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Queues to buy food . Months ago this phrase would refer to a long line of people waiting in front of a Super Mercal in Jubidana or the Farmatodo de Chacao in Caracas. However, after more than two weeks of confinement caused by the coronavirus crisis, this phrase is used to speak of the Mercadona located on Calle Serrano 61 in Madrid.

This global pandemic has brought to Spain social and consumer dynamics difficult to imagine in Europe and whose stories were the meat of the pages of Internacional. However, now it is a palpable reality in the cities and towns of Spain since, to prevent the spread of infections, food shops open to the public are limiting the capacity. Restrictions that have made queues everyday .

A tessitura before which many citizens choose to make the purchase online. However, the situation in virtual supermarkets is sometimes complicated due to the saturation of orders.

"I have been trying to order the purchase through Corte Inglés and Amazon Prime for three days. However, all the order slots are full," says Purificación, a Chamberí neighbor who must quarantine by prescription.

A common situation about which many users complain on social networks and to which there is no choice but to wait for new slots .

However, those who can take to the streets can avoid the queues in stores with a couple of simple tricks that we show you below. In this way, it will not be necessary to wait outside for our turn to buy basic products like milk or bread.

Google and queues

At this point in the film there is no doubt that Google knows you better than your own mother. An unpleasant fact for those most jealous of their privacy, which, however, can be exploited in these times of pandemic thanks to Google Maps.

It is a service that millions of people use as GPS but that also has maps of shops and department stores.

Thanks to its geolocation services, which you probably have activated on your mobile without realizing it, it knows how crowded the places are at different times of the day and offers us comparative graphs with respect to other time zones.

In addition, the Internet giant will show us a message indicating the approximate waiting time to make our purchases in each time slot.

How to know if there is a line in my supermarket

  • Open the Google Maps application.
  • Select the supermarket you want to go to buy.
  • Scroll until the graph shown above appears.
  • There you can find all the information about the time slots.

Another alternative to avoid queues

If you are one of those who does not trust Google and you want to avoid the queues in supermarkets, you have another alternative for which you do not need to download anything.

  • Enter this web page
  • Browse the map to find the supermarket where you want to make the purchase
  • Check the waiting time

This initiative of Tiendeo crosses the geolocation data with the valuations of the clients that are in each one of the supermarkets.

It is an initiative that works very well for supermarkets in city centers. However, it does not include many of the establishments located outside the central almond of large cities.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Spain
  • Mercadona
  • Madrid
  • Internet
  • Europe

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