If you’re moving to Portugal from the US, you may be used to certain supermarkets like Walmart, Trader Joe’s, Target, and Whole Foods. Generally speaking, most of these stores don’t have outlets in Europe and that includes Walmart – although there are Costco stores in Spain.
Is there a Portuguese equivalent of Walmart? Not really. The nearest is probably one of the larger Continente stores, one of the main supermarket chains in Portugal, as the larger stores tend to have sections for things like homewares. Auchan and E.Leclerc stores can be quite large too. However, very few of them are going to be as large or stock quite as much as a typical Walmart store does.
For online shopping, Amazon Spain (amazon.es) or Amazon Germany (amazon.de) are the two favourite websites among expats. Often it’s easier to search online than it is to search multiple stores like Auchan, Continente, and E.Leclerc.
However, if you do want to search offline another great place to look is your nearest loja chinesa. These stores vary in size but can be pretty big and stock just about everything you could ever need.
What about shopping at Walmart and having it shipped to Portugal? Generally, shopping at any store that’s physically based in the US is a bad idea due to the cost of import charges and taxes when the item arrives in Portugal. Instead, you should shop at stores within the European Union. So if you can’t find what you’re looking for in Portugal, take a look at Spain or Germany where the selection is often better.
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