By Bruno Martín Picanzo Ubal, Vamos Academy Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires has seven major supermarket (supermercado) chains (Coto, Carrefour, Día, Jumbo, Disco, Vea and ChangoMás), plus thousands of Chinese-run mini-markets (chinos) and greengrocers (verdulerías) on nearly every block, so the nearest grocery store is rarely more than a short walk away, whichever barrio you’re in. If you want the short version: shop at Día, Vea or ChangoMás for the lowest prices, Coto or a Carrefour Hiper for one-stop variety, Jumbo or Barrio Chino for imported goods, and a verdulería for fruit and vegetables. Below is how each option actually works day to day, and how locals pay less than tourists for the same basket.
One update if you read about Argentina years ago: the era of prices changing between breakfast and dinner is over, at least for now. Argentina’s annual inflation fell from 117.8% in 2024 to 33.5% by June 2026 (INDEC), with monthly rises around 2%. Prices are still high in dollar terms, but they are finally predictable, which means learning the discount system pays off more than ever.
In this article
What supermarkets are there in Buenos Aires?
Here is the whole landscape at a glance:
| Chain | Price level | Best for | How common in the city |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coto | $$ | Promotions, one-stop shopping, own-brand basics | Everywhere, from corner stores to hypermarkets |
| Carrefour | $$$$ | Own-brand staples (Hiper/Market); Express for convenience | The most branches of any chain |
| Día | $ | Hard-discount staples, app coupons | Small stores in almost every neighbourhood |
| Jumbo | $$$ | Imported goods, best overall selection | A handful of large stores (Palermo, Belgrano and a few more) |
| Disco | $$$$$ | Neighbourhood shopping in Palermo, Recoleta, Belgrano | Mid-sized stores in central barrios |
| Vea | $ | Budget basics | Fewer branches in the capital, common in the suburbs |
| ChangoMás | $ | Big-box bulk shopping (the former Walmart) | Mostly large stores on the city’s edges |
Coto
The biggest Argentine-owned chain and the one you will probably use most. Coto runs everything from corner minimarkets to hypermarkets that sell TVs and bicycles alongside groceries. Its real strength is promotions: the classic is 70% off the second unit, which effectively means 35% off if you buy two. Sign up for the free Comunidad Coto card (any till) to activate most offers. Quality is solid mid-range, and the meat counters are genuinely good. This is where many porteños buy their asado cuts for the weekend.
Carrefour
The French giant has the most branches in the city across three formats. Express stores are small corner shops, convenient but pricier per item. Market is the mid-size neighbourhood format. The big Hiper stores have the widest range, and Carrefour’s own-brand line has quietly become one of the cheapest ways to fill a pantry in Buenos Aires, locals who used to be snobbish about own-brand products switched en masse during the 2023-2024 inflation spike and never switched back. The Mi Carrefour app carries personalised coupons.
Día
The hard-discount option: small, no-frills stores with a narrow selection built around Día’s own brand. Some own-brand products are basic, but staples (pasta, rice, cleaning products, canned goods) are perfectly fine and the prices are hard to beat. The Día app is worth installing even for a short stay; coupon discounts can be substantial. Don’t expect imported goods, wide aisles or short queues at peak times.
Jumbo
Owned by Chile’s Cencosud, Jumbo is the most expensive chain and the best-stocked one. If you are homesick for a specific sauce, cheese, spice or breakfast cereal, Jumbo is the supermarket most likely to have it, at a markup. Few branches, all large. Worth one trip for treats; not where you do your weekly shop on a budget.
Disco and Vea
Both also belong to Cencosud. Disco is the mid-tier neighbourhood banner, tidy stores, decent quality, some imports, common in Palermo, Recoleta and Belgrano. Vea is the budget banner: essentials at low prices, no imports, more common outside the capital than in it.
ChangoMás (the former Walmart)
Walmart left Argentina in November 2020, selling its roughly 90 stores to local investor Grupo de Narváez; they now trade as ChangoMás and Hiper ChangoMás. The formula is unchanged: big-box stores, low prices, good for bulk shopping. Most locations are on the outskirts of the city, so it only makes sense if you live near one or have a car.
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Shopping in Spanish is the fastest classroom there is, bargaining at the verdulería, decoding promo signs, chatting with the cashier.
Which supermarket is cheapest in Buenos Aires?
Día, Vea and ChangoMás are consistently the cheapest supermarkets in Buenos Aires for basic groceries. But the honest answer is that in Argentina the cheapest supermarket is whichever one is running the right promotion, because the discount system matters more than the base price. Three habits will cut your bill significantly:
- Buy on promo, not on impulse. “2do al 70%” (second unit 70% off) and 2×1 deals rotate constantly at Coto and Carrefour. Locals plan the week’s shop around them.
- Use the apps and loyalty cards. Comunidad Coto, Mi Carrefour and the Día app are all free and unlock prices the walk-in customer doesn’t get. Banks and digital wallets also run weekly supermarket discount days for their cardholders.
- Go own-brand for staples. Carrefour, Coto and Día house brands are often 30-50% cheaper than the equivalent name brand for near-identical products.
Installment culture survives, too: supermarkets still advertise cuotas sin interés, paying for groceries in interest-free monthly installments, a habit born of high inflation that startles most newcomers. For more strategies, see our guide on making your money go further in Argentina.
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What are the “chinos” and verdulerías?
Ask a porteño where they shop and the answer is usually not a supermarket chain. It’s “el chino de la esquina.” Chinos are family-run Chinese-Argentine mini-markets, and there is one within a couple of blocks of almost any address in Buenos Aires, the sector’s own trade chamber, CASRECH, counts some 8,600 of them across Argentina. They win on proximity, long opening hours and short queues, in practice they double as the city’s convenience stores, open late into the night seven days a week, and for anything after closing time the 24-hour kioscos on the main avenues cover late-night basics. Prices run slightly higher than the big chains on most items, with one famous exception: wine, where chinos are often the cheapest option in the neighbourhood. If you are building a budget bottle habit, start with our guide to good Argentine wine on a budget. Many chinos also have a surprisingly good fiambrería counter for cold cuts and cheese sold by weight.
Verdulerías (small greengrocers, many run by Bolivian families) are where you should buy fruit and vegetables. Produce is usually fresher and cheaper than the supermarket equivalent, and you can buy exactly the quantity you need. Two local tips: ask prices before the vendor starts bagging (“¿A cuánto está el tomate?”), and don’t handle the produce yourself in traditional shops, tell the vendor what you want and they pick it for you. The same logic applies to the neighbourhood carnicería (butcher) and panadería (bakery): specialists tend to beat supermarkets on both quality and price per peso.
Put it all together and a local’s shopping week splits up roughly like this:
| What you’re buying | Where locals buy it | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Fruit and vegetables | Verdulería or neighbourhood feria | Fresher and cheaper than supermarkets; buy exactly the quantity you need |
| Meat for the asado | Carnicería, or Coto’s meat counter | Cut to order, and the butcher will tell you which cut you actually want |
| Bread and facturas | Panadería | Baked on site daily; supermarket bread is an afterthought |
| Wine | El chino de la esquina | Often the cheapest bottles in the neighbourhood |
| Cold cuts and cheese | Fiambrería counter (chino or market) | Sold by weight, sliced when you order |
| Pantry staples | Día, or own brands at Coto/Carrefour | House brands run 30-50% below name brands |
| Imported and Asian products | Barrio Chino, Jumbo, dietéticas | The widest range in the city, in that order |
| Anything at 11 pm | Chino or a 24-hour kiosco | Open long after the chains have closed |
Where can you buy imported food in Buenos Aires?
Argentina protects local industry, so imported food is scarce and expensive in ordinary supermarkets, often two to three times what you’d pay at home. Your options, in order:
- Barrio Chino (Belgrano). The city’s Chinatown, around Calle Arribeños, is the single best place for imported goods: Asian sauces and noodles, spices, seaweed, tofu, and the fish counters locals cross the city for. Full details in our guide to Barrio Chino.
- Jumbo. The widest imported selection of any chain: at Jumbo prices.
- Dietéticas. Health-food shops found in every barrio: nuts, grains, spices, gluten-free products and specialty items the supermarkets don’t carry.
A warning for spice lovers: Argentine palates run famously mild, and anything genuinely hot is a specialty item. Barrio Chino and dietéticas are your best sources, and when you’d rather eat out, here’s where to find actual spicy food in Buenos Aires.
Is the Mercado Central worth the trip?
For bulk shopping, yes. The Mercado Central is the wholesale market that feeds the city, a 540-hectare complex with around 900 wholesale stalls that supplies an estimated 55-60% of all the fruit and vegetables eaten in Greater Buenos Aires, and its retail section is open to the public. Fruit and vegetables at the Mercado Central can cost half of what supermarkets charge, and there are also butchers, dairy stalls and bakeries. The catch is location: it sits in Tapiales, La Matanza, in Greater Buenos Aires, a serious trek without a car, and an area where it’s smarter to go accompanied and in daylight. Locals make it worthwhile by going monthly and stocking up. As of 2026 the retail section (feria minorista) opens every day, roughly 8 am to 5 pm on weekdays and 7 am to 6 pm on weekends and holidays, but confirm current hours on mercadocentral.gob.ar before making the trip.
If that’s too far, the city runs rotating neighbourhood produce fairs (ferias itinerantes) with regulated prices, and the weekend street markets are worth knowing for everything else, see our guide to Buenos Aires street markets.
How do you pay for groceries in Buenos Aires?
Cards and QR payments are now universal in chains and accepted in most chinos and verdulerías, though small shops sometimes prefer cash or offer a cash discount. Since late 2022, foreign Visa and Mastercard purchases have been settled at a market-linked exchange rate rather than the old punitive official rate, so paying with your home card at the supermarket no longer costs you extra: the gap between the official dollar and the informal “blue” rate has all but closed since Argentina lifted most currency controls in April 2025, as of August 2026 the blue trades only around 2-3% above the official rate. The full picture is in our guides to pesos vs dollars vs credit cards and the dollar blue.
Can you get groceries delivered in Buenos Aires?
Yes, easily. Coto, Carrefour, Jumbo and Día all run their own online stores with home delivery or in-store pickup, and the delivery apps (PedidosYa, Rappi) will bring supermarket or chino orders to your door in under an hour in most central barrios. For pantry staples in bulk, many residents also order through MercadoLibre, our MercadoLibre walkthrough explains how it works without an Argentine credit card.
Frequently asked questions
What is the biggest supermarket chain in Buenos Aires?
Carrefour has the most branches in the city across its Express, Market and Hiper formats. Coto is the largest Argentine-owned chain and runs the biggest hypermarkets.
Which supermarket is cheapest in Buenos Aires?
Día, Vea and ChangoMás have the lowest base prices. Factoring in promotions, Coto and Carrefour often match them if you use their loyalty apps and buy second-unit-discount deals.
What is the best supermarket in Buenos Aires?
It depends on the goal: Jumbo has the best selection, especially of imported goods; Coto is the best all-rounder for price, quality and promotions; and Día is the best pick on a tight budget.
Is there a Walmart in Buenos Aires?
Not anymore. Walmart sold its Argentine operation in November 2020, and its former stores now operate as ChangoMás and Hiper ChangoMás.
Are supermarkets in Buenos Aires open on Sundays?
Yes, the major chains open seven days a week, and neighbourhood chinos typically stay open later than the chains, including on many public holidays. Exact hours vary by branch.
Do supermarkets in Buenos Aires accept foreign credit cards?
Yes. Visa and Mastercard are accepted everywhere in the chains, and since 2022 foreign-card purchases are converted at a market-linked rate, so card payments are no longer a bad deal for visitors.
Where do locals buy fruit and vegetables in Buenos Aires?
Mostly at verdulerías, small neighbourhood greengrocers, and at weekly ferias, where produce is fresher and cheaper than in supermarkets. Bulk shoppers go to the Mercado Central.
How much do groceries cost per month in Buenos Aires?
INDEC’s basic food basket for Greater Buenos Aires came to about AR$690,000 a month for a family of four in June 2026, or roughly AR$223,000 for a single adult. That is the bare-minimum local basket; add imported products and the bill climbs fast. Shopping own-brand, on promotions and at verdulerías is what keeps a foreigner’s spend close to the local benchmark.
What is a “chino” in Buenos Aires?
A chino is a family-run Chinese-Argentine mini-market, the default corner grocery store in the city, with some 8,600 of them across Argentina according to the sector’s chamber, CASRECH. They cost slightly more than the big chains on most items but win on proximity, long hours and, famously, cheap wine.
Can you pay in US dollars at supermarkets in Buenos Aires?
At the big chains, yes: Coto and Carrefour accept dollars at the till, with the day’s rate posted at the register. That rate is usually worse than simply paying with a foreign card, which settles at the market exchange rate. In chinos and verdulerías, assume pesos or QR payment only.
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