Today I am looking at the best things for Brits to buy at Carrefour.*
Carrefour
I'm talking about the big out of town 'planet' ones here, not so much the 'market' ones, although the smaller ones do have their uses. Unfortunately for us our nearest big Carrefour has just closed down, about a year after it opened in it's own shopping centre no less, no doubt aided by it's high prices, close proximity to every other single supermarket and it's lack of staff, so we have to trek up to Tarragona to get the good stuff.
Firstly, Carrefour is the only supermarket I am aware of that has a section dedicated to foreign food stuffs. Here you can buy ludicrously overpriced Robinson's squash, mince pies for about €1 a chuck, and other things that you can really do without. However, it does sell some useful store cupboard items such as Bisto gravy granules, Piccalilli and Branston pickle, marmite, crunchy peanut butter and if you shuffle down to the Asian bit you can buy a couple of different curry pastes, ideal if like me you like your spicy food. Carrefour is also one of the most reliable places to pick up fresh coriander, although not in high summer.
Cheesewise, you can get mature, extra mature, and super bloody-take-your-mouth-off mature cheddar, and some rather tame and silly priced Wensleydale with cranberry. You can pick up a packet of Jacobs cream crackers to go with your cheese! It also sells Tetley tea in 160 bag boxes at the cheapest price I've seen. Other gems I've found in the freezer section include pork pies, cornish pasties, chicken pies and cumberland sausages, and not at outrageous prices either.
Other items of note, different (read larger) selection of fruit and veg with some organic varieties as well. It's also one of the few places you can buy mushrooms other than buttons or those awful elephant ears things. It also sells blueberries, raspberries and blackberries, but be prepared to pay a pretty
The best thing about the Planet Carrefours is that they are a shopping experience in themselves. The one in Tarragona has a hairdressers in the middle of the store and a sushi bar. It also has, hands down, the best choice in wines, even being so brave as to actually stock a few bottles that aren't Spanish!
In the meat section you can often find things that are a bit different to the normal cuts of meat. Last Christmas we found venison and wild boar although, sadly for us they had been marinated in that God awful BBQ stuff so they both tasted pretty disgusting to us. However, you can buy ostrich meat, and if you're missing your Tesco's burgers, even the smaller Carrefour stores sell horsemeat steaks and burgers. Carrefour is our default place to buy the Christmas turkey.
The fish counter tends to be very good in both the smaller and larger stores with a wide range of fresh fish and seafood to choose from. Frozen scallops are available around Christmas.
If you have a baby, Carrefour is the only place I've seen nappy sacks for sale.
The main downside to Carrefour is undoubtedly the prices, even taking into account the extra wine that we always seem to buy when we're in there, my shopping trolley total can be almost double that of any other supermarket. It is, however, finally cottoning on to the fact there is a credit crisis and has recently launched a budget range of essential items. It also does money off vouchers, which are great if you can remember to use them in time and if you spend over €50 and have a Carrefour loyalty card you can choice between a free six pack of milk or a 12 pack of Estrella beer.
*This is a general overview of the products stocked at Carrefour and there may be regional differences.
