Many travellers are familiar with the large department store chain in Spain known as El Corte Ingles. Headquartered in Madrid, it is actually the biggest department store group in Europe, and it does offer grocery shopping in English – but sadly there could be drawbacks to using this retail behemoth for your holiday shopping.
An inspiration – but not in a good way
Whilst working as a concierge, several of my clients had issues after deciding to order their holiday shopping online with El Corte Ingles – which was chosen by clients as it was the only supermarket with familiar brands which also offers shopping online in English and delivers on the Costa Del Sol. This is partly what inspired me to start Hello Costa.
Several of my clients had issues with the website, which seems to have great difficulty in accepting many Spanish addresses. There were also issues with lost drivers and clients unable to explain their location in Spanish, and deliveries being split – or not arriving at all! I had several clients who had to deal with a lot of unnecessary stress and upset during what should have been the most relaxing time of the year. There were even tears.
"El Corte Ingles has also recently been beleaguered in the press, with possible workers strikes, the closure of several stores in Spain, difficulties in adapting to modern challenges such as the rise of online sales and the difficulty of connecting with customers under 30 – and shockingly awful consumer reviews."
El Corte Ingles Reviews
The poor reviews seem to be predominantly regarding Customer Service and issues with delivery of Online Orders. Customers seem to be having an issue getting what they paid for and this is reflected in thousands of online reviews.
Trustpilot has a total of 5,993 Reviews of El Corte Ingles. Their Reviews Score was 1.3/5
Their reviews breakdown looks like this:
5 Star – 5%
4 Star – 2%
3 Star – 1%
2 Star – 3%
1 Star – 89%
That is almost 90% of customers giving a 1 Star review, and only 7% rating them above average.
One customer said: “Order placed on 2nd Dec was split in to two deliveries. First delivery received was not my order (was sent 20 bottles of ketchup instead). Was told I would be refunded but one month on and still no refund so am 90 Euro down for that order alone. Second delivery was for two toy items. One was cancelled the other has yet to arrive a month later. Money again taken but no delivery. Customer services are useless and do not reply. So far only response I have received says the refund was made (it hasn’t). So far they have taken over 100 Euro of my money and I have nothing to show for it.”
On Tripadvisor, El Corte Ingles also has terrible reviews, mainly based on poor customer service and non-delivery of products. From 1,116 reviews on Tripadvisor, El Corte Ingles had an overall rating of 2/5
The ratings from 1,116 Tripadvisor reviews breakdown like this:
Excellent -175
Very good -158
Average - 52
Poor - 25
Terrible – 707
That means more than 65% of customers rated them as either Poor or Terrible
Is El Corte Ingles expensive for Grocery Shopping?
El Corte Ingles is known to be an expensive place to do grocery shopping. A study carried out by a consumer’s organisation (la Organización de Consumidores y Usuarios – OCU) of the most expensive and cheapest supermarkets in Spain found that Sánchez Romero was the most expensive supermarket while Dani was the cheapest with a 46% difference in prices.
The study looked at a typical weekly shop which included 132 products by well-known brands and concluded that the third most expensive place to Grocery Shop in Spain was El Corte Inglés at 27% more expensive than the average.
Hello Costa - A better option for your holiday shopping.
I started Hello Costa after a year of clients having issues with doing their holiday shopping at various Supermarkets in Spain – they were either wasting hours of their holiday in crowded stores, or trying to shop online on supermarket websites where they could only search in Spanish.
Further problems would then happen when deliveries would get lost and neither the Delivery Driver or the Customer Service spoke English.
Hello Costa is set up as a place to find all your holiday essentials. We have a range of familiar, family favourite brands which you would find in a UK supermarket - everything you need to enjoy your holiday. The “big shop” essentials, fresh produce, bbq packs, toiletries, gluten free, dairy free and vegan options, Sun protection and Mosi spray and everything in between. For those travelling with little ones we have everything from their favourite snacks to child first aid kits, dental care and, of course, nappies.
The Hello Costa website and Customer Service is in English.
We also offer a door to door transfer service, where a fully licenced, professional driver meets you at the airport with your shopping already on board. This is a perfect option for those travelling with kids or arriving late, or people who don’t want the expense or hassle of a hire car.
Unlike El Corte Ingles, we don't operate throughout Spain and Europe. We don’t offer fashion or electronics, a travel agency, loans, washing machines, sofas or insurance. At Hello Costa we offer holiday shopping and transfers, which allows us to focus our attention on getting it right.
Photo Credit: Raúl Hernández González on Flickr