One of the things that we really like about traveling around the world is observing how people in other places take care of everyday needs. Grocery shopping in Portugal is pretty fascinating, at least from the perspective of Americans.
Even in the public-transit-friendly, Portland, we’ve since learned that we lived in a very car-centric situation. We lived in a neighborhood that allowed you to walk to many places. In fact, we could probably have walked to our mega grocery store in the same amount of time it takes us to walk to the grocery store now, but the way that we shop now is so different from the way we shopped then.
Since we don’t have a car and have a smaller fridge, we just don’t buy as much as we used to all at once. Rather than shopping once a week, we take care of grocery shopping at least twice a week and sometimes even more, and throw away much less spoiled food.
Mini Mercados
Let’s talk about the different places where you can get groceries or everyday eating items in Lisbon. There are tiny corner stores similar to the bodegas famous in New York on every block. These places have all of your basic needs. Everything from eggs and vegetables to bread, detergent, spices, tea, ice cream, all of the drinks that you can think of plus all of the stuff that you would normally find in like a 7-11. All of it is very reasonably priced, maybe 10-20% more than you would pay at a regular grocery store but not as expensive as convenience stores in the States.
We buy things from these places on occasion, when we just need one or two things and need them more urgently. Instead of walking 10 minutes to the larger store, shopping for 10 minutes, and walking back for 10 minutes, you can walk 5 minutes and be done with the errand quickly. So these mini-mercados are really convenient places to get those kinds of things.
Frutaria
Most neighborhoods have a store devoted primarily to fruits and vegetables. We buy our fresh fruits and vegetables here and, while they also carry many grocery shopping items, we tend to focus on fresh food items because they are less expensive and usually fresher than buying them at the regular grocery store. Plus, it feels good to buy things from a small shop.
Fruit and Vegetable Markets
Wherever you buy your fruits and vegetables, they’re normally coming from growers in Portugal. If they’re imported, they usually come from Spain, or for really specialty items like tropical vegetables, from Madeira or maybe even Brazil. Oftentimes, fruits and veggies are grown within mainland Portugal. Many towns have fresh, outdoor fruit and vegetable markets where you can buy directly from the grower.
We heard from one of our language teachers that this focus on buying local is a relatively recent development. In the last 10 years, they really made a push to grow more food domestically and become more self-sustaining. The fruits and veggies are delicious, fresh, and healthy. You feel better knowing that they haven’t driven thousands of miles to get to you.
Fish and Meat Vendors
We don’t generally eat meat at home, but there are many, many butchers in every neighborhood. There’s at least one or two that you can go and get your fresh meat in whatever cut you prefer. Most grocery stores have large fresh fish selections and many neighborhoods have a dedicated fish market.
Super Mercados
All neighborhoods have larger, chain grocery stores that might be national like Pingo Doce or multi-national like Aldi or Lidl. These stores have everything you need and then some, usually catering to their specific micro-climate. Plus, if you get their discount card or download their app, they will often have a lot of good deals.
Hiper Mercados
The next level of grocery store is the hyper-mercado. Those have all of the things that you would expect to have in a grocery store with a super massive selection of each, including large organic sections. They’ll have whole aisles of just milk, butter, or yogurt. They might also have housewares, kitchen supplies, beauty-care, furniture, clothes, shoes, bikes, car parts, etc. We’ve noticed that some of our favorite hyper-mercados, like the Continente, have begun offering bulk items where you bring a container and fill it with dried nuts, fruits, and even laundry detergent.
The very large markets are usually attached to spacious parking lots. So, if you’re into just driving to your grocery store, you can totally do that too. So, whatever floats your boat, whatever type of experience you want, you can have it all. For some reason we didn’t expect the amount of variety that’s on offer. It’s been really fascinating and filled with lots of choices.