Household Shopping Catalogs

As you, we have been new owners living abroad who acquired a property in Barcelona. Whether your place has been purchased or not with furniture, it is not always easy to feel at home right away. You may need essential items to eat, bath or sleep. You may also prefer a new decoration, a new mattress, couch, etc... to feel in your own clean home.

However, it is not always simple to manage all these purchases in the few days that you may have available to enjoy the city. From our own experience, we predict that you will waste a lot of time identifying and visiting the shopping centres and stores. You will soon find that it is very different from what you are familiar with :

- Barcelona has little large stores in the centre, you must often travel many subway stations to reach larger providers

- Barcelona is organized in Barrios and in each you will find a limited choice of small old fashion stores and Chinese bric-a-brac. However, prices are usually in reason with the large international brands

- Some large store may be expected for their international distribution. But you will find out that either it is not present in Spain (eg Castorama), the name has been modified (eg. Auchan becomes logically Al Campo), they are reserved to professionals (eg Manau bricolaje) or they are too far from town to be reached unless you have a personal vehicle

- Most supermarkets sell only local food. If you seek specific cooking elements (eg French or Italian wines), you must either visit specialized boutique which are generally overpriced or go to few larger brands who may have your products.

- Finally, have you thought how you will transport your shopping...

Because we have faced a couple of years looking ourselves for our needs, in spite of many helpful and kind assistance from Catalans, we would like to stress that this may represent a long and time-consuming efforts taken from your long awaited leisure stay.

So you may want to have a first look at the catalogs from these prominent chains, or download them to read on your way in the plane. We hope this will help your installation and imagining your Mediterranean home.