supermarket

Mercadona has been a threat to other supermarket and restaurant chains for years. Now it is for Starbucks

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Mercadona gained fame (and money) as a supermarket chain, but it has long since explore business avenues in sectors that go far beyond the retail traditional. The clearest movement was made in 2018, when it launched a section of cooked dishes and “ready to eat” (in fact the service is literally called that) that has grown at record speed. Today it is already offered in 1,110 stores and has allowed Juan Roig’s chain to become an unexpected rival for hoteliers, who have seen how the firm monopolizes almost 20% of the expense in food and drink, more than bars and restaurants. Now there is another sector with reasons to be on guard: coffee shops. What has happened? That Mercadona has just launched a new service in Euskadi. At the end of February The Mail revealed that the Valencian chain installed a freshly ground coffee machine ready to go in a supermarket in Bilbao. Said like this, it may seem like minor news, but it has more to it than it seems. To begin with, because it is the first Mercadona establishment to adopt this service in Basque lands. Second, because it demonstrates the speed with which the company is filling its supermarkets with ground coffee machines. Are you riding that many? It’s not so much that coffee makers are available in many stores as it is the speed at which they are expanding. Mercadona’s commitment to freshly ground coffee machines is very recent. People began to talk about her in March 2025when the company started its first tests in a handful of locations in the province of Valencia. “This is a laboratory,” the company then recognizedwho did not hide his desire to move the bet beyond Valencia. Its initial objective was that (if the idea worked) it would move to premises in the Community of Madrid after the summer. Now it is looking further, as demonstrated by its premiere in Bilbao. Is it really growing? Yes. At least if we take as reference the dossier of gastronomic services published by Mercadona itself on its website. It details that the company has continued to expand its network of coffee services, taking it to new cities. Not only that. For months Mercadona advertise the service with a specific section in which it states that it has black coffee, milk, coffee and cappuccinos. The cups can be consumed on the premises. The bet connects in part with Mercadona’s new store concept, the T9which seeks to adapt the premises to new consumer trends. Why is it important? Everything that revolves around Mercadona generates expectation. And it’s normal. Roig’s firm has managed to conquer a market share of about 30%which (beyond struggles within the retail) means that it is the chain that thousands of families trust when they need to fill their refrigerators. This growth has allowed it to become a heavyweight in the food sector, one that is no longer just viewed with suspicion by the rest of the supermarket chains. Its long shadow is also felt in the hospitality industry. Recently the consulting firm Worldpanel by Numerator published a report in which it states that Mercadona already has a value share in food and beverage consumption of 19.7%. What does that mean? That practically a fifth of everything we spend on food and drink ends up at Mercadona checkouts. The percentage is tremendous not only because of its reach. It is also the case when compared with other actors analyzed in the same study. The sum of bars, cafes and terraces is assigned a quota of around 11.2% and independent restaurants 8.6%. Conclusion: Mercadona is not only ending the idea of ​​cooking at home, it threatens to do the same with restaurants. Why is it important? Because regardless of how Mercadona is doing, its commitment reflects profound changes in the consumption habits of Spaniards. In fact, the chain’s success is largely explained by its aim when drawing up strategies. First, it opted for the short assortment model, filling its shelves with private label items. He then launched himself into the prepared food market, convinced that kitchens have the days counted. Now your new bet invites you to ask yourself another question: Will we continue going to cafes for a mid-morning coffee or will we have it at the supermarket? Images | Mercadona In Xataka | The war against Mercadona in Spanish retail is having a great beneficiary: the supermarket next to home

the supermarket next to the house

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With Mercadona gaining weight in the sector and the white label has become the unexpected ram of the market, more and more chains of retail They ask themselves the same question: How the hell do they grow in Spain? How to gain business share? The data of the sector suggest that more and more chains arrive at the same answer: leaving behind old formats and betting on the neighborhood ‘supers’. If the customer does not go to the store… it is the store that goes directly to the customer, either landing in their neighborhood or ‘sneaking’ in airports and stations. The question is whether it will work for them. Putting sixth. The data has revealed it theEconomist: If there are no surprises and the plans that the companies in the sector have been outlining are fulfilled, this year hundreds and hundreds of new supermarkets will open in the cities of Spain. Only Carrefour, Dia and Alcampo will add about 350 And to them are added the openings planned by chains such as Eroski, Consum, Unide, Lidl or Aldi, sometimes with direct management and other times through franchises. The most curious thing, however, is not the figure itself, but what it hides: a step back from the old hypermarkets in favor of the ‘super’ ones, smaller and closer to the customer. Going down to detail. The largest deployment will come from Carrefour. In the remainder of the decade, the French group wants to open 750 stores convenience stores in Spain (net openings), especially under the Carrefour Express brand. Most of them (450) will be deployed between the remainder of 2026, 2027 and 2028. At the end of last year Alcampo also announced its intention to undertake a “growth phase” with between 80 and 100 openings per year and the remodeling of 31 stores. Its commitment also involves the ‘hypermarket’ format, although when presenting its roadmap the company only mentioned one, under a franchise regime, in Toledo. The objective is similar to that of Grupo Dia, which has also set the objective of achieving the hundred openings throughout 2026. Are they the only ones? At all. They also have expansion plans for Eroski (which aspires to launch 75 new stores per year over the next three years) and Lidl, aldi and consumptionwhich will add up to dozens of openings. Only Aldi plans to launch 40 new supermarkets throughout 2026, which will allow it to further strengthen a commercial network that at the end of 2025 was around 500 establishments with a commercial area of ​​about 549,000 m2. Added to these new features are already announced by other chains that will probably be announced by other firms over the coming weeks and months. Mercadona, without going any further, has not yet presented its results. Beyond the numbers. The opening figures are interesting, but even more so is the reading they leave: the chains are not opening just any type of store. Its commitment focuses above all on local stores located in urban centers, prioritizing them over larger spaces in the suburbs. In other words, the supermarket is strengthened and the ‘hyper’ loses weight, a format that has more than five decades present in the Spanish market and achieved considerable success both socially and in sales volume. In the doldrums. Right now it is estimated that in Spain there are around 500 hypermarketsa wide network that has been losing strength over the years in favor of the ‘super’ format, which has more than 48,200 establishments. According to data from Worldpanel by Numerator, in 2025 the hyper market share was 11.3%. A triple bad data. Not only does it show a year-on-year drop of 0.8%, but it is also far from the 30% it reached in the 1990s. The figure is also well below the super market share, which is around 67%. The example of Carrefour. Probably the company that best reflects the change in trend is Carrefour. The French signature was a pioneer in the commitment to hypermarkets in Spain (one opened in El Prat de Llobregat in the 70s), but in recent years its commitment has largely pivoted towards another format: that of small stores and even operated by franchisees. “The convenience format gives us an extraordinary opportunity to grow,” recently recognized Alexandre Bompard, CEO of the company. Its commitment is not only to extend its convenience ‘super’ network. It wants to reach more places, gaining presence for example in airports and train stations. As for the hypers, consider giving them a spin, dedicating up to 10% from the drugstore space, pets… products beyond food. What about the ‘hypers’? That we Spaniards seem less and less dice to make our purchases in these commercial spaces, characterized by their large size, wide range and location. At least that is what indicators such as those published by Woldpanel by Numerator suggest, which reflects a gradual loss of share. There is who is speaking now of the “hyper crisis”. That decrease is perhaps one of the reasons which explain that Carrefour have seen burdened his market sharenext to other chains with a similar approach. The French firm boasts of being “absolute leader” in the hypermarket network in Spain. Of the 1,500 establishments that manages, 200 respond to that concept. Images | Eroski Group (Flickr) and Carrefour Via | theEconomist In Xataka | We knew that Mercadona was making gold from its suppliers. Now we know the million-dollar toll that this entails.

Mercadona’s future looks less like that of a supermarket and more like that of a takeaway restaurant

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Juan Roig, founder of Mercadona, is clear that in 2050 there will be no kitchens. Is an affirmation who, in addition to being daring, is, of course, interested. Especially taking into account that the Valencian company has managed to dominate the niche of distribution of prepared dishes with an iron fist, where its market share is 51.2%. The path is clear for Mercadona’s future: betting on saying goodbye to cooking at home. Store 9. Mercadona has launched its new logistics project with the name “Tienda 9”, which is the successor to the previous “Tienda 8”. Like Roig himself claimed“We have not been very original (with the name).” With an investment of 3.7 billion euros, the chain will transform its 1,600 centers in Spain and Portugal and will do so with a new criterion. After optimizing space and energy efficiency with the previous modelthe goal now is to completely redesign the user experience and internal workflow. Sort by temperature. The great revolution is not aesthetic, but structural. Mercadona abandons the “business” organization (greengrocer, butcher, etc.) to move to process management. In practice, this means that the supermarket will be sorted according to the storage temperature of the products. Thus, frozen vegetables will no longer be next to fresh fruits, but with the rest of the sub-zero products to optimize the cold chain and the speed of purchase. Goodbye, Mr. fruit seller. “Store 9” also marks the end of traditional counters. Here Mercadona is committed to total self-service: meats and fish They will be presented exclusively on trays. Handling, cutting and packaging are moved to central or internal workshopswhich will free up the space facing the public to convert it into more agile linear free-service areas. If you want to talk to the fruit seller or the butcher, forget it. Here everything is designed for minimal human interaction and of course, to optimize (further) margins. More efficient, no doubt, but also dangerously lonely. Six strategic areas. In this new design of each store there will be six different areas. The core will be refrigerated, frozen and trays, which will be next to each other to facilitate logistics. To this will be added areas of products at room temperature, a fruit and vegetable section that will gain square meters and of course, the big star: the prepared food area, which will no longer look like that, but something else. dark kitchenbut in pretty. The success of prepared dishes is so overwhelming at Mercadona that strengthening this section is a key component of this new “Store 9” logistics project. The supermarket looks less and less like a supermarket and more and more like a restaurant in which there are no tables, only take-out food. He controversial concept of ghost kitchens (dark kitchen) that experienced overwhelming success and an equally devastating fall is now recovering but in an “official” way and with the support of the chain that is converting it into an everyday occurrence. It is already known: Now we buy time, not food. Ready to eat. This strategy responds to a clear trend: people are excited about ready-to-eat meals. This section already has a turnover of more than 1,000 million euros and is growing at a rate of 20% annually. Mercadona wants to promote this section, so not only will expand the product rangebut will install more tables and chairs in the establishments. The “super” will come dangerously close to the traditional restaurant, thus competing with a sector that was already competitive. The revolution made a supermarket. The evolution of prepared meals at Mercadona is worthy of studying in MBAs. The chain conceived its table and chair areas as a service aimed at passing customers or workers from nearby offices. However, the aggressive pricing policy—bars and restaurants cannot compete—has transformed these corners into improvised soup kitchens and neighborhood meeting points. Depending on the location, there is a certain friction: what for some is a vital savings solution, for the customer looking for quick and aseptic purchases acts as a deterrent: the supermarket is no longer as efficient for them. More efficiency than ever. This transformation will also bring improvements in energy efficiency. According to Mercadona’s estimates, this strategy will allow an additional saving of 10% in energy and 40% in water compared to the previous model, which in fact It was already an example of efficiency. Each store will have a technical update of its machine room, although at the moment it does not seem that they are going to offer self-checkouts: Roig’s model continues to prioritize the passage through an attended checkout, maintaining – there – the human factor at the last point of contact of an increasingly automated store. Image | Flikr (Informative Board), Wikimedia Commons (Carlos) In Xataka | Mercadona and the rest of the supermarkets have realized something worrying: they spend a million dollars on printing paper

Mercadona has become the great supermarket in Spain. Now it is becoming your big restaurant

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On Saturday, at the gym door, I heard a group of friends talking about going out to eat. The debate ended when one of them proposed going to Mercadona and buying some hamburgers in the section ‘Ready to Eat’. From then on the talk went from focusing on ‘where to buy’ to ‘where to eat’: in the supermarket itself, on the beach (advantages of living in Galicia) or in a house. It could be a simple anecdote, if it weren’t for the fact that that conversation between colleagues at the exit of a gym hides something else: Mercadona is becoming the great food supplier from Spain. And it is so to such an extent that it no longer only rivals the rest of the retailbut with the bars, whose pulse is doubling. A percentage: 19.7%. A few weeks ago the consulting firm Worldpanel by Numerator (formerly Kantar) published a report which helps to understand the enormous weight that Mercadona has achieved, not only in the retail homeland, but in the food sector in general: the Valencian chain accounts for a 19.7% share of value in food and beverage consumption. That means it receives almost 20% of what we spend on food and drink, both inside and outside the home. Company-Collective Value share in food and drink consumption Mercadona 19.7% Bar+Cafeteria+Terraces 11.2% Independent Restaurants 8.6% T. Carrefour 6% Lidl 5.1% Quick Service Restaurant 3.4% G. Eroski 3.1% DAY 2.8% consumption 2.7% Alcampo 2% ALDI 1.4% Full-Service Restaurant 0.9% Why is it important? Because that percentage shows that Mercadona already sells as much or more food than traditional hospitality, at least in terms of value. The Worldpanel by Numerator report shows that bars, cafes and terraces account for a value share in food and beverages of around 11.2% and independent restaurants another 8.6%. Together they add up to 19.8%. That last percentage surpasses Mercadona by only one tenth. The list is completed by Carrefour, which accounts for 6%, Lidl (5.1%), the concept of Quick Service Restaurant (3.4%), G. Eroski (3.1%), DIA (2.8%) and Consum (2.7%). A half surprise. That Mercadona accounts for 19.7% of what we Spaniards spend on food is striking, but in reality it is hardly surprising. The data is explained by two trends that seem to move in opposite directions. The first is that we eat more and more at home. According to The Economistspending on food outside the home fell 2.2% last year. Domestic consumption increased, however, by half a point, 0.6%. Mercadona has been able to anticipate this scenario and has been betting heavily on its ‘Ready to Eat’ section since 2018, a section in which it offers already prepared dishes, from starters to sandwiches, stews, paella, lentils, meatballs, pasta… In December the chain had implemented the service in more than 1,110 stores. Nothing surprising if you take into account that Juan Roig, the owner of the company, assures that kitchens will eventually disappear from homes. Expanding your footprint. Mercadona is not only gaining strength as a competitor to the traditional hospitality industry (a sector that faces its own internal challenges, such as the menu of the day crisis), it also does so within the sector of retail. The Valencian chain has been leading it for some time, but that has not prevented it from continuing to expand its domain. The Worldpanel report also reflects that in 2025 the company consolidated its position in food distribution, increasing its share in 0.6 percentage points until they monopolize 27% of the entire ‘pie’. Go for the baskets. Carrefour is followed in the ranking, with a share of 9%, although the French firm experienced a decline of 0.7 percentage points, Lidl (6.9%), Grupo Eroski (4.3%), Dia (3.8%), Consum (3.6%), Alcampo (2.8%) and Aldi (2%). One of the keys that has allowed Mercadona to reinforce its leadership is the increase in the so-called “large baskets”, that is, purchases of the week or month, which concentrate household spending on its shelves. In 2025, Roig’s company reached a 42% share in this type of operations, 0.9% more than in 2024. Another of its advantages is the white label push in the sector of retail and the growing weight of “short assortment chains”, those with a limited supply and very focused on prices. Images | Wikipedia and K8 (Unsplash) In Xataka | We knew that Mercadona was making gold from its suppliers. Now we know the million-dollar toll that this entails.

The supermarket sector has been highly contested in Spain for years. Now it is reflected in networks with the super hooligans

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That the supermarket sector is disputed highly disputed In Spain it is nothing new. Especially since Mercadona undertook a unstoppable conquest which has allowed it (thanks to its white brands and prepared dishes) to monopolize almost 30% of the marketat least in terms of value. What is new is that this rivalry between chains is encouraging a phenomenon as curious as chanante in networks: a pulse between ‘hoolingans supermarket’. Same as the ultras who have been going to football stadiums for decades, only in this case the phenomenon is cooked up on networks (X, Instagram or TikTok), through memes and focused on the main store chains. The protagonists here are not Real Madrid, Barça or Atlético, but Mercadona, Lidl, Aldi or Dia. Goodbye Barça, hello Bonpreu Click on the image to go to the tweet. Before getting into the matter, I propose a game. Enter TikTok, type the hashtag #hooligans and take a look at the search results. You will see that there are videos of ‘conventional’ ultras (what anyone would expect to find in a search like this) and others less orthodox that show images of people with balaclavas, scarves, flags and banners that do not read the names of football clubs, but of that store where you buy yogurt and bread. That is, nothing from Real Madrid, Barça, Atlético, Manchester United, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain or any other sports club. What they wave are flags that read Mercadona, Eroski, Aldi or Hipercor. In fact, it is their corporate colors that predominate in the scarves and flares. The phenomenon is so curious that a few days ago the @MariaMayrit account dedicated it an interesting thread in X, where he baptized it as “supermarket ultras.” Click on the image to go to the tweet. Click on the image to go to the tweet. What differentiates them from traditional hooligans? To begin with, the focus of attention It goes from sports to supermarket chains, but that is just one of its peculiarities. Another (fundamental) is that the ‘super ultras’ are a phenomenon that is concentrated on social networks and memesphere. There is no known group of fans of Mercadona, Alcampo, Hipercor or Covirán (to name four chains) that remain in the parking lots of shopping centers to confront each other. Your territory It is another: that of the meme, virality, montages and images generated with artificial intelligence. That does not mean that the phenomenon of ‘super hooligans’ is a curiosity limited to networks, a passing fad fueled by AI. In addition to videos and montages, there are also accounts focused on that content. In the end it is linked to something much more important: the weight that the large chains in the sector retail are acquiring in our daily lives as we homes change. The best example probably Mercadona leaves itwhich no longer aspires only to be the place where we buy food to fill the refrigerator, but rather our reference in general food, the place where they cook for you and you even sit down to eat. The ultras memes confirm something else: the roots that some brands, such as Mercadona, FGadis, HiperDino, Alimerka or Bonpreu, have achieved in certain communities. In fact, the sector itself manages studies that show that the super regionals are supporting the push of the giants of the industry. The reason: their commitment to certain products, but also the value of closeness to identity, precisely what is exploited (with a certain dose of humor) by the memes that circulate these days on the networks about ‘supermarket ultras’. Images | x 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”

Three chains are devouring the supermarket business in Spain year after year: Mercadona, Lidl and Aldi

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From ugly duckling to goose that lays the golden eggs. The white label revolution seems to find no ceiling in the retail Spanish. Until not so long ago, the brands associated with supermarkets carried a stigma in Spain compared to items from manufacturer brands clearly recognized by customers. It was not even strange for words like “Estandado” to be used in a pejorative way. Buying white was synonymous with buying ‘poor quality’‘option B’. Not anymore. Spanish families are increasingly betting on white label. And that is making gold for some of the country’s big chains. What has happened? That the white label is experiencing his particular revolution in it retail Spanish. And that is still striking if you take into account that until not so long ago, firms like Hacendado or Auchan carried a certain stigma compared to their competitors, the brands associated with manufacturers. It’s nothing new. For a long time we have been confirming how the white label is driving some chains of “short assortment”supermarkets that are committed to offering customers a limited selection of items. That is, instead of including a dozen different brands of cookies (or other items) on their shelves, they offer only two or one, among which they include their own brand. Chain Market share in value Difference (PP) compared to the 2024 quota Mercadona 37.0% 0.9 Carrefour Group 12.3% -0.2 Lidl 8.0% 0.5 Day Group 4.7% 0.1 Consum Group 4.5% 0.0 Eroski Group 4.4% -0.1 Alcampo Group 3.6% -0.3 aldi 2.5% 0.4 Bon Preu Group 2.4% 0.0 You save 23% 0.1 Gadis Group 1.7% 0.0 Magnifying glass 1.1% -0.1 El Corte Inglés Group 1.0% -0.2 dinosol 0.9% 0.0 Froiz 0.8% 0.0 Alimerka 0.8% 0.0 Rest of Modern distribution 12.0% -1.1 Why is it news? Because the latest data from 2025 reveal that this strategy is driving some brands to catapult them to unprecedented market shares. This is suggested by at least one recent report from Algori on consumption prepared with data from the first ten months of the year. The study shows that at the end of October the three chains that were gaining the greatest market share (in terms of value) in Spain were Mercadona (0.9 percentage points), Lidl (0.5 pp) and Aldi (0.4). Between the three, they also held a market share of 47.5%, a share clearly led by Juan Roig’s company, which alone holds 37%. DIA and Ahorramás are also growing, while others like Carrefour, Alcampo or Eroski are stagnating or decreasing. Chain % of white label sales 2023 % of white label sales 2024 % of white label sales 2025 Lidl 79.7% 81.9% 80.7% Mercadona 72.9% 74.5% 77.8% aldi 68.8% 69.1% 74.5% Day 54.2% 56.3% 65.1% consumption 33% 35.9% 37.4% Carrefour 29.3% 31.4% 33.3% Eroski 25.6% 28.4% 31.2% Alcampo 21.5% 24.3% 23.8% Why is it important? Because Mercadona, Lidl and Aldi are not just any chains. They are precisely the ones that give the greatest prominence to their own brands. At least according to another recent study from Worldpannel by Numerator, which shows that if we talk about the weight of private labels in total sales, Lidl heads the list with 80.7%, followed by Mercadona (77.8%) and Aldi (74.5%). In summary: the chains that gained the greatest market share in 2025 were the ones that most clearly opted for their own products, a strategy that often arrives backed by aggressive price differentiation. elEconomista.es precise Furthermore, Mercadona, Lidl and Aldi have increased their market shares to record figures. Their 47.5% share is more than two percentage points higher than last year, when they accounted for a total of 45.2% of the market. Everything, they explain from Algori, while the entire sector experiences growth both in terms of volume and value. And what are the forecasts? The sector is optimistic. AECOC, the consumer association, states in one of its latest reports that 44% of companies expect to close 2025 with growth data above 5%. 28% expect to increase their activity, although to a lesser extent, and 11% expect to fall. They are led by Lidl and especially Mercadona, which has been expanding its market share until it approaches or even surpasses 30% thanks to a strategy based on white label, territorial dispersion and ready-made foods. Images | Wikipedia and Vitaly Gariev (Unsplash) In Xataka | Mercadona has found a vein to grow beyond its white label and prepared food: tourism

In the United States you can buy a gun in a supermarket, but a Roscón de Reyes with a surprise inside is illegal

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In the Western collective imagination there is a preconceived idea: that in the United States you can buy anything. And of course, that image from the series and movies of a character buying a gun in a grocery store without much problem (later we will see that in practice this reality has a lot of fine print) and the hodgepodge of different slogans such as “The country of opportunities” or “the land of the free” do not help to think otherwise. However, if you are in the United States these days and the homesickness hits you so hard that you want a roscón de Reyes, you are going to be in for a surprise: although you can buy this popular sweet in some stores, it has lost a good part of the magic of the true ritual of eating a roscón: that someone randomly (more or less, we do not judge your expertise when moving figurines with the knife that splits) touches the figurine. Because although in the United States you can find the “King Cake”, most stores don’t take the risk and put the figurine aside, so that you can put it inside. They do it to comply with the law and avoid fines since, scrupulously speaking, the roscón de Reyes as it is known in Spain is illegal. There are roscones and roscones. First of all, the traditional roscón de Reyes that is consumed in Spain is neither the only one that exists nor is it only consumed here: France and Portugal also have their respective galette des rois with puff pastry or Gâteau des Roiswith almond cream and a figure. In Portugal there is the Bolo Rei with candied fruits and dried fruits. This European celebration was exported to America, adapting with other flavors and customs of each region. Thus, there are the Roscas de Reyes from Mexico, Colombia and Guatemala and there are also in the United States in the form of King Cakea popular candy in Louisiana for the Mardi Gras and also in Quebec, which has its own shades and glazes. In the case of the King Cake, the figurine in question was a baby that was once baked inside. In the past they were made of porcelain (“Frozen Charlotte”), but then they became plastic and generally, to stand outsideleaving the consumer the responsibility of hiding it inside before serving it, so there are those who who is disappointed. But it is better for a consumer to be disappointed than to face a fine or lawsuits. What the law says. The regulations that apply in this case are the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Law (Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act or FD&C Act) in force since 1938. The section that interests us for this matter is in section 402where it details that “confectionery that is partially or completely embedded with any non-nutritive object is adulterated, unless the FDA has issued a regulation that recognizes that the non-nutritive object has practical functional value to the confectionery product and would not render it harmful or dangerous to health.” The most famous example is Kinder eggs. And spoiler: neither the bean nor the roscón figurine is considered to have any practical functional value. Worse than fines are lawsuits. The fine in question for disobeying the law and integrating the figurine into the roscón is moderately low (to give us an idea, that of smuggled Kinder eggs it’s 2,500 dollars), that is why over the years there have been bakeries that have dared to challenge the law, arguing that culturally, whoever buys a Three Kings roscón, you already know that there are objects inside. However, possible cases of suffocation or injuries such as breaking a tooth that lead to lawsuits can be much more expensive. So there are those who deliver the roscón alone, others who place a large warning label and the figure in a separate bag and in plain sightin places like in the center of the cake or sitting on it. This is the most common practice in industrial bakeries or supermarket chains such as Walmart. It is easier to buy a gun than a roscón with a figurine inside. Returning to the purchase of weapons from the intro, sales in physical stores are centralized in gun stores and large stores with a sports and outdoor section. In the case of Walmartthey have stopped marketing pistols and military rifles to focus on hunting rifles and shotguns and in any case, the process is the same: with a separate counter, specialized personnel, you must be 21 years old and you have to fill out the federal form 4473 accompanied by your identification and they will accompany you to the door to make sure that you do not take it out of the box there. In Xataka | There is an eternal struggle between supporters of the roscón with cream and without cream. This is what science says about it In Xataka | The pastry chef’s wet dream (and the customer’s nightmare) has come true: a roscón filled with cream… without cream Cover | Photo of Nejc Soklič in Unsplash and DAP

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

There is a canary in the mine that is reminiscent of the subprime crisis: people in the US paying in installments for their supermarket purchases

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The United States faces a disturbing financial phenomenon that is beginning to spread throughout Europe: 91.5 million people finance their purchases with interest-free deferred payment services, and 25% of them use them for something as basic as filling the refrigerator. Defaults continue to grow: 34% in 2023 42% this year. The alarm does not come from pessimistic analysts, but fromNigel Morris, co-founder of Capital One and investor in Klarna. Someone who built an empire by understanding exactly how much financial stress the average American can endure before going bankrupt. Why is it important. In addition to the data itself, because the majority of these loans do not appear in traditional credit histories. Regulators call it “phantom debt.” A bank may consider someone who is drowning on five simultaneous microloans between Klarna, Affirm and PayPal solvent. The system flies blind. Morris sums it up: “If I’m a BNPL provider and I don’t look at credit agency data, I’m completely unaware that someone may have taken out ten of these loans last week.” And that is exactly what is happening. Between the lines. BNPL dangerously replicates pre-2008 logic: debt concentrated in vulnerable borrowers, packaged and sold to investors who believe they understand the risk. Elliott Advisors bought Klarna’s UK portfolio for $39 billion. KKR agreed to acquire up to $44 billion in BNPL debt from PayPal. The difference with the crisis subprime is that much of that debt remains invisible to the financial system. In Xataka The secret business behind your interest-free purchases: this is how El Corte Inglés turns your installments into financial gold The contrast. The Biden Administration attempted to regulate BNPL like credit cards. Trump backed down in May after pressure from the industry, revoking 67 rules. Days later, the Financial Protection Bureau published a surprisingly optimistic report: customers repaid their loans 98% of the time. The discrepancy with the 42% real delinquency rate reveals the problem: no one really knows what happens when someone manages several simultaneous accounts. Yes, but. By not reporting to the credit agencies, these companies prevent their customers from building a history to access cheaper credit. “Some companies don’t want that to happen because they don’t want the consumer to graduate,” Morris acknowledges. It’s part of the business model: keeping users trapped. And Europe is not immune. Klarna has been operating as a licensed bank since 2017 and has expanded its model to large Spanish shopping areas. The integration with Apple Pay and Google Pay makes it as simple as bringing your mobile phone closer to the dataphone. What started as a niche payment option is becoming integrated financial infrastructure. {“videoId”:”x9b3a8a”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”IF YOU SHARE A TENTH OF THE CHRISTMAS LOTTERY you have to KNOW THIS… 😓 #shorts”, “tag”:”loteria”, “duration”:”50″} turning point. Morris does not predict a collapse, but vigilance is urgently needed. In the United States, signs are accumulating: rising unemployment, end of student loan moratoriums, accelerated deregulation… The combination creates conditions where problems could escalate quickly. And when consumer debt becomes unsustainable, the pain spreads. Also even the investors who financed this ecosystem. In Xataka |The data that revives the ghosts of Spain and the real estate bubble: €8,000 of average debt for each tenant Featured image | appshunter.io (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news There is a canary in the mine that is reminiscent of the subprime crisis: people in the US paying in installments for their supermarket purchases was originally published in Xataka by Javier Lacort .

A loaf of bread costs one euro in the supermarket. For the same price Europe just bought 18 fighter jets

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A loaf of bread from a supermarket or basic bakery usually around the euro in many cities. An automatic coffee machine in stations, hospitals or universities is also found at that price (okay, not always). In supermarkets, seasonal fruits such as a large apple, a banana or a loose piece of fruit can be around the amount. Even a single bus ticket in some cities is still close to the euro. What we were never going to imagine is that what a loaf of bread costs, 18 fighter jets cost. A strategic transfer. The transfer of 18 F-16 fighters from the Netherlands to Romania for the symbolic price of one euro It is, on the surface, an administrative gesture, but in practice it constitutes a strategic move with direct implications for the European security architecture and for the war in Ukraine. The formalized operation the full incorporation of these devices to the European F-16 Training Center (EFTC), installed at Fetești Air Base 86, in the southeast of Romania, and whose function is train Romanian and Ukrainian pilots in the management of the F-16 under interoperable NATO standards. Further. The presence of these aircraft on Romanian territory no longer depends on Dutch ownership, which allows expand and secure training places, adjust training rhythms to Allied needs and consolidate Romania as a key country on the eastern flank, in a context marked by Russian pressure in the Black Sea and on the border with Ukraine. Romania as a hub. The EFTC has become a space where instructors, pilots and technical personnel from multiple NATO countries and Ukraine work under homogeneous methodsensuring that new F-16 operators not only learn to fly the device, but also to integrate it into air defense doctrines, airspace control and combined operations. The center benefits from a tripartite structure: Romania provides the base, infrastructure and logistical support; The Netherlands provided the aircraft, and Lockheed Martin, as manufacturer, supplies instructors and advanced maintenance. Implications in war. This combination facilitates training of ukrainian pilots in an environment that reproduces real mission patterns and also guarantees constant course rotation without depending on US airspace or dispersed structures. The fact that these F-16s are European AM/BM standard models, the same ones that Ukraine has begun to receive from various allies, allows for immediate continuity: what is learned in Romania is translated without transition to combat operation. Relevance for Ukraine. The nation has received commitments to deliver dozens of F-16s from from Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Belgiumand its arrival has marked a slow but cumulative turning point in the modernization of its air force, until now dominated by MiG-29 and Su-27 Soviet design. The pilots trained in Romania (and in parallel in the United States) are already operating on defensive missions against Russian attacks with missiles and drones, and the value of the F-16 depends on both its number and the degree of training and the ability to sustain its maintenance and doctrine. In that sense, the EFTC is a structural piece, since it guarantees not only initial learning, but continuous trainingthe accumulation of Ukrainian instructors and the doctrinal integration with allies who have already dominated the apparatus for decades. Furthermore, the future possibility of these same aircraft transferred to Romania ending up in Ukraine is not ruled out, especially as Romania moves towards adoption of the F-35planned for after 2030. Implications. Plus: The strengthening of the EFTC reflects a broader shift in European defense: The progressive reduction in the number of F-16 operators in Western Europe, replaced by the F-35, has left room to reorient these aircraft to training, interoperability and reinforcement functions on the eastern flank. Romania, together with Bulgaria and Slovakia, is part of the group of new F-16 operatorsbecoming recipients of capabilities previously concentrated in northern and western countries. This geographical shift of air capabilities towards the east is significant because it accompanies the shift from the center of gravity strategic of NATO after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Training, maintenance, doctrine and response capabilities are now concentrated in territories closer to the possible confrontation. Other transfers. The symbolic sale of weapons between allies has relevant precedents that show how the financial price can be irrelevant compared to the strategic objective. The best known case is the transfer of 22 fighters MiG-29 from Germany to Poland in 2002 for one euro per unit, an operation that allowed Polish air capacity to be maintained while Berlin advanced in its modernization and that, years later, facilitated the shipment of those same devices to Ukraine. Another example is the transfer of former Hamilton class coast guard cutters by the United States to the Philippines. for a dollarwithin the program Excess Defense Articlesstrengthening Philippine naval capabilities in the South China Sea without a prohibitive cost. Added to this is the howitzer transfer self-propelled M109L from Italian arsenals to Ukraine, also under symbolic conditions, when the priority was no longer their accounting value, but rather putting proven, repairable and compatible systems with available ammunition in the hands of the Ukrainian army. At one euro. The sale for one euro It is not an isolated symbolic gesture, but the formalization of a capacity transfer process that consolidates Romania as NATO strategic node in air training and preparation, reinforces the technical base of the Ukrainian air force in transition, and reflects the structural readjustment of European defense to the east. He EFTC It provides not only pilots, but also doctrine, interoperability and operational continuity at a time when the stability of the eastern flank depends both on the number of aircraft and the quality and consistency of those who operate them. Image | US Air Force, Dutch Ministry of Defense, Romanian Ministry of Defense In Xataka | A very dangerous idea is gaining strength in the corridors of Europe: paying Russia in kind In Xataka | The war in Ukraine has triggered delays and canceled flights. And Europe has the solution: a wall of drones

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