were those who threw a sneer in networks. “Spain collapsed and Mercadona today running even with datáphones”, He joked in x Álvaro Wasabi. “If Fallout’s apocalypse was fulfilled, zero doubts that bunkers would be landowned.” “Mercadona when something extraordinary occurs and people believe they should buy toilet paper for 50 years,” Comments Nebreda Italohispano Next to an image of a pool crowded with people. “As with each catastrophe, the only one who has won with the #Cortedeluz is Mercadona,” Add in another tweet Eduardo Bernal. A unique case? No. Mercadona is perhaps the chain that has generated more expectation and comments in networks, but It is not the only that yesterday managed to keep operational at least part of his network of stores. The English Court was also able to open department stores thanks to the use of structure, as well as Alcampo or Carrefour, who served in hypermarkets and part of his supermarkets. Other chains did not run the same fate with wide implementation in Spain, such as Lidl, Eroski or Day, than They were forced To lower the blind at least its smallest stores. Precisely if something has made the networks look at Mercadona is that it managed to maintain local neighborhood operations, not only large hypermarkets located in polygons or the outskirts of the cities. But and that … why? In Xataka we have contacted Mercadona to know which equipment they have exactly in their stores and how they could keep them active in the mass blackout. Waiting for these clarifications, the company’s environment has already sliding Some clues. The key is in its generators, which at least in a good number of stores allowed to maintain the uploaded blinds, operational boxes and even make charges with dataphone, an impossible option in other businesses and that made yesterday The cash was imposed (very briefly) to payment with cards or mobile. “Today we open”. In the last hours the company assured to Expansion that all their places were “open” and functioning with “normality.” Moreover, while other stores were forced to close the doors waiting for the supply to be reactivated, the abnormality in the Mercadona premises was marked by a different reality: a customer “boom”. This morning the company A tweet uploaded With photos of his shelves answered and a message: “Today we open.” Adapting to the stage. One of the keys to Mercadona’s response, says one of his employees to Xataka, is his flexibility when adapting. The stores could work thanks to the existence of their own generators, but that does not mean that (at least in some cases) the operation was the “normal”: automatic tapes were dispensed with in the boxes and part of the merchandise took the cameras to avoid spoiling and saving energy consumption. “Under minimums tried to leave essential things,” he explains. “Everything works. What happens is that the consumption is minimized to serve the customer (…). The lights were more faint than usual to save also.” Refrigerators. “The refrigerators have been emptying them throughout the day to get into the refrigeration chamber or in the frozen and be able to turn them off and that only large cameras work, which is where more merchandise can be maintained in good condition,” details the same employee. “As that merchandise is removed, the refrigerators are turned off to save electricity.” At least in its store, he recounts, the company has consulted employees if they could enter a little earlier than usual to recover normality. Bathroom tails and prepared dishes. That Mercadona remained operational while other businesses were forced to close the door turned their premises, in a way, more than supermarkets. After visiting one of the stores in the center of Barcelona, ​​a reporter of The country He spoke yesterday In the afternoon of queues in the bathrooms and people eating dishes prepared in tables with stools. Images | Xataka In Xataka | The blackout in Spain has demonstrated which is the ideal means to inform in a crisis: the radio

Mercadona must compensate an employee for inadmissible dismissal

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Mercadona applies a strict work discipline to its employees. Sometimes, breach some of these strict labor policies derive in disciplinary dismissals. A sanction that the courts have already described as “excessive and disproportionate” On other occasions. The Superior Court of Justice of Madrid has declared inadmissible the dismissal of a Mercadona employee after being accused of consuming a beer in your rest time. Therefore, the supermarket must compensate the employee who, during her breakfast pause, ate a chicken sandwich accompanied by a beer. What happened? As reflected in The judgment issued For the TSJM, the farewell employee occupied the functions of manager to since 2001 in the section “Ready to eat”, with an annual salary of 28,006.21 euros and was fired on June 29, 2023 through a communication in which they claimed disciplinary causes. The key events date back to June 21, 2023, when the person responsible for her turn informed that the employee allegedly smelled of alcohol when she presented to work. However, the coordinator verified that there was no such smell, but that the worker used a colony and chewed gum, something that, everything is said, also prohibited the employees of Mercadona. This served him for the person responsible to point out this detail. On June 27 and during her break for breakfast, the employee bought “a cold beer and a chicken sandwich” and ate it inside her car inside the parking lot for the company’s employees. When he finished, he left his vehicle, he threw the containers to the paper and prepared to return to his position in the established deadlines. The coordinator witnessed the scene, picked up the paper packaging and required the presence of the employee in his office. There, the employee acknowledged having drunk An Mahou beer of 50 CL with alcohol during your breakfast pause, signing a document in which the event was recorded. That same day, she was sent home before finishing her workday. Disciplinary dismissal. In his allegation, Mercadona claimed that the behavior of the employee contravened the rules established in the Article 39.3 of your collective agreement On very serious offenses. In its epigraph specifies: “Go to work or work under obvious symptoms of alcohol or drug o Consumption in the workplace of narcotic substances, or when the behaviors acquire the status of usual and negatively affect the performance of their work, as well as, they constitute a serious risk to the integrity of the working person or other people of the company or alien to this. “ Among the sanctions provided for very serious offenses that are included in article 40 of that same collective agreement, it is established that employees incurring this type of faults face: suspension of employment and salary of sixteen days up to sixty days or The dismissal. Among all possible sanctions, they opted for the most expeditious: The disciplinary dismissal. The Judgment of the TSJM. In a first trial, Social Court No. 7 of Madrid determined that the worker’s behaviors did not justify the disciplinary dismissal. Judgment that Mercadona raised in a supplicatory to the TSJM that now ratifies it. As stated in the sentence, the supermarket did not present conclusive evidence that the employee had been under the influence of alcohol or that her behavior affects her work performance, which led to declare dismissal inadmissible. The Court based its sentence to which the measure adopted by Mercadona did not respect the principles of proportionality and good contractual faith. Disproportionate sanction. Mercadona argued that the worker had incurred a serious offense, adjusting to article 55 of the Workers Statutebut the judges concluded that the facts that were caused by dismissal were not serious enough as to justify a measure as extreme as dismissal. The Superior Court of Madrid recalled in his letter that the good faith must prevail both for the worker and for the employer, and that the analysis of any breach must consider not only the act in itself, but also the context and proportionality of the sanction. The Court stressed that the decision to say goodbye must be reasonable and proportional, considering the seriousness of the behavior, its context and the human factor. He also stressed that there were no signs of drunkenness in the worker or prove that her alcohol consumption in rest time affects the performance of her functions, even if she used potentially dangerous tools such as knives or machinery. Therefore, the resource filed by Mercadona was dismissed. Readmission or compensation. By declaring the inadmissibility of dismissal, Mercadona must now opt between two alternatives: readmit to the employee under the same working conditions prior to dismissal and pay the wages that he stopped receiving from the date of dismissal, or with the sum of 55,245.13 euros for compensation. Although Juan Roig’s supermarket chain has not spoken about the meaning of his decision, his decisions in previous sentences suggest that Mercadona will choose to pay compensation since he does not usually readmit to the dismissed employees. In Xataka | 40,000 euros for a croquette: Mercadona dismissed an employee for eating a croquette and must now compensate him Image | Unspash (Calitore), Wikimedia Commons (Daiima)

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