Equipo ViaParaguay
Grocery shopping in Paraguay does not work the way it does in Buenos Aires or São Paulo. Five formats coexist here, each with its own logic: the 24-hour convenience store, the hypermarket that also sells clothes and furniture, the traditional neighbourhood supermarket, the gourmet shop stocked with imports, and the wholesaler where people buy by the case. Knowing which is which saves both time and money.
This guide covers the country's chains by format and by city, and what each one does well.
The five formats, and what each is for
Convenience, around the clock
Biggie Express is the country's widest network by number of stores. It opened in 2013 in Asunción's Federación Rusa neighbourhood and now reports more than 260 stores across 31 cities. These are small corner shops open 24 hours a day: not where you do the monthly shop, but where you solve the thing you ran out of at eleven at night.
Prices run higher than at a traditional supermarket, and that is part of the deal — you are paying for proximity and for the hour.
Hypermarket: everything under one roof
Hipermercados Luisito is the format furthest from what a visitor expects of a supermarket. Alongside the butcher, the produce aisle and the household basics, every store carries footwear, clothing, furniture, electronics, housewares and perfumery. It is run by Díaz e Hijos S.A. and concentrated in Greater Asunción, with stores in Luque, Mariano Roque Alonso, Limpio, Ypané, Itauguá, Capiatá, Ñemby, Villa Elisa and San Lorenzo.
Traditional supermarket
- Superseis: the country's most established chain, 53 years old and part of Grupo Vierci. For eleven consecutive years it has been voted the sector's most remembered brand in the national Ranking de Marcas. Present in Asunción, Greater Asunción, Ciudad del Este, Encarnación and San Bernardino.
- Supermercados Stock: the largest chain in the country by turnover, also part of Grupo Vierci, which acquired it in 2003. It has passed 50 traditional-format stores and adds a proximity network under the Stock Express name.
- Areté Supermercados: wholly Paraguayan-owned, founded in 2018 on the former Archi supermarkets. Its name joins the Guaraní arete — feast day — with the Greek areté, the pursuit of excellence. Mid-to-upper range, strong on fresh produce and imports.
- Salemma: spacious stores inside metropolitan shopping centres plus one in Ciudad del Este, with an online shop and home delivery.
- Hipermercados Pueblo and Cadena Real: two chains from the interior and Greater Asunción that round out the sector. Neither publishes a list of its stores today, so their listings do not yet map their branches.
Gourmet and imports
Casa Rica is the sector's most distinctive case. It began in 1989 as a German-style bakery run by the Lange-Hiebl family and ended up redefining what a supermarket could be in Paraguay: imports, specialty goods, a bakery rooted in German baking, and the El Molinillo café-restaurant inside every store. It operates only in Asunción, and it also leads online grocery in the country.
Delimarket, inside Shopping del Sol, sits at the other end of the same segment: delicatessen, high-end goods and prepared dishes to take away.
Wholesale
Fortis Mayorista works cash and carry, in volume. It started in Pedro Juan Caballero in 2012 as the country's first wholesaler and now has stores in Mariano Roque Alonso, Asunción, Ciudad del Este, Coronel Oviedo, Concepción, Fernando de la Mora and its home city. Small retailers shop there, and so do families buying in bulk.
Where they are, city by city
Asunción holds the full range: it is the only city where all five formats coexist, including the two gourmet shops, which never left the capital.
Across Greater Asunción — San Lorenzo, Luque, Lambaré, Fernando de la Mora, Mariano Roque Alonso, Capiatá, Ñemby, Villa Elisa, Limpio, Ypané, San Antonio, Itauguá — coverage is dense: Biggie has stores in nearly all of them, and Luisito chose precisely those cities for its hypermarkets.
Ciudad del Este has Superseis, Stock, Salemma, Fortis and Biggie. Encarnación has three Superseis stores. The larger chains also reach Coronel Oviedo, Concepción, Pedro Juan Caballero, San Bernardino, Villarrica and Caacupé, among others.
Practical notes
Opening hours. Traditional supermarkets open around 7:30 or 8:00 and close between 20:00 and 21:30. Sunday depends on where the store is: Superseis, for one, publishes that its street-level stores in the metropolitan area close on Sundays, while those inside a shopping centre open with the centre and the ones in Ciudad del Este and Encarnación open every day. Biggie is the outright exception: its stores run 24 hours.
Payment. The large chains take international cards without trouble. Outside the metropolitan area it is worth carrying cash in guaraníes.
Online. Casa Rica, Salemma and the Grupo Vierci chains run online shops with home delivery in the metropolitan area.
Each directory listing shows the chain's branches with their address and their position on the map, so you can find the nearest one.
For the other side of shopping: the country's shopping centres, city by city, and our guide to where to shop in Asunción.