Jordi William Carnes sees the closure of smaller shops and those headed by the elderly who don’t have family members standing in line to take over the businesses as a positive thing. “The renovations help with two phenomena: one to make [the markets] younger, and also to make them bigger,” he told Metropolitan. “They have more space and they can enlarge their businesses.”
David Sánchez said that while the Ajuntament “give themselves medals” at the reopenings of renovated markets, almost all of the cost of the renovations is actually paid by the shop owners, the people who “have spent years and years working in the market, who paid to move in, who pay for the square metres, who pay their taxes each month. They paid for the floor space when they first got into the market, then they have to pay again after the renovations.”
In some cases, these increased costs are passed on to the consumer in the form of higher prices, although Jordi William Carnes maintained that, in the end, that’s a matter to be decided by the “intelligent” consumer. In locales in which dozens of vendors compete for the same clients, customers are able to pick and choose.
Other business owners said that the city council has to prioritise the markets better. “There have been four supermarkets built in the vicinity recently,” said Lidia Castelló, who runs Lagrana dried fruits and nuts store in the recently reopened Llibertat market in Gràcia. “They come one after the other. The Ajuntament says it wants to promote the markets, but acts otherwise.”
David Sánchez agreed, and said that the city council’s primary interest is collecting taxes. But at the same time, he’s most decidedly staying put. “You take risks, obviously, and it works out for some people and doesn’t for others,” he told Metropolitan.
“The numbers come out in the end, but it’s tough."
A little history from the IMMB’s website ( www.mercatsbcn.cat ):
- “The first documents written related to the markets of Barcelona date back to the end of the 10th century, although their origin could be earlier.
- “Since the Roman period, Barcelona has had intense commercial activity, thanks to its privileged situation open to the Mediterranean, with easy access by sea, and a starting point of different natural ways that go deep into the interior of Catalonia...
- “The first open market was organised on the other side of the Roman wall, on the site of the present Portal de l’Àngel. In this way a merchant neighbourhood emerged made up of little stalls and specialised shops, workshops or stores, that were to grow with the passing of the centuries.”
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