The Gremi de Restauració de Barcelona does not want kiosks to be able to sell coffee and packaged food. This possibility will be generalized (in some kiosks it already occurs now) from the moment that the modification of the municipal regulations enters into force. Now, the minimum space that they must allocate to newspapers and magazines is 80%. As of the change, it will be only 51%. The Gremi considers that it is “unfair competition and intrusion”, and they announce mobilizations to avoid it. They say that, in this way, the kiosks will become “undercover bars” and that they will compete with competitive advantages, since the fee they pay is much lower than that paid by the bars.
Things began to go awry the day the kiosks began to sell tobacco, chewing gum and sweets, without the tobacconists and stores raising a cry to heaven. They are also unfair competition, right? Over the years the offer has increased. Fridge magnets for foreigners, sunglasses, football shirts… The reverse is the case in some supermarkets, such as Bonpreu, where there is a generous assortment of newspapers and magazines, without the Professional Association of Press Vendors protesting.
Four years ago, The New Yorker published a very interesting report: “The newsstand of the future will have no press.” In the list of products they found in the ones in New York there is everything: snacks, drinks, organic lentil salads, electronic cigarettes, lottery, green cabbage chips, instant cameras (they are back in fashion), electronic products (among which which headphones for the mobile), dry shampoos… But also, with the arrival of hipsters, wax for the mustache and combs for the beard. In addition to electronic toothbrushes and vibrators to give away in an emergency. The kiosks are no longer what they used to be, it is true. As Aristophanes often said, “every past time was different.”
