Today we want to address the topic about local shopping in Barcelona, which might be confusing at first, especially on your first visit to the supermarket. Because you can find everything at Target. No need to go to specific stores to find specific items. Everything you need to buy you will probably find it there! But what happens when you go shopping in Spain? You might wonder… “Why are so many different and specific stores depending on what you want to buy? Is there anything similar to Target where I can find everything?”. Well, even though we have superstores in here as well, the answer is no. We don’t have big-stores of that Target scope. So we decided to write about those little stores you will find in Spain which conforms what we call “petit comerç” (local shops) and are usually located in the center of the cities or villages.
Why are we dedicating a post to this subject? Besides helping you to find what you are looking for while shopping, there is another main reason: we don’t want to lose those small businesses that give Barcelona some of its identity. And the only way to achieve that goal is supporting the “local shopping” movement. So we created this little Barcelona shopping guide, not only to support the cause, but also to reflect on how doing this local shopping is a beautiful way to get to know the culture of this city, and this country.
Local food markets
Instead of buying fruit and vegetables in the big box stores we recommend you to discover the many municipal markets have to offer. You will not only be supporting the small producers and businesses but also you will have the chance to taste the most freshly produced food, which is distributed also by local producers.

These are some of the most iconic municipal markets where you can do your local shopping in Barcelona:
- Mercat de Santa Caterina
- Mercat del Ninot
- Mercat de la Boqueria
- Mercat de la Llibertat
- Mercat de Sant Antoni
- Mercat del Clot
Our suggested plan for a Saturday morning: get your shopping bag, and go local shopping to one of these municipal markets. You will probably dive into the Catalan culture through this typical social gathering of going shopping in these beautiful markets. Discovering a city through its food, in a different way than you would do in bars or restaurants.
Colmados, tienda de ultramarinos or tienda de coloniales
These iconic little food stores which have decades, even centuries of history, were the main stores in the neighborhoods where people used to do the shopping long ago. There are still some of them which managed to survive in Barcelona. So if you have the chance, we highly recommend you to go visit and buy in some of these pieces of History in the city.
Curious fact: they also were named “tienda de coloniales” because of the food product importation they managed to get from the Spanish colonies.
Quioscos
Little stores placed right on the streets where you can buy newspapers, magazines or even chewing gums. You won’t find them as you used to do in the United States: we don’t really have anything similar to Barnes&Noble, mixing books and press all in the same place.
Papelería
Or in other words: little paradises. Anyone else out there sharing that love for notebooks, pencils, memo pads…? And THAT paper fragrance. Specially if this particular explosion of feelings rings a bell to you, there is one of these places in Barcelona where you can make your notebook dreams come true: RAIMA, a well-known stationery for us “notebook and pencils” lovers. It is located in the Gothic district.
Mercería
This is another typical store we have in Spain. In a mercería you will find products related mainly to sewing and crafts. So if you are this kind of art lover, you might probably fall in love with these beautiful little shops which usually have decades and even centuries of History.
Ferretería
When a light bulb burns out at home, “Ferretería” is the specialized store where you can get this kind of electrical products (also screws, turnstiles and stuff like that). And even though you might find this kind of material in some superstores (not all of them) the staff from a Ferretería is in general more qualified to help you fix problems related to this area.
Pharmacies
In Spain we don’t have superstores which include a pharmacy department ,as it happens in Target or other superstores where this section is integrated. In Spain at most you might find what we call “parafarmacia”, which is a special area that offers mainly cosmetic products which don’t require prescription. But in case you need to buy medication, you will have to get it in a pharmacy.
We hope this tiny local shopping Barcelona guide helps you enjoy doing the shopping as well as discovering new places which hide stories awaiting to be discovered ;-)