Baubles, Bangles And Beads

Little shops, little trinkets, bangles and beads, sashes and scarves, colours of this, colours of that. Little shops like little markets. Little shops like little markets which, when the market is in full swing, blend seamlessly into the street stalls of little trinkets, bangles and beads, sashes and scarves, colours of this, colours of that. When the market packs up and it is any other day, the little shops remain, the little shops that have suddenly sprung up, selling their little trinkets and all the rest.

This is the Calle Mayor in Alcúdia, the "high street" from the town hall down to the Mallorca gate opposite the auditorium. Disappeared from this street is the one-time electrical store of S'Estel. There are still the two real estate agencies and the two bars, but otherwise it is trinket street, colourful t-shirt or scarf street, bangle street. If New Orleans can have its Bourbon Street, then Alcúdia now has its Bauble Street.

There are not so many little shops, but there are enough. Maybe there are too many. They look pretty and what they sell looks pretty, but why do they all somehow seem the same? They meld into the old town atmosphere and environment of the high street like the shutters of and the plant pots in front of the stone facades of the townhouses. The fabrics they display become part of the fabric of the street itself. They are enchanting, but why do they all somehow seem the same?

Bauble Street is an example of what happens when new shops open and follow the leaders. Years ago, maybe still the case nowadays, a road like Tottenham Court Road in London was known as the street to go to for hi-fi. Every store seemed the same - shiny technology, tax free for the Arab clientele. Yet this was a case of clustering that made some sense. Despite the competition from every other store, here was a whole marketplace to come and see and buy the latest gear. To not be there was to somehow be invisible. The comparison with Bauble Street may seem far-fetched, but it is the same principle, or would be if the wares were big-ticket items, which they are not; obviously they are not. One guesses that some might descend on the street and the little shops if one knows that there are a number with similar gifts and small items to take home, but otherwise one has the impression of people opening shops with certain products because someone else has done so with the same or similar certain products. As such, it is rather indicative of what happens locally. And that is that, ultimately, there is too much of the same. When shop owners, bar owners, whoever, say times are tough, you do then wonder why they went and opened another shop with the same, or they opened yet another bar. There is in fact now a third bar along Bauble Street, and nip across the main road by the Mallorca gate and a bar has sprung up on the corner of the small parking area, opposite the old-established Bar Muralles.

Everything the same, and too much of the same. Shame though in the case of Bauble Street because it does all look nice. But looking nice and making money are two very different things.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Thomas Dolby, and the scientist was Magnus Pyke, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IlHgbOWj4o. Today's title - and this was?

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