Shopping in Spain

Whether you're a retail therapy enthusiast or not, shopping in Spain can be great fun.

Naturally there is a great selection of large departmental stores in the major towns and cities, but these aside, many Spanish shops tend to be small, family run businesses where the staff will go out of their way to help you. If you're looking for bargains (and who isn't?), Spanish leather goods and ceramics are of particularly good quality and value for money.

Opening hours

While food shops such as bakers are usually open earlier, morning opening for most other small stores can be anything between 08:30 and 10:00 until 13:00 or 14:00 After that, the afternoon siesta tends to kick in, especially in the hotter parts of southern Spain, with business normally resuming for a few hours at around 17:00. Virtually all rural small shops will be closed on Saturday afternoons and all day Sunday, although in busy tourist areas you may find weekend trading hours are greatly extended.

Department stores, hypermarkets, and a large number of supermarkets ignore the siesta and are open without a break at all until late evening Monday to Saturday. Some department stores open one Sunday a month, generally the first one.

Markets (Mercados)

Virtually every town and village in Spain has its own weekly food market where the freshest of local produce goes on sale. In the cities especially there are also indoor markets and permanent street markets. Here, and also in the travelling markets that move from area to area and are liable to pop up at any time, you will find a huge variety of goods ranging from clothes, jewellery and electrical goods, right through to antiques and traditional crafts. Don’t forget to barter – it’s expected, and it’s hard to beat the satisfaction of securing a genuine bargain. Take a close look at those famous brand names though, fakes are not uncommon.