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Date Published: 29/09/2026

Your shopping basket has gone up nearly 40% in five years and coffee has more than doubled

New OCU report reveals which supermarkets are cheapest, and how much your postcode could be costing you

If your weekly shop feels like it costs more than it used to, you're not imagining it. A new report from Spain's Organisation of Consumers and Users (OCU) has found that the average shopping basket has become 39.5% more expensive since 2021, and some everyday items have more than doubled in price.

Coffee tops the list with a 142% rise, while medium and large eggs are up 135% and 123% respectively. Milk chocolate has climbed 101%. Fresh produce hasn't escaped either, with fish prices up 8.6%, ahead of meat at 3.7% and fruit and vegetables at 3.5%.

The report is based on more than 101,000 prices collected from 690 shops, including major online supermarkets, covering a basket of 244 products across 80 categories in 189 cities. Over the past year alone, prices rose by 1.8%, a touch slower than expected, though the OCU notes that many prices simply haven't come back down since the sharper rises of recent years. By 2026, 61.8% of basket items had gone up in price. Tomatoes led the way at 33.2%, followed by cauliflower, aubergine and whole chicken. On the flip side, bananas fell 22.6%, artichokes dropped 15.1% and paper napkins came down 30.4%.

But not every retailer has followed the same path. Some chains, including El Corte Inglés, took a different approach earlier this year by freezing the price of 300 everyday grocery items for 90 days, covering everything from fresh fish and meat to olive oil and nappies.

According to the OCU, only two major chains, BM Urban and Ahorramás, raised prices faster than general inflation. Most stayed below it, and eight chains, including Mercadona, Lidl, Carrefour Market and Aldi, actually lowered their prices.

There's real money to be saved by choosing carefully. The OCU calculates that households could save up to €1,310 a year, around 20% of the average annual spend of €6,602, simply by shopping at the cheapest stores. That saving varies hugely by location. In Madrid, the gap between the cheapest and priciest supermarkets can reach €4,381 a year, while in Mieres it's just €381.

The cheapest chains overall are Supermercados Dani, Family Cash, Tifer, Alcampo and Supeco, while Hipercor, El Corte Inglés, Supercor and Sánchez Romero came out as the priciest. By region, the Valencian Community offers the best value, followed by Murcia and Asturias.

All of this comes against a backdrop of rising fuel costs too, with agricultural diesel prices climbing sharply in recent weeks amid ongoing global tensions, a trend economists have warned could eventually filter through to food prices in the shops.

The OCU is now calling on the government to cut VAT on basic foods such as meat and fish, expand support for vulnerable families, and prevent rising energy costs from being passed on to shoppers at the till.

Image: Squirrel Photos/Pixabay

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