The shopping centers and franchises that, for the second year, have taken advantage of the extension of business hours to open on Sundays and holidays assure that this campaign has been better, with more customers and more turnover. Barcelona thus closes an initiative that this year started on May 3 and ended yesterday, and which, despite having an uneven and very localized follow-up on Passeig de Gràcia, Portal de l’Àngel and the large shopping centres, has been consolidated mainly as an attraction for tourists who visit the city. Beyond the center, monitoring in the commercial areas of the neighborhoods has been non-existent.
“Being able to tell our customers that the stores are open on Sunday is one more option that you give them and that they take advantage of… In fact, some did not understand that being a tourist city, the stores were closed on holidays,” maintains the director of a central hotel in Barcelona.
The good occupancy and tourist spending data this summer are directly related to the good results of sales on Sundays. “People move by habits, and since this is the second year of opening, the campaign has been consolidated,” says one of the partners of Barcelona Oberta, the commercial entity that struggled the most at the time to be able to open on weekends and holidays.
The sector maintains that the schedule agreed last year with the City Council – blinds up from 12 noon and until 8 pm – has been key. “It allows tourists to buy and do other things, visit a museum or go to the beach…”, say the merchants.
The president of Barcelona Oberta, Gabriel Jené, states that the opening “has become an attraction to attract visitors.” The majority profile is that of the North American customer, the most numerous foreigner this year in Barcelona, ??who benefits from a more favorable currency exchange rate and the 15% tax free discount. Also in terms of volume, the French and Dutch stand out in El Corte Inglés in Plaza Catalunya. Accessories, perfumery, jewelry and fashion – in addition to high-end restaurants – are the main attraction for these tourists, and the franchises of these products have been, along with shopping centers, the most interested in opening.
However, beyond Passeig de Gràcia – and even on the same avenue – many shops have chosen to close on holidays. Also in the neighborhoods. In the surroundings of the very busy Sagrada Família, for example, for the second year in a row, only souvenir shops have been open on Sundays and holidays. “Local commerce has not opened,” confirms Pròsper Puig, president of the city’s other large commercial group, Barcelona Comerç. “Even a few meters from Paseo de Gracia, no one opens,” he reiterates.
Puig celebrates that the franchises and shopping centers that have opened are satisfied with the campaign, but raises the need to evaluate with data what the real monitoring of establishments has been “to assess things well and make decisions adjusted to reality; We have asked the City Council again and again, but there is no way,” he laments.
Pròsper Puig invites “a general reflection on the tourism model we have because there are those with high purchasing power, but there are also many who do not have it and we should define what type of commerce we want and what we prioritize.”
