Supermarket Mallorca: Opening Hours, Chains and the Weekly Shop as a Resident
If you live on Mallorca as a resident, you quickly notice that the weekly shop works differently than in Germany. Not because of the choice of products, but because of the opening hours. In the Balearic Islands, selling on Sundays and public holidays is fundamentally prohibited – with a list, newly determined each year, of at most ten exception days. On top of that there's a patchwork of shops that are always allowed to open regardless, and tourism zones where the neighbouring town has Sunday opening while your town shuts down. This guide explains the shop-closing law, the official 2026 opening calendar, the formats from the full-range supermarket through the discounter to the weekly market, and how to plan your shopping rhythm so Sunday doesn't catch you off guard.
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Shop-closing law in the Balearic Islands: the basic rule
Contrary to what many newcomers expect, Sunday selling in the Balearic Islands is not the exception but is fundamentally prohibited. On weekdays, on the other hand, every trader has largely free rein. This combination – free weekdays but a strict Sunday ban with an exception list – is the key information for your weekly shop.
Responsible for this is the Direcció General de Comerç of the Balearic regional government (Govern de les Illes Balears). It determines each year on which Sundays and public holidays shops may nevertheless open.
| Regulation | Content |
|---|---|
| Weekday opening hours | Freely determinable, maximum 90 hours per week |
| Sundays and public holidays | Selling fundamentally prohibited |
| Exception days per year | At most ten, newly determined each year |
| Who decides | The responsible trade authority of the Balearic Islands, after consulting the Comissió Interinsular Assessora de Comerç |
| Additional Sundays possible | Only under special circumstances, after consulting the same commission |
Note: The 90-hour limit applies to the week as a whole, not per day. A shop can therefore be open considerably longer on individual days, as long as the weekly total is observed.
The 2026 opening calendar: the ten exception days
For 2026, the Comissió Interinsular Assessora de Comerç unanimously approved, on 3 October 2025, ten Sundays and public holidays on which shops may open as usual.
| Date | Occasion |
|---|---|
| 4 January | Sunday before Epiphany |
| 18 January | Sunday |
| 8 March | Sunday |
| 2 April | Maundy Thursday |
| 15 August | Assumption of Mary (public holiday falling on a Saturday) |
| 6 September | Sunday before the start of school |
| 29 November | Sunday after Black Friday |
| 6 December | Constitution Day |
| 20 December | Sunday |
| 26 December | Boxing Day (public holiday falling on a Saturday) |
There are two special points you should know:
- 15 August and 6 September can be replaced by individual municipalities with a different day. It's worth asking locally or keeping an eye on your municipality's announcement.
- 26 December was already fixed by the general public holiday calendar anyway.
Note: This list applies to the calendar year 2026. The commission decides anew each year, usually in the autumn of the preceding year. For later years, check the current decision directly with the Govern de les Illes Balears – not this table.
Shops that are always allowed to open regardless
Alongside the general rule, there is a group of shops with full freedom regarding days and opening hours – even on Sundays and public holidays. That explains why you can still get bread, a newspaper or petrol on the shop-free Sunday.
| Category | Examples |
|---|---|
| Speciality shops | Confectioners, bakeries, ready meals, press, fuel and combustibles, flowers and plants |
| Transport hubs | Shops in railway stations, ports, airports, and within means of transport themselves |
| Hotels | Shops within hotel premises |
| Tourist zones | Shops in officially designated zones with high tourist influx |
| Convenience shops | Small-scale neighbourhood shops (botigues de conveniència) |
These exceptions explain why, in strongly tourist-oriented coastal towns, you'll find an open supermarket even on Sundays, while the same chain remains closed inland. Exactly which places are designated as tourist zones is set out in individual resolutions – so don't rely on the name of the place, but on what's posted at the branch itself.
Why the neighbouring town is open and yours isn't: tourist zones
The category of "zones with high tourist influx" is not declared blanket-wide for the whole island, but on a place-by-place basis through individual administrative resolutions. In concrete terms, this means: a coastal town can be classified as a tourist zone, thereby allowing its supermarkets to open every Sunday – while the neighbouring municipality, without such a declaration, remains bound by the general ten-day limit.
Exactly which towns or districts count as tourist zones in detail changes with each respective declaration and is not part of a fixed list. If you want to shop regularly on Sundays, the most reliable method is to ask directly at the branch near you or to check the posted opening hours – official zone lists are hard for laypeople to keep up to date.
Supermarket chains in Mallorca: the categories
Mallorca doesn't have a uniform supermarket landscape, but rather several formats existing in parallel, each with a different range profile. Judging which chain is "best" would be disingenuous – the island varies too much between the coast, the inland areas and central Palma. It makes more sense to know the categories and choose according to what you need at the time.
| Category | Examples | Profile |
|---|---|---|
| Spanish full-range supermarkets | Mercadona, Eroski | Wide range, strong own brands, fresh produce and fish counters |
| Large-format stores | Carrefour | Large sales area, plus non-food |
| Discounter | Lidl, Aldi | Compact range, high share of own-brand products, most likely to have German products |
| Organic and speciality shops | such as Veritas, plus delicatessen and import shops | Organic range, imported goods, German bread and sausage products |
| Island-based retail | Village shops, colmados, farm shops | Local produce, personal advice, short distances |
Which of these formats you actually have on your doorstep depends heavily on the location: in Palma and the larger coastal towns, several chains sit side by side, whereas in villages inland it's often just one full-range supermarket plus a village shop. Anyone wanting to see what actually exists in their municipality can find the outlets in the Supermarket & Grocery Directory.
Note: There is no officially verified, stable figure regarding price levels, number of branches or market shares of individual chains that we could quote here in good conscience. Press reports with percentage figures on price increases or the price ranking of individual chains change too quickly to be reliable – it's better to rely on your own receipt comparison over a few weeks.
Weekly market and market hall: the alternative to the supermarket
Besides the chains, it's worth considering the island's traditional shopping options for your weekly shop:
- Mercats setmanals (weekly markets): almost every municipality has a fixed weekly market day, where regional fruit, vegetables, fish, cheese and textiles are on offer. The dates vary from place to place.
- Mercat de l'Olivar in Palma: the city's central market hall – unlike the weekly market, a permanent institution with fresh counters for fish, meat, fruit and vegetables, offering market atmosphere instead of supermarket shelves.
These options don't replace the supermarket entirely, but complement it sensibly – especially for fresh produce, which on an island with its own agriculture is often better and more regional than what's on the imported supermarket shelf.
Planning your weekly shop: practical tips
- Plan for Sunday, don't just hope. Check before the week starts whether your place of residence lies in a tourist zone or whether one of the ten exception days falls within that week.
- Schedule your big shop for a weekday. Since weekdays are flexible, it's best to move your weekly shop to a quiet morning rather than Saturday afternoon before a day off on Sunday.
- Don't buy fresh produce in advance to stock up for Sunday, but rather top up shortly before the day off or at the weekly market.
- Keep an eye on public holidays. In Mallorca, in addition to national and Balearic public holidays, there are also local municipal holidays on which smaller shops remain closed, even though the big chains are open.
- Convenience stores and petrol stations as a fallback option for small items if you've missed the designated Sunday.
If you've just moved and need to sort out other everyday matters alongside your shopping, the overview of cost of living in Mallorca or the guide on affordable living in Mallorca.
Most common mistakes with the weekly shop in Mallorca
- Treating Sunday as you would in Germany. Anyone assuming "some supermarket is bound to be open" often finds locked doors on an ordinary Sunday.
- Confusing this year's designated shopping days with last year's. The list is decided afresh every year – a date that was open in 2025 may fall differently in 2026.
- Equating a tourism zone with "the whole island". The exemption applies locally, not island-wide.
- Relying on individual branch opening hours found online without confirming them on site – smaller shops in particular deviate from the official rules on an individual basis.
- Doing your fresh shopping for the open Sunday too early, so that fish or baked goods are no longer fresh by then.
What comes next? The calendar for the years ahead
The ten-day list is not a permanent rule but is renegotiated every year. For 2026, the decision was made in October 2025 by the Comissió Interinsular Assessora de Comerç. The same procedure applies for subsequent years: the authority usually publishes the new calendar in the autumn of the preceding year. Anyone living permanently on the island should check this announcement from the Govern de les Illes Balears once a year, rather than relying on an outdated list.
Checklist: organising the weekly shop as a resident
- Checked the current opening calendar for this year with the Govern de les Illes Balears
- Know whether my place of residence counts as a tourism zone or not
- Scheduled the big shop for a quiet weekday, not Saturday afternoon
- Noted my municipality's weekly market day
- Keep fallback options (bakery, kiosk, petrol station, convenience store) in mind for spontaneous needs on the day off
- Also keep an eye on local municipal holidays in addition to the Balearic calendar
If you want to know which shops are actually present in your municipality, the Supermarket & Grocery Directory with the recorded businesses across the whole island can help.
Conclusion
Shopping on Mallorca differs from everyday life in Germany mainly in one detail that many newcomers overlook: the strict Sunday trading ban, which is relaxed on ten exception days. Anyone who knows this rhythm, schedules their weekly shop on the flexible weekdays, and uses the permanently open shops (bakery, kiosk, petrol station, convenience store) as a fallback option gets through the week without any problems. Which chain you choose is ultimately a question of range, not an objectively "best" option – feel free to try out several in the first few weeks and find your own rhythm between full-range supermarkets, discounters and the weekly market.
Official sources
- Govern de les Illes Balears – Direcció General de Comerç, Ordenació del comerç / Horaris comercials: caib.es
- Govern de les Illes Balears – Notice on the opening calendar for Sundays and public holidays 2026: caib.es
- General authority overview for the Balearic Islands: caib.es