Mercadona Scraper

Scrapes products and prices from Mercadona's online supermarket. You can search the same way as on the website, filter by brand or category, or download the whole catalogue. Prices come from the warehouse that serves any Spanish postal code.

Input

Every parameter is optional. Give a search term or categories to scrape part of the catalogue, or leave both empty to get every product in the catalog. Without a postal code or warehouse, prices come from Mercadona's default warehouse, vlc1 (Valencia).

Parameter	Options	Description
searchTerm	(optional) Text to search for	One search, like the search box on the website. A phrase like leche condensada is searched as a whole. Returns the same products, in the same order, as the website, up to 100.
brands	(optional) A brand, e.g. "Hacendado", or a list, e.g. ["Hacendado", "Campina"]	Keeps only the search results of these brands. Capitalisation is ignored. Needs a search term.
categories	(optional) Category or subcategory IDs, as strings, e.g. ["112"]	Only these categories. A top-level category includes all its subcategories. With a search term, keeps only the results in these categories. Get the current list of IDs with the Mercadona Category IDs Actor.
postalCode	(optional) 5-digit Spanish postal code	Uses the warehouse that serves this postal code. Don't combine with warehouse.
warehouse	(optional) Warehouse code, see Warehouses	Uses this warehouse. Don't combine with postalCode. The run fails if Mercadona doesn't serve the code.
language	• es (Spanish, default) • vai (Valencian) • ca (Catalan) • gl (Galician) • eu (Basque) • en (English) • de (German)	Language of product and category names.
includeEan	(optional) true (default) or false	Whether category and whole-catalogue rows include ean and brand, fetched from each product's page (one extra request per product). Set false for listings and prices only, much faster for a whole-catalogue run. Searches always include the EAN.

Example using a search query:

{
  "searchTerm": "leche condensada",
  "postalCode": "08012"
}

Example keeping only some brands:

{
  "searchTerm": "leche condensada",
  "brands": ["Campina", "Hacendado"]
}

Example using a category:

{
  "categories": ["112"],
  "warehouse": "bcn1"
}

Example to get all products for a postal code:

{
  "postalCode": "08012"
}

Warehouses

Code	Provinces
alc1	Alicante, Murcia
bcn1	Barcelona
mad1	Madrid
mad2	Madrid
mad3	Madrid
svq1	Sevilla, Cádiz, Huelva
vlc1	Valencia, Alicante, Castellón

Other regions use warehouses with numeric codes, for example 4391 for Bilbao (48001) or 4493 for Zaragoza (50001). For those, it's easiest to pass the postal code.

Output

• Dataset: one item per product, as Mercadona returns it, plus subcategory and group (id and name). Every row carries ean and brand. Search results also carry search_term and more detail than category browsing: origin, suppliers, ingredients, allergens, photos and names in every language. A product listed in several places appears only once per run.
• WAREHOUSE (key-value store): what was requested and which warehouse served the data, e.g. {"requested_postal_code": "08012", "requested_warehouse": null, "warehouse": "bcn1"}.
• FAILED_REQUESTS (key-value store, only when some requests failed): the URL and error of each failed page. If any page failed, the run fails rather than returning an incomplete dataset as a success.

Product fields

Values come as Mercadona sends them. For example, prices are text such as "3.35". Fields inside an object are written with a dot, e.g. price_instructions.unit_price.

Field	Description
id	Mercadona product ID.
display_name	Product name, in the chosen language.
slug, share_url	URL slug and product page on tienda.mercadona.es.
thumbnail	Product image (300×300).
packaging	How it is sold, e.g. Bote, Paquete, Pack-6. Can be empty.
main_feature	Mercadona's short qualifier, e.g. 0% MG 0% azúcares añadidos. Often empty.
categories	Category rows: only the top-level category. Search rows: the full category path.
subcategory, group	Second- and third-level category (id, name), added by the Actor.
published	Whether the product is listed.
limit	Most units per order. 999 means no practical limit.
unavailable_from	Date from which the product can no longer be delivered. Usually empty.
unavailable_weekdays	Weekdays the product can't be delivered (Mercadona's numbering). Usually empty.
badges.requires_age_check	Alcohol: the age is checked at delivery.
badges.is_water	Bottled water.
brand	Brand. In category browsing this and ean come from one extra request per product, so a whole-catalogue run makes about one request per product on top of the category pages.
ean	EAN barcode. Can be empty for a few products.
is_new_arrival	Category rows only: the product is in Mercadona's Novedades.
search_term	Search rows only: the search that returned the product.

Prices and sizes (price_instructions):

Field	Description
unit_price	Price in EUR of one sales unit, i.e. what goes in the cart. For products sold by weight, the price of the minimum amount.
previous_unit_price	The previous price, when Mercadona shows one. Padded with spaces, e.g. " 1.40". Usually empty.
bulk_price	Price per kg, litre or unit, rounded to cents.
reference_price, reference_format	The shelf-label price per unit and its unit, e.g. "3.350" per kg.
unit_size, size_format	Content of one sales unit and its unit (kg, l, ud).
approx_size	The size is approximate (fresh products sold per piece).
is_pack, total_units, pack_size, unit_name	Multipacks, e.g. 8 units (ud.) of 0.125 kg, or 6 briks.
drained_weight	Drained weight in kg, for tins and frozen products.
tax_percentage	VAT rate: "4.000", "10.000" or "21.000".
selling_method	0 sold by unit, 1 sold by weight (a few fresh products).
unit_selector, bunch_selector, min_bunch_amount, increment_bunch_amount	How the website lets you choose the quantity. For products sold by weight: the minimum and step, in kg.

Search rows only. The search returns the full product page:

Field	Description
origin	Country of origin.
is_bulk, is_variable_weight	Sold loose / sold by variable weight.
photos	Every product photo, each in zoom, regular and thumbnail size.
details.legal_name, details.description	Legal name and description.
details.suppliers	Suppliers (name).
details.storage_instructions, details.usage_instructions	How to store and use the product.
details.mandatory_mentions, details.danger_mentions, details.alcohol_by_volume	Legal mentions, hazard warnings and alcohol content.
details.is_prepared_by_mercadona	Made in Mercadona's stores or kitchens (bakery, Listo para Comer). It is not about own brands such as Hacendado. Can be empty.
nutrition_information.ingredients, nutrition_information.allergens	Ingredients and allergens, as HTML with allergens in <strong>.
translations	Name and categories in every language (ca, en, eu, vai).

Fields not to trust. Mercadona sends these, but they are wrong or mostly empty. Figures are from the Barcelona catalogue (4,306 products):

• price_instructions.price_decreased is always false, even for the 153 products whose previous_unit_price is higher than unit_price. Compare the two prices instead.
• price_instructions.is_new is always false. Use is_new_arrival instead.
• price_instructions.iva is empty for 3,118 products. Use tax_percentage instead.
• status is always empty.