Friday August 15th is a public holiday across Spain. This should technically mean that everything closes, but on this occasion there are many exceptions regarding supermarkets and popular retail stores.
On August 15th, Spain celebrates the Assumption of the Virgin, resulting in a public holiday for the country’s 48 million inhabitants.
August as a whole is a bit of a ‘dead’ month in Spain as well, as it’s when most people take their summer holidays.
This should mean that plenty of shops and businesses will not be open on August 15th.
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However, on this occasion, supermarkets and other popular retail stores across Spain will not completely shut up shop as often happens on public holidays, and instead will open some of their stores as normal or for fewer hours.
It’s what’s called festivo con apertura comercial (public holiday with open trade), meaning businesses can choose whether to open or close.
On August 15th, some Mercadona supermarkets will be open from 9am to 3pm, while others will be closed (check your local Mercadona’s opening times for Friday here).
Carrefour will open most of its stores from 9am to 2pm (you can check if your local branch is open or closed here).
Lidl will also only keep some of its supermarkets open from 10am to 3pm on Friday 15th (check here), as will Aldi (check here).
Alcampo will have its normal working hours in some of its supermarkets and others will have reduced hours (check here).
And as for El Corte Ingles’ supermarkets, their smaller Supercor city supermarkets will almost all be open, whilst the bigger Hipercor supermarkets will be mostly closed (check here).
As it’s peak tourist season, many big retail names and shopping malls in cities and busy holiday spots across Spain have chosen to open their doors as usual on August 15th, with normal or reduced working hours.
Therefore, your closest Ikea, Leroy Merlin, Zara, Decathlon or El Corte Inglés are likely to be open for at least half of the day, but of course it’s worth double-checking the specific store.
Information available shows that in Seville, Mallorca, Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia and Granada these big stores and shopping malls will mostly be open.
You’re also unlikely to have difficulties finding a restaurant to eat at, as again the fact that it’s the middle of holiday season means hospitality bosses don’t want to miss out on good business.
What is likely to be closed on August 15th (and often for the whole month of August) are the small local shops, from hardware stores to haberdasheries.
