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[title]The days of shoppers cramming into supermarkets, or even not practising the best social distancing while purchasing groceries that we've witnessed over the last month in Barcelona and Catalonia, are coming to an end. Further measures have been taken by supermarkets to help ensure the continued health and safety of their customers as well as their employees. These come now in the form of temporarily changed opening hours, and we've gathered the timetables to share with you to help you better prepare for your outings to do food shopping.
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- Mercadona is one of the biggest supermarket chains in all of Catalonia. The popular shop will keep its regular opening time of 9am but close two hours earlier than usual, at 7pm. In some communities and shopping centres this could be further reduced. They also suspend their delivery service except in Valencia and Barcelona.
- Carrefour is giving priority to its online shopping and telephone orders. Customers who are over 65 years old also have preference in the supermarket from 9am to 10am, and in their online purchases. Otherwise Carrefour is open from 9am to 9pm.
- Lidl, another big supermarket chain, is open from 9am to 8pm. They ask their customers to comply with the shopping guidelines they’ve established which you can find on their website.
- El Corte Inglés has closed all its department stores, while its supermarkets remain open. Also still available are the chain’s online orders and home delivery. With the online orders you can choose the day and time you want to go and pick up your shopping. You’ll find parking areas in line with current safety measures available for picking up your orders. The opening hours of the supermarkets are from 10am to 8pm.
- Aldi shortens its usual timetable to one that is open from 9am to 7pm. Those Aldi shops that are open on Sundays in Catalonia reduce their hours to open from 9am to 2pm and ask that customers respect the rules established for shopping in their establishments.
- Caprabo, the giant of supermarket chains in Catalonia, has established its opening hours as 9am to 8pm, but with some changes to its service. For one thing, the hour from 9am to 10am is when certain customers get preference over others. Included are those over 65 years old, those who are pregnant, and anyone with reduced mobility. Starting from 10am, health-care workers get priority over other shoppers. What’s more, Capbrabocasa, the supermarket’s online shopping platform, is accessible 24 hours a day.
- Condis has adopted similar measures, with new hours set as from 10am to 7pm in shops normally open all day, and those that break up the day are open from 10am to 2pm and again from 5pm to 7pm. Condis is open from 9am to 10am exclusively for its clients aged 65 and older.
- Consum, has decided to go with a bit more restricted measures. They’ve established a limit of six items of the same item per person per day in order to prevent overshopping. Their temporary timetable is from 10am to 8pm.
- Alcampo sets up two different timetables in its shops. Its ‘hipermercados’ are open until 9pm except on Sundays when they close at 8pm. Their supermarkets close at 8.30pm and the website is set up to give improved service to their online customers.
- Keisy is a smaller chain that’s been growing in recent years. You’ll find their shops open from 9am to 10am exclusively for their patrons of 65 years and older. Everyone else is welcome to shop from 10am to 8pm. Finally, their home delivery service is temporarily unavailable.
- Sorli has taken similar measures to Keisy, but their home delivery service is still available for the elderly, pregnant women, and customers with reduced mobility. Shops that usually don’t close during the day are open from 10am to 8pm, and those that do take a break have the opening hours of 10am to 2pm and then from 5pm to 8pm.
- Bonpreu is open from 9am to 3pm and again from 4pm to 8pm, and its online shopping service is still available in any areas that already had access to it.