Carrefour vs. El Corte Inglés

Both are popular Spanish superstores, which sell just about everything under the sun. Carrefour, however, has the look and feel of a Walmart, while El Corte Inglés is much more upscale. Guess which one we like more?

Yep, we’re cheap bastards who will gladly buy the €6 iron, complain when it doesn’t work right, then go right out and buy another €6 iron. Quality has no place in our household.

It’s a shame that El Corte Inglés (location, location, location) is so much more easily accessible than Carrefour (location), from the city center. Despite ourselves, we end up there nearly every day. It’s the convenient answer to every question: "Where’s the nearest post office?", "Where can I develop film?", "Buy groceries?", "Hardware store?", etc etc.

My love/hate relationship with El Corte Inglés began a day after I moved into the city. I had bought myself a €2 bottle of wine, and the question "Now where can I buy a corkscrew?" had one obvious answer. Moments later, I found myself staring at a wonderful selection of corkscrews (Yay!), the cheapest of which was six times as expensive as the wine (Grr!).

So which gets your vote? Are there other similar stores in the city? Now that our move is complete and we’re relatively settled, I think we’re done shopping at either one for awhile.