Mercadona cover letter examples by experience level

Use this example

A Mercadona cover letter is a carta de presentación: one page, written in Spanish, naming the section of the store you work, one measured result from it, the shifts you can cover, and whether you are already authorized to work in Spain.

This guide is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to Mercadona or any other retailer, and it contains no inside knowledge of any company's hiring. It uses what the company publishes openly, alongside official European sources, as one worked example. Everything here applies to any Spanish or European supermarket chain.

EURES, the European Employment Services network, treats the letter as more than a formality for Spain: it is "how you present yourself to the company and make a first impression", and it should be concise, formal, and not a standard letter reused for any advertisement (EURES, living and working conditions, Spain). That is a stronger position than the letter holds in US retail.

Guide to a Mercadona cover letter

This guide and the corresponding Mercadona cover letter example will cover:

• How to structure the letter, paragraph by paragraph
• The Spanish opening and closing formulas, and why they matter
• What a measured result looks like on a supermarket section
• Where the work authorization sentence goes, and what it should say

How to write a Mercadona cover letter

A Mercadona cover letter example you can adapt

Written here in English so you can see the structure. Send it in Spanish.

Estimada Sra. Ferrándiz:
I am applying for the Especialista de Frescos position at your Benimaclet store, reference FR-4471. I have six years in Spanish supermarkets, four of them running the fishmonger and charcuterie counters, and I hold the food handling certificate, 60 hours of basic prevention of occupational risks training and a transpalet ticket. I am available for split shifts, Saturdays, and the August and Christmas campaigns.
The number I would bring with me is waste. My section was running fresh waste at 3.8% of sales, most of it created in the last two hours of trading. I rebuilt the cutting plan so that the counter was stocked to the afternoon pattern rather than the morning one, moved the markdown forward by ninety minutes, and brought waste down to 2.1% across two financial years. Over the same period the section held the store's highest counter service scores and passed two external food safety audits with no critical findings.
Your Benimaclet store has a larger fresh operation than the one I work in now and a student population that shifts the trading pattern late into the evening, which is the part of the day my markdown work was built around. I would also be glad to cover till and replenishment on delivery days, as I do currently.
I hold Spanish citizenship and a current Social Security number, my food handling certificate was renewed in 2025, and I can start on fifteen days' notice. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Write it in Spanish, and use the right formulas

EURES states that a CV and covering letter for Spain should be drafted in Spanish, and that "knowledge of Spanish is essential for working in Spain" (EURES, living and working conditions, Spain). Send it in Spanish even when the advertisement appears in English. Spanish business correspondence is more formal than American, and the conventional formulas are a small competence signal.

Note the colon after the greeting, which is the Spanish convention where English uses a comma. Keep sentences short; EURES advises direct language, simple sentences and avoiding acronyms and abbreviations.

The middle paragraph: one number from your own section

Supermarket work generates measurable numbers on every section, and a letter that carries one is rare enough to be memorable: waste or merma as a percentage of sales, out-of-stock or roturas, transactions an hour, till variance, counter customers a day, kilos sold, audit scores, staff trained.

Give it a before, an after, a period, and the thing you actually changed. The change is what proves it was you rather than the season.

For a first supermarket job, use volume and reliability instead: hours worked alongside study, shifts covered at short notice, a campaign season completed.

What the work authorization sentence should say

One sentence, in the closing paragraph, stated plainly.

If you are a Spanish, EU, EEA or Swiss citizen, say so. EURES sets out that EU and EEA citizens need only a valid identity card or passport to enter Spain, and register at the Foreign Nationals' Office for an NIE within three months of arrival. If you have one, give it.

If you are a non-EU citizen, EURES states you require a residence permit to live in Spain. Say what you hold and until when. If you do not hold one yet, say you are seeking sponsorship rather than implying otherwise; the permission has to exist before the employment does.

Everyone working in Spain also obtains a Social Security membership number using form TA-1 (EURES, same source). You do not need it to apply, but it sets when you can realistically start.

Key takeaways for a Mercadona cover letter

1. Write it in Spanish, one page, with the formal greeting and a colon.
2. Name the store, the reference number and the section in the first sentence.
3. List certificates with their hours, not as a general claim to be trained.
4. Give one number from your own section with a before, an after and a period.
5. Offer split shifts, Saturdays and campaign availability if you have it.
6. State your work authorization as one plain sentence.
7. Write a new letter for each advertisement; EURES specifically advises against circulars.

Pair it with a matching Mercadona resume, and build both in 15 minutes.

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