In 2012 the national government introduced a round of measures designed to liberalise the retail sector and opening hours. An experiment in fourteen cities across Spain, including parts of Palma, that allowed shops to adopt all but unlimited opening hours all year round (to include Sundays and holidays) tested the impact of opening-hours liberalisation in cities with a large tourist presence. According to statistics compiled by the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (open university), liberalisation would add 0.78% to national GDP, which translated as 8,263 million euros and 16,272 jobs.
The system was thus to be extended to what were already known by the acronym ZGAT (zonas de gran afluencia turística - areas with large tourist influx). ZGAT municipalities across Spain (some towns or cities can have more than one such area) were to be able to decide whether or not they wanted to liberalise opening hours by declaring themselves all-year-round ZGATs. This measure was adopted in the Balearics under the region's Commercial Law approved in October 2014. Under this law, opening hours are normally restricted to a maximum of ninety hours a week for all working days (including Saturdays) and a maximum of sixteen days a year of Sunday and holiday opening, but ZGATs, which already had liberalised Sunday/holiday opening hours in the summer, were to be allowed to apply these to the whole year.
In Mallorca there are a number of towns which are not ZGATs, meaning that the potential for all-year liberalisation does not apply to them. In eleven municipalities, Palma being one of them, ZGAT is applicable to only certain parts of the municipality. In nineteen others, ZGAT applies to the whole town, one of these being Alcúdia. It, as with other ZGAT areas, operates opening hours according to two seasons, the summer season starting on 15 March and finishing at the end of October. As a ZGAT, shops in Alcúdia have been able to open much when they like during the summer, a situation which will continue. But only certain types of shop will now be permitted to open on Sundays and holidays during the winter, because Alcúdia town hall has rejected the notion of making the town all-year-round ZGAT.
An immediate impact of the town hall's decision has been, or appears to have been, that the two Eroski supermarkets that had been opening on a Sunday are now closed and will be until March. Notices direct customers to the store in neighbouring Sa Pobla, a town which, rather bafflingly, is a ZGAT and, because its town hall has declared it to be, an all-year-round ZGAT, to boot. Alcúdia's rejection came after small businesses lobbied against liberalisation. With one eye on the next election perhaps, the town hall sided with the small businesses, mayor Coloma Terrasa noting (and tellingly so, one feels) that now was not the time for liberalisation.
Small business associations across the island have been up in arms over ZGAT extension, claiming that it is designed to help only the larger retailers, those with shopfloors of more than 300 square metres. This size limit is a further aspect that has to be considered. There are general exceptions when it comes to Sunday opening restriction, such as with newsagents and, subject to certain provisions, shops under 300 square metres.
The Eroski supermarkets in Alcúdia are an interesting case. One presumes that it is the town hall's rejection of all-year ZGAT that has led to their closure, but then how was it that they used to be open on Sundays in winter? I don't have an answer to that, but the small business association in a different town, Manacor, has claimed that there has been an abuse of ZGAT.
It needs stressing that objections to ZGAT extension are based on competition and not on a notion of keeping Sunday special. Whether larger supermarkets being open on Sundays in winter would make a great deal of competitive difference is a moot point. Whether it is necessary for them to be open at all on Sundays is another. Areas of large tourist influx? In winter? Alcúdia isn't, but it is more likely to have what tourists are around than a town like Sa Pobla. With the best will in the world, it attracts comparatively few tourists in summer, begging a question as to why it has ever been a ZGAT. If Sa Pobla might be an anomaly, then Vilafranca most definitely is. How does it qualify as a ZGAT and an all-year one, its town hall having adopted the measure? If it can be a ZGAT, then why not, for example, Artà?
The law is confusing in application and consequence. One rule for one town, one rule for the next. If it was improved competitiveness that the government was hoping for, then this is no way to achieve it.
* The decision by Alcúdia town hall has now been reversed, so Alcúdia is an all-year ZGAT and the large supermarkets are able to open on Sundays and holidays all-year round.
Showing posts with label Opening hours. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Opening hours. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Wednesday, January 07, 2015
Never Been Easy: Noise in Mallorca
Imagine that you are in Mallorca one hundred years ago. You are in a village. What can you hear? Voices, metallic tools striking earth or object, a newfangled automobile, animals. Even in Palma, things wouldn't have been so different, apart from there having been that many more voices, more automobiles plus ships and very occasionally by then an aircraft. Other noises would have been the music bands of the fiesta or the bells of the church; otherwise, noise was unobtrusive.
Of developments in the twentieth century, two were arguably more profound than others. Noise and light. They were profound because of their assault on senses. Both owed much to electricity which was, one hundred years ago, still in limited supply on Mallorca. Once supply was assured and grew, once other technologies advanced or were created, the twentieth century invented noise and light pollution.
By the start of the tourism revolution, noise would still have been contained, but once Mallorca's industrial revolution arrived, the collective decibel level shot up. So many more voices, so many more vehicles, airplanes, and also the sound of tourism - entertainment. While Mallorca had its clubs before the revolution really started, they were mostly indoor and mostly confined to Palma. The club, the entertainment offer, the gramophone player went al fresco in coastal resorts.
Tourism is noise. Noise is tourism. It is the noise of millions of voices, cheers, shouts, screams, laughs. The noise of the pool aerobics pumping a beat at ten in the morning. The noise of the evening playback, karaoke, tribute act, live act. Noise, that of music and voices rising into the night skies above terraces, has existed as long as modern tourism in Mallorca has, but once upon a time that noise extended with little control into the wee small hours. It was noise that seemed appropriate and acceptable, the noise of enjoyment of balmy summer nights, starlit skies and romance, either personal or simply that of the holiday.
On 26 March 1987, the Balearics introduced Decreto 20/1987: Measures of protection against acoustic contamination of the environment. There were laws already in place, national ones, that dealt with noise, but the Balearics decree of 1987 was pioneering for a region of Spain. One of its articles referred specifically to the noise from "establishments open to the public" which did not have adequate soundproofing. It had to cease by midnight. Curiously, and from what I can see in this decree, there was no specific mention of outdoor entertainment. Nevertheless, a midnight threshold for such entertainment was to catch on, if only at the level of some municipalities. The twelve o'clock curfew came in.
Twenty years later, a law was passed. Ley 1/2007 "against the acoustic contamination of the Balearic Islands" drew on European legislation and made certain stipulations in respect of what were called "zones of special acoustic protection". These were zones with elevated noise levels on account of the existence of numerous activities, shows and public establishments; essentially, therefore, though not exclusively, tourist zones. This law established that there had to be restricted hours placed on activities which, directly or indirectly, caused these elevated noise levels. In its preamble it referred to "individuals' indisputable rights to relaxation, health and privacy", to the rights of citizens to have acoustic environmental quality and to the "main productive sector of the Balearic Islands", i.e. tourism. The preamble recognised, and said as much, that it was no easy task to reconcile these competing demands.
And of course, it never has been easy. Even had tourism been developed in specific tourist-only areas, absent of residential accommodation, it still wouldn't be easy. There is, or so one concludes from an overwhelming impression through the likes of Trip Advisor, an aversion among holidaymakers to noise going on late. Maybe even in those romantic days they didn't appreciate it either, though one feels that there was less opposition back then. There again, these are the views of British holidaymakers. The Spanish would tend to have a different take.
The twenty-first century has been one of a continuing fight against the noise pollution which sprang up with tourism but which was only belatedly tackled. Limiters, terrace curfews, these are evidence of this fight which has been occurring in the resorts for years now, and it is one extended to the La Lonja area of Palma, which isn't a specifically tourist zone but is one of those zones of special protection highlighted in the 2007 law.
I am personally inclined towards the romantic view, the one of those hot summer nights when there weren't the controls, but I am also inclined to a different productive view of the 2007 law and one that is increasing in momentum, namely that the Spanish day and night needs changing and that more sleep is required. It has never been easy? It would have been a hundred years ago.
Of developments in the twentieth century, two were arguably more profound than others. Noise and light. They were profound because of their assault on senses. Both owed much to electricity which was, one hundred years ago, still in limited supply on Mallorca. Once supply was assured and grew, once other technologies advanced or were created, the twentieth century invented noise and light pollution.
By the start of the tourism revolution, noise would still have been contained, but once Mallorca's industrial revolution arrived, the collective decibel level shot up. So many more voices, so many more vehicles, airplanes, and also the sound of tourism - entertainment. While Mallorca had its clubs before the revolution really started, they were mostly indoor and mostly confined to Palma. The club, the entertainment offer, the gramophone player went al fresco in coastal resorts.
Tourism is noise. Noise is tourism. It is the noise of millions of voices, cheers, shouts, screams, laughs. The noise of the pool aerobics pumping a beat at ten in the morning. The noise of the evening playback, karaoke, tribute act, live act. Noise, that of music and voices rising into the night skies above terraces, has existed as long as modern tourism in Mallorca has, but once upon a time that noise extended with little control into the wee small hours. It was noise that seemed appropriate and acceptable, the noise of enjoyment of balmy summer nights, starlit skies and romance, either personal or simply that of the holiday.
On 26 March 1987, the Balearics introduced Decreto 20/1987: Measures of protection against acoustic contamination of the environment. There were laws already in place, national ones, that dealt with noise, but the Balearics decree of 1987 was pioneering for a region of Spain. One of its articles referred specifically to the noise from "establishments open to the public" which did not have adequate soundproofing. It had to cease by midnight. Curiously, and from what I can see in this decree, there was no specific mention of outdoor entertainment. Nevertheless, a midnight threshold for such entertainment was to catch on, if only at the level of some municipalities. The twelve o'clock curfew came in.
Twenty years later, a law was passed. Ley 1/2007 "against the acoustic contamination of the Balearic Islands" drew on European legislation and made certain stipulations in respect of what were called "zones of special acoustic protection". These were zones with elevated noise levels on account of the existence of numerous activities, shows and public establishments; essentially, therefore, though not exclusively, tourist zones. This law established that there had to be restricted hours placed on activities which, directly or indirectly, caused these elevated noise levels. In its preamble it referred to "individuals' indisputable rights to relaxation, health and privacy", to the rights of citizens to have acoustic environmental quality and to the "main productive sector of the Balearic Islands", i.e. tourism. The preamble recognised, and said as much, that it was no easy task to reconcile these competing demands.
And of course, it never has been easy. Even had tourism been developed in specific tourist-only areas, absent of residential accommodation, it still wouldn't be easy. There is, or so one concludes from an overwhelming impression through the likes of Trip Advisor, an aversion among holidaymakers to noise going on late. Maybe even in those romantic days they didn't appreciate it either, though one feels that there was less opposition back then. There again, these are the views of British holidaymakers. The Spanish would tend to have a different take.
The twenty-first century has been one of a continuing fight against the noise pollution which sprang up with tourism but which was only belatedly tackled. Limiters, terrace curfews, these are evidence of this fight which has been occurring in the resorts for years now, and it is one extended to the La Lonja area of Palma, which isn't a specifically tourist zone but is one of those zones of special protection highlighted in the 2007 law.
I am personally inclined towards the romantic view, the one of those hot summer nights when there weren't the controls, but I am also inclined to a different productive view of the 2007 law and one that is increasing in momentum, namely that the Spanish day and night needs changing and that more sleep is required. It has never been easy? It would have been a hundred years ago.
Tuesday, April 09, 2013
MALLORCA TODAY - Albufera park closing early because of lack of staff
The Albufera nature park, the reception to which is in Playa de Muro, has been closing earlier than it should do. The park, management for which has now transferred to the Balearics Institute for Nature (a governmental body), should stay open until 6pm but has been shutting up to two hours before. Visitors can still get into the park, despite this, but without any control, a situation criticised by environmental watchdog GOB.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
Tuesday, June 05, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Son Real visitors' centre re-opens
After being closed for nearly six months, the visitors' centre at the Son Real finca near Can Picafort is open again but only on weekdays between 09.00 and 16.00. The price of entrance to the centre is three euros for everyone over the age of 12. Entrance to the finca itself and to its walks, such as to the ancient necropolis, will be free, as will be parking. The finca will be open from 10.00 to 19.00 until the end of September and to 17.00 between October and March.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Open All Hours (Eventually)
A Sunday morning. The time is just past half nine. The place is the port area of Alcúdia. I have parked the car and am walking towards a newsagents. On the other side of the road something catches my eye. It is the neon light of a shop. I stop and stare. There are lights on inside the shop and there are also people inside the shop.
What had caused me to do a double-take? Well, look again at the day and the time. And if I tell you that the shop wasn't a shop as such but a hairdressers, then you might begin to understand why I was taken aback. Early on a Sunday in winter, you expect only the newsagents and the odd bar to be open.
Opening hours in Mallorca are virtually a metaphor for a more general Spanish uncompetitiveness. They can seem arbitrary, unreliable and infuriating. The siesta break is the most infuriating aspect of all. In an effort to improve productivity, the national commission for the rationalisation of Spanish working hours has wanted to scrap the siesta. Even if it were to succeed, the chances are the siesta would still be observed, if it suited shopowners to do so.
For all the infuriation, one considers local opening hours with the benefit of an Anglo-Saxon mentality and culture. It isn't the same culture or mentality to that of the Mallorcan and, in turn, the Mallorcan mentality is not the same as that in Catalonia or Madrid.
This mentality was explained by Guy de Forestier in "Beloved Majorcans". Time itself adopts its own definition and so determines attitudes to opening or closing, while the process of selling is one in which the last thing the Mallorcan shopowner or worker appears to wish to do is to actually sell anything. Time may have its own definition in Mallorca, but it has moved on since de Forestier was writing. But not so much that time has come to re-define itself. Except ...
The apparent indifference to the practice of commerce is no longer as obvious as it once might have been. A hairdressing salon open at 9.30 on a Sunday morning is an example of how things have changed, and for hairdressing salons that have been caught in a price and competition war courtesy of franchises and Asian owners, it has become necessary to be more flexible. Nevertheless, it was with genuine surprise that I saw that the salon was open.
Opening hours, in addition to culture and mentality, are a thing of union and business pressures and of government regulation and classification. A micro-management of the retail industry might seem outmoded, but it isn't so long ago that England and Wales endured the wrangle over keeping Sunday special. De-regulation of opening hours, even for the Protestant work ethic-minded Anglo-Saxon (or Celt), has existed for less than 20 years, while in ultra-efficient Germany, liberalisation of opening hours continues to be resisted.
Business pressures (and, unlike Germany, religious pressures are not really a factor) have helped to hold back liberalisation. These are pressures not from large organisations but from small shopowners who fear the consequences of the increased costs of longer opening (assuming that they would open of course). As such, this aspect of the debate is not dissimilar to that which occurred in England. It is one that the regional government in the Balearics is well aware of, but the government is minded to de-regulate, albeit that it has hinted that it would not go so far as Madrid where 24/7 opening is now permissible.
In order to facilitate this, there would need to be a scrapping of the current system of commercial classification as it applies to different towns and indeed parts of towns. In "zones" which are considered to have great tourist "flow", there is nothing to stop most shops staying open all day every day from mid-March to the end of October.
Categorisation by tourist zone means, however, that some parts of Palma can be open and others not. It also means that some towns which are only questionably "tourist", such as Sa Pobla, can be open whereas Santa Margalida town cannot be. But then there is the rest of the year when there is no tourist flow, or maybe there would be this flow if the shops could open. To be honest, I am none too sure that the hairdressers should in fact be open on a Sunday.
De-regulation will occur and open all hours will, more or less, become the norm. But for which shops? Mentality takes a long time to alter, if indeed it ever does.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
What had caused me to do a double-take? Well, look again at the day and the time. And if I tell you that the shop wasn't a shop as such but a hairdressers, then you might begin to understand why I was taken aback. Early on a Sunday in winter, you expect only the newsagents and the odd bar to be open.
Opening hours in Mallorca are virtually a metaphor for a more general Spanish uncompetitiveness. They can seem arbitrary, unreliable and infuriating. The siesta break is the most infuriating aspect of all. In an effort to improve productivity, the national commission for the rationalisation of Spanish working hours has wanted to scrap the siesta. Even if it were to succeed, the chances are the siesta would still be observed, if it suited shopowners to do so.
For all the infuriation, one considers local opening hours with the benefit of an Anglo-Saxon mentality and culture. It isn't the same culture or mentality to that of the Mallorcan and, in turn, the Mallorcan mentality is not the same as that in Catalonia or Madrid.
This mentality was explained by Guy de Forestier in "Beloved Majorcans". Time itself adopts its own definition and so determines attitudes to opening or closing, while the process of selling is one in which the last thing the Mallorcan shopowner or worker appears to wish to do is to actually sell anything. Time may have its own definition in Mallorca, but it has moved on since de Forestier was writing. But not so much that time has come to re-define itself. Except ...
The apparent indifference to the practice of commerce is no longer as obvious as it once might have been. A hairdressing salon open at 9.30 on a Sunday morning is an example of how things have changed, and for hairdressing salons that have been caught in a price and competition war courtesy of franchises and Asian owners, it has become necessary to be more flexible. Nevertheless, it was with genuine surprise that I saw that the salon was open.
Opening hours, in addition to culture and mentality, are a thing of union and business pressures and of government regulation and classification. A micro-management of the retail industry might seem outmoded, but it isn't so long ago that England and Wales endured the wrangle over keeping Sunday special. De-regulation of opening hours, even for the Protestant work ethic-minded Anglo-Saxon (or Celt), has existed for less than 20 years, while in ultra-efficient Germany, liberalisation of opening hours continues to be resisted.
Business pressures (and, unlike Germany, religious pressures are not really a factor) have helped to hold back liberalisation. These are pressures not from large organisations but from small shopowners who fear the consequences of the increased costs of longer opening (assuming that they would open of course). As such, this aspect of the debate is not dissimilar to that which occurred in England. It is one that the regional government in the Balearics is well aware of, but the government is minded to de-regulate, albeit that it has hinted that it would not go so far as Madrid where 24/7 opening is now permissible.
In order to facilitate this, there would need to be a scrapping of the current system of commercial classification as it applies to different towns and indeed parts of towns. In "zones" which are considered to have great tourist "flow", there is nothing to stop most shops staying open all day every day from mid-March to the end of October.
Categorisation by tourist zone means, however, that some parts of Palma can be open and others not. It also means that some towns which are only questionably "tourist", such as Sa Pobla, can be open whereas Santa Margalida town cannot be. But then there is the rest of the year when there is no tourist flow, or maybe there would be this flow if the shops could open. To be honest, I am none too sure that the hairdressers should in fact be open on a Sunday.
De-regulation will occur and open all hours will, more or less, become the norm. But for which shops? Mentality takes a long time to alter, if indeed it ever does.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Sunday, May 02, 2010
Early Doors: Shut on the first day of the season
Yesterday was the first day of the season - I think I might have mentioned this in the previous entry. First day of the season and the first day when tourists flock in. Or so one might hope. But even if they do or don't suddenly descend on the resorts en masse, the instruments of tourism should, you might also hope, be fully functional.
It's a Saturday in Alcúdia, the old town. I am passing what was the tourist office near to the town hall building. It has closed and will re-open some time as a health centre, or so I am told. There are notices informing visitors that there is a new office. This doesn't prevent one set of tourists and then another, a few moments later, trying to get into the silent office. I am in full being-helpful-to tourists mode. I may not actually hug them, but I am on hand to give them a hand. Lucky them. There is a new office, I explain, and give directions, even if they are also on the notices. Thank you, say some Germans. Thank you, say some French. And off they go. I'm the tourists' new best friend. I wish I hadn't bothered.
I remembered that I had to go to the horror that is the redeveloped Can Ramis building, the one that houses the new tourist office, and take some photos. So off I go, thinking that I'll have a word with the tourism folk while I'm there. Can Ramis may be a disaster in terms of architectural misplacement, but as I near it I think that the tourist office looks quite impressive. Big I's in blue making it clear what it is. Lots of glass showing its interior. This is a good idea. Not intimidating. However ... It's the first day of the season, and the office is shut. To be fair, it does say, on another notice, this one on the door of the new office, that it is closed on Saturdays, but surely, I also think, they could have made an exception on this, the first day of the season.
Having taken a couple of snaps of the rotten building, having been startled by an art exhibition in one of the display areas that looked like it was stuffed full of merchandising for sports companies, having gone upstairs to another exhibition that might just as easily have been housed in a potting shed - given the number of pots that were the exhibits - I head off towards the auditorium. I walk past the reception to the Roman ruins. A group of Swedish tourists are trying the gate. They shouldn't have bothered. There is, after all, a bloody great padlock on it. First day of the season, and Alcúdia's main tourist attraction is shut. To be fair, there is a notice saying that it is closed on holidays, and the first of May is one such, but I can't help but think that they might have made an exception on this, the first day of the season.
It has been remarked before now that at times an impression is given that Mallorca does what it can to put off tourists. This would be unfair to the Pollentia site and especially to the Alcúdia tourist office, but why close on this day, of all days? But them's will be the rules. Working hours, union regulations, the stiff arm of bureaucracy. Yet here, with this closed office and this closed attraction, you have everything that isn't quite right with attitudes towards tourism.
QUIZ -
Yesterday: Bruce Springsteen, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_JxD0l2uPo
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
It's a Saturday in Alcúdia, the old town. I am passing what was the tourist office near to the town hall building. It has closed and will re-open some time as a health centre, or so I am told. There are notices informing visitors that there is a new office. This doesn't prevent one set of tourists and then another, a few moments later, trying to get into the silent office. I am in full being-helpful-to tourists mode. I may not actually hug them, but I am on hand to give them a hand. Lucky them. There is a new office, I explain, and give directions, even if they are also on the notices. Thank you, say some Germans. Thank you, say some French. And off they go. I'm the tourists' new best friend. I wish I hadn't bothered.
I remembered that I had to go to the horror that is the redeveloped Can Ramis building, the one that houses the new tourist office, and take some photos. So off I go, thinking that I'll have a word with the tourism folk while I'm there. Can Ramis may be a disaster in terms of architectural misplacement, but as I near it I think that the tourist office looks quite impressive. Big I's in blue making it clear what it is. Lots of glass showing its interior. This is a good idea. Not intimidating. However ... It's the first day of the season, and the office is shut. To be fair, it does say, on another notice, this one on the door of the new office, that it is closed on Saturdays, but surely, I also think, they could have made an exception on this, the first day of the season.
Having taken a couple of snaps of the rotten building, having been startled by an art exhibition in one of the display areas that looked like it was stuffed full of merchandising for sports companies, having gone upstairs to another exhibition that might just as easily have been housed in a potting shed - given the number of pots that were the exhibits - I head off towards the auditorium. I walk past the reception to the Roman ruins. A group of Swedish tourists are trying the gate. They shouldn't have bothered. There is, after all, a bloody great padlock on it. First day of the season, and Alcúdia's main tourist attraction is shut. To be fair, there is a notice saying that it is closed on holidays, and the first of May is one such, but I can't help but think that they might have made an exception on this, the first day of the season.
It has been remarked before now that at times an impression is given that Mallorca does what it can to put off tourists. This would be unfair to the Pollentia site and especially to the Alcúdia tourist office, but why close on this day, of all days? But them's will be the rules. Working hours, union regulations, the stiff arm of bureaucracy. Yet here, with this closed office and this closed attraction, you have everything that isn't quite right with attitudes towards tourism.
QUIZ -
Yesterday: Bruce Springsteen, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_JxD0l2uPo
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Open All Hours
A familiar - very familiar - gripe about Palma is that it is normally shut. Great hordes of tourists would otherwise descend on the Mallorcan capital, handing over large amounts of folding notes in a binge of around-the-clock eating, drinking and shopping. Well, that's the rather hopeful theory. The practice is quite different. Especially at weekends.
Whether a less rigid application of opening hours, or more aptly closing hours, would make much difference to tourism is something of a moot point. Nevertheless, the intrusion of siesta shutting and non-opening after Saturday lunchtime do both seem somewhat anachronistic to visitors, in particular those now conditioned to liberal opening hours, e.g. the British.
One thing that the tourism minister mentioned in the interview I referred to yesterday was that there needs to be a change in terms of attitudes towards working hours and practices. There does, she argues, need to be greater flexibility, and she is absolutely right. And Palma needs such a change more than anywhere, but one could also lump in the major resorts as well.
With this in mind, there was a not uninteresting piece in "The Diario" yesterday which looked at the development of 24-hour Palma. It may have gone unnoticed by many, but the capital is shifting towards the type of model familiar to those who visit or live in capitals and major cities elsewhere. Over the past ten years, so the article explains, there has been a growth in the number of establishments which are open all hours or nearly all hours (closing only for a couple of hours to clean up). These include restaurants, pharmacies and bakeries. They may not include shops, but something has been stirring, and it might also be illuminating to note that one of the more popular places is one serving burgers and tex-mex (they'd love that news in certain parts of the island, e.g. Puerto Pollensa - or possibly not).
The obstacles to more liberal hours of working and opening are obvious enough, and they come from the unions, church, some political parties as well as from entrenched attitudes that place service fairly well down the list of reasons to actually be in business. It is curious that when fiesta comes to town, along with the hordes, some places will choose to close. But more than this, is the attitude towards time. If a shop or bar announces that it will open at a certain time, then that is precisely what it should do. If an appointment is made, it should be for a particular time and not some vague "mediodía" or whenever, which often means that it is not met. The minister also referred to productivity. I'm not sure this word was being used correctly, but it was still appropriate to mention it; the loss of productivity because of the time malaise is incalculable.
An argument that has been trotted out over the past couple of years of "crisis" is that businesses should be prepared to be open much longer. It is an argument that I have sympathy with. The counter-view is that it costs too much, in terms of staff and energy, to do so, expenses that businesses can ill afford. It is also an argument one can sympathise with. But fundamentally, it boils down to attitude and to a greater focus on the customer and on service. It may be taking time for the message to get across, but in parts of Palma at least, it is.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Whether a less rigid application of opening hours, or more aptly closing hours, would make much difference to tourism is something of a moot point. Nevertheless, the intrusion of siesta shutting and non-opening after Saturday lunchtime do both seem somewhat anachronistic to visitors, in particular those now conditioned to liberal opening hours, e.g. the British.
One thing that the tourism minister mentioned in the interview I referred to yesterday was that there needs to be a change in terms of attitudes towards working hours and practices. There does, she argues, need to be greater flexibility, and she is absolutely right. And Palma needs such a change more than anywhere, but one could also lump in the major resorts as well.
With this in mind, there was a not uninteresting piece in "The Diario" yesterday which looked at the development of 24-hour Palma. It may have gone unnoticed by many, but the capital is shifting towards the type of model familiar to those who visit or live in capitals and major cities elsewhere. Over the past ten years, so the article explains, there has been a growth in the number of establishments which are open all hours or nearly all hours (closing only for a couple of hours to clean up). These include restaurants, pharmacies and bakeries. They may not include shops, but something has been stirring, and it might also be illuminating to note that one of the more popular places is one serving burgers and tex-mex (they'd love that news in certain parts of the island, e.g. Puerto Pollensa - or possibly not).
The obstacles to more liberal hours of working and opening are obvious enough, and they come from the unions, church, some political parties as well as from entrenched attitudes that place service fairly well down the list of reasons to actually be in business. It is curious that when fiesta comes to town, along with the hordes, some places will choose to close. But more than this, is the attitude towards time. If a shop or bar announces that it will open at a certain time, then that is precisely what it should do. If an appointment is made, it should be for a particular time and not some vague "mediodía" or whenever, which often means that it is not met. The minister also referred to productivity. I'm not sure this word was being used correctly, but it was still appropriate to mention it; the loss of productivity because of the time malaise is incalculable.
An argument that has been trotted out over the past couple of years of "crisis" is that businesses should be prepared to be open much longer. It is an argument that I have sympathy with. The counter-view is that it costs too much, in terms of staff and energy, to do so, expenses that businesses can ill afford. It is also an argument one can sympathise with. But fundamentally, it boils down to attitude and to a greater focus on the customer and on service. It may be taking time for the message to get across, but in parts of Palma at least, it is.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Working 9 to 1
A survey has found that 97% feel that the opening hours for public services should be extended. That is 97% of citizens in the Balearics. Not a bunch of moaning foreigners but everyone. It is a heartening statistic.
It is an absurdity that offices operate such short hours. Try this one - the Trafico place in Palma. It deals with everything to do with cars and vehicles. It is one office. There are no others. It is open Monday to Friday from nine in the morning till one in the afternoon for "customer" service. Four hours for everyone on the island. Go past Trafico at around half eight in the morning and you will see them starting to queue. By nine, that queue stretches well down the street. It's a nonsense. Try also the office for foreign matters not far from Trafico. Go stand in the baking sun in the queue there and then wait for three hours or so inside. If you arrive too late you won't get a ticket for that day and will have to go back the next day. They close at two. Imagine you've schlepped down to Palma from Alcúdia only to be told that you have to do it all over again tomorrow. It is not just foreigners who are treated like something unpleasant on the sole of a shoe; public service here practises little discrimination. There is a tired excuse of "oh that's Spain". It no longer washes. Spain, and therefore Mallorca, joined the grown-ups' party long ago, but much of its administration is still in the kindergarten. It is not just individuals that are impacted; a cruddy system of public administration affects general productivity and efficiency of the economy. I stress again, it is not just foreigners who are dissatisfied; the survey bears that out.
Cliched I know it is to say it, but life and society have changed. People expect convenience. Public offices' opening hours are like shop opening hours - inconvenient. They are, as with much of the tortuous bureaucracy and red tape that they peddle, an up-yours vestige, one of self-interest, union clout and a refusal to countenance a culture that is anything other than that determined by archaic working practices and attitudes. The other day I was griping to my gestor (accountant if you like) about all this and telling him that he and my lawyer (they share a practice) are precisely the people who should be pressurising for change. He told me that the professional associations are not unaware, and that there is some such pressure, but there is also self-interest in these groups and a prevalence of something he demonstrated by raising and lowering a fist - stamping papers in other words. The status quo quite satisfies not only the public services but also the professionals who feed off them.
Hours of opening and bureaucracy apart, there are aspects of one's dealings with the public service and authorities that make no sense. Whose bright idea was it to scrap residency cards for foreigners? I am no lover of ID cards, but if there is a system in place whereby they are obligatory for all Spaniards why not retain a card system for all (albeit that it was not obligatory for foreigners to have one)? The certificate that has replaced the card is of no use as a form of identity. The centralisation of this "service" is also open to question. Perhaps it is still a hangover from the old days of an authoritarian regime; it is not so long ago that everything was centred on Palma when there were no municipal administrations. But another country that had such a regime has managed to decentralise. Germany. Go there to live or work and you can turn up at the local town hall, in places of equivalent size to somewhere like Alcúdia, do the form, give them the photos and the passport and walk out with your residency permit. This sort of thing does not have to be centralised. Except it does if self-preservation is the motive and the "customer" an inconvenience.
The government councillor for "quality of services" seems to accept that there need to be improvements in terms of opening hours, waiting times and bureaucracy. He says that certain moves are already afoot - simplification, the use of the internet for example. Good for him. The Partido Popular locally is calling for a cut in jobs in the Balearic Government as part of an austerity package to deal with the current economic difficulties. It is a political posture, though it may not be without some sense. But it probably misses the point, which is the degree to which the government and the entire system of public administration is subject to scrutiny. That is a pertinent word. It was the one that underpinned the examination of the civil service in the UK by Derek Rayner during the first Thatcher administration. Bloated public services are immune to cultures of service. Perhaps the local public services are staffed at optimum levels, or perhaps they are not, and if not how much will is there to change them and their working practices? When we talk of tourism and construction being the main industries, we forget about the public services and the employment they create. But unlike tourism and construction they don't create value, only take it away or obstruct it through their systems of operation. That 97% might have a long wait and not just in the queues.
Following on from yesterday and the all-important issue of beach cricket, I am very grateful to Colin for a link to the site of a pub in Scotland which has taken the sport to almost Lord's-like heights (well that may be overdoing it). It occurred to me - do they roll the pitch? And lo and behold in the photo for the cricket team, there - in the background - is a roller. Serious boys these. Anyway, here it is - the Ship Inn in Elie and its beach cricket - http://www.ship-elie.com/cricket.php.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Bobby Vee. Don't know when the youtube comes from, certainly quite a few years on from his heyday and, er, it's not that good - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJp_EO2C220. Today's title - it has lost four hours; who was it?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
It is an absurdity that offices operate such short hours. Try this one - the Trafico place in Palma. It deals with everything to do with cars and vehicles. It is one office. There are no others. It is open Monday to Friday from nine in the morning till one in the afternoon for "customer" service. Four hours for everyone on the island. Go past Trafico at around half eight in the morning and you will see them starting to queue. By nine, that queue stretches well down the street. It's a nonsense. Try also the office for foreign matters not far from Trafico. Go stand in the baking sun in the queue there and then wait for three hours or so inside. If you arrive too late you won't get a ticket for that day and will have to go back the next day. They close at two. Imagine you've schlepped down to Palma from Alcúdia only to be told that you have to do it all over again tomorrow. It is not just foreigners who are treated like something unpleasant on the sole of a shoe; public service here practises little discrimination. There is a tired excuse of "oh that's Spain". It no longer washes. Spain, and therefore Mallorca, joined the grown-ups' party long ago, but much of its administration is still in the kindergarten. It is not just individuals that are impacted; a cruddy system of public administration affects general productivity and efficiency of the economy. I stress again, it is not just foreigners who are dissatisfied; the survey bears that out.
Cliched I know it is to say it, but life and society have changed. People expect convenience. Public offices' opening hours are like shop opening hours - inconvenient. They are, as with much of the tortuous bureaucracy and red tape that they peddle, an up-yours vestige, one of self-interest, union clout and a refusal to countenance a culture that is anything other than that determined by archaic working practices and attitudes. The other day I was griping to my gestor (accountant if you like) about all this and telling him that he and my lawyer (they share a practice) are precisely the people who should be pressurising for change. He told me that the professional associations are not unaware, and that there is some such pressure, but there is also self-interest in these groups and a prevalence of something he demonstrated by raising and lowering a fist - stamping papers in other words. The status quo quite satisfies not only the public services but also the professionals who feed off them.
Hours of opening and bureaucracy apart, there are aspects of one's dealings with the public service and authorities that make no sense. Whose bright idea was it to scrap residency cards for foreigners? I am no lover of ID cards, but if there is a system in place whereby they are obligatory for all Spaniards why not retain a card system for all (albeit that it was not obligatory for foreigners to have one)? The certificate that has replaced the card is of no use as a form of identity. The centralisation of this "service" is also open to question. Perhaps it is still a hangover from the old days of an authoritarian regime; it is not so long ago that everything was centred on Palma when there were no municipal administrations. But another country that had such a regime has managed to decentralise. Germany. Go there to live or work and you can turn up at the local town hall, in places of equivalent size to somewhere like Alcúdia, do the form, give them the photos and the passport and walk out with your residency permit. This sort of thing does not have to be centralised. Except it does if self-preservation is the motive and the "customer" an inconvenience.
The government councillor for "quality of services" seems to accept that there need to be improvements in terms of opening hours, waiting times and bureaucracy. He says that certain moves are already afoot - simplification, the use of the internet for example. Good for him. The Partido Popular locally is calling for a cut in jobs in the Balearic Government as part of an austerity package to deal with the current economic difficulties. It is a political posture, though it may not be without some sense. But it probably misses the point, which is the degree to which the government and the entire system of public administration is subject to scrutiny. That is a pertinent word. It was the one that underpinned the examination of the civil service in the UK by Derek Rayner during the first Thatcher administration. Bloated public services are immune to cultures of service. Perhaps the local public services are staffed at optimum levels, or perhaps they are not, and if not how much will is there to change them and their working practices? When we talk of tourism and construction being the main industries, we forget about the public services and the employment they create. But unlike tourism and construction they don't create value, only take it away or obstruct it through their systems of operation. That 97% might have a long wait and not just in the queues.
Following on from yesterday and the all-important issue of beach cricket, I am very grateful to Colin for a link to the site of a pub in Scotland which has taken the sport to almost Lord's-like heights (well that may be overdoing it). It occurred to me - do they roll the pitch? And lo and behold in the photo for the cricket team, there - in the background - is a roller. Serious boys these. Anyway, here it is - the Ship Inn in Elie and its beach cricket - http://www.ship-elie.com/cricket.php.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Bobby Vee. Don't know when the youtube comes from, certainly quite a few years on from his heyday and, er, it's not that good - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJp_EO2C220. Today's title - it has lost four hours; who was it?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
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