Palma town hall is on a mission. You can't accuse the current administration of sitting on its hands. It has zeal in its hearts and announces it at every available opportunity. While there is a great deal of zealous bluster - just what is it with Aurora Jhardi and terraces - not all of what emanates from the town hall is fanatical nonsense. Take the announcement of a "landscaping plan" to bring some order and "dignity" to shopping streets and to shops themselves. The principle should be applauded, though how universal this will be has to be open to question. Getting rid of tatty facades and things that stick out from shop fronts might be easy and sensible for the old part of the city, but Playa de Palma?
The Cort talks the good talk of applying measures to all neighbourhoods, but there is more than just a slight suspicion that the administration sees very little further than the imminent surroundings of the privileged location of the town hall edifice: the old part of the city, in other words. Playa de Palma appears to have an alternative existence; it is a universe unoccupied by the town hall. At least the administration has been generous enough to stump up fifteen grand of "urgent" funding to replace rubbish containers that some malcontents appear to take delight in setting fire to.
Municipal-wide ordinance, which is to be the case with the "landscaping plan", takes no account of municipal diversity. While not advocating a charter for unbridled tattiness, it does seem to me as if the town hall believes that what is good for the old part is good for everywhere else. It doesn't necessarily follow that it is. This all-city approach is to be rolled out from the primary purpose of the plan, which is to establish order in the old part, where there is heritage in terms of architecture, appearance and atmosphere to be preserved.
There are other areas of Palma with heritage to be maintained. Es Molinar is a case in point. Here is somewhere with the feel and look of traditional seaside. It is a curio of a village appended to the city, but one that has been subjected to an architectural vandalism, made possible through unthinking permissiveness at the planning department (or possibly through something else; you can never be sure). Antoni Noguera, the mayor-in-waiting with his urban planning and "model of the city" responsibilities, tackles his brief with plenty of heart and sometimes with his head. He is absolutely right to insist that what goes on in Es Molinar should now be in line with its traditional architecture.
Sympathetic, in harmony, these should be the overriding objectives for developments of whatever sort in whichever location, whether Palma or elsewhere. Undoing the wrongs of the past and even the recent past, as is the case with Es Molinar, is largely impossible, but restorative measures can be applied; discipline can be introduced.
There are examples across Mallorca where a lack of discipline has been allowed to detract from urban centres and residential areas. In some instances, these collide. Puerto Pollensa is an example. The absence of discipline has given rise, away from the front line, to unlovely architectural competition. Puerto Pollensa is far from being the only example, but as with other resort areas it doesn't come under any sort of protected status that would allow development to at least attempt to create some harmony rather than the result, which is one by which nothing fits.
Applying a set of standards across a municipality as a whole, which is what Palma wishes to do, fails to appreciate that component parts of municipalities have their own specific needs. Rather than one size fits all, there should be (should have been) a customised approach through which character is established or maintained. This goes deeper than wide areas, such as resorts, it applies also to specific urbanisations. I can think of one in Playa de Muro.
The urbanisation grew, architecturally, almost by chance rather than by design, but sympathy was created by style of building and, as importantly, the use of colours - those of Mallorca's land, sky and sea. Blues, yellows, oranges, terra cottas have now been invaded by the fad for blocks of neutrals. Architectural faddism would doubtless argue that this type of new build is more efficient. But when the resulting construction consists of a wall almost totally of glass that, in summer, will face the full force of the sun, one would need to query such an argument.
Palma is right to wish to preserve appearance in its old centre, just as other municipalities have regulations to retain the traditional look of their old towns. Away from these protected areas, though, there is a free-for-all. Discipline should be imposed. Architect and developer whim should not be allowed to dictate and detract.
Showing posts with label Shops. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shops. Show all posts
Friday, September 09, 2016
Friday, August 12, 2016
Low-Cost Pejorative Or Imperative?
A pejorative is a word or term that carries negative connotations and is used to criticise, belittle and express a low opinion of an individual or a group of people. it can therefore be deployed, and is, to convey a lack of respect or hostility towards social classes or specific groups which share common characteristics. Depending on how they are expressed and on the context, certain words can assume the status of a pejorative. Expats is a good example.
A further one that is highly germane to Mallorca's socioeconomic circumstances is "low cost". Normally used as an adjective, it has become a substantive in its own right. Low cost as a concept is ipso facto a "bad thing", as it assumes a negative consequence by the very fact that cost is low.
We currently have a great deal of low cost to contend with, all of it business-related and, by implication, also associated with social class. Low Cost Travel Group is an obvious case in point. The name itself, which would have been looked upon in a pejorative manner by many even prior to its collapse, always had an inherent marketing conflict. Attractive to some, it would not have been to others. Because of the collapse, the naysayers will now claim that they were right all along. The business model, regardless of cover from bondholders or not, was flawed on account of the low-cost philosophy.
This isn't and shouldn't be the only conclusion to be drawn. Low cost doesn't have to mean an in-built business weakness. Indeed, the online travel agency would have been inspired by the very success of companies which have made a virtue (and lots of money) out of being low cost. Ryanair is one such.
Airlines like Ryanair have of course been condemned for a variety of reasons: sharp practice, not being as low cost as they might appear and rotten service. But the low-cost model for airlines has become so pervasive that it has overtaken regular airlines in terms of passenger numbers coming in and out of Palma's Son Sant Joan. To the ranks of Ryanair, easyJet, Norwegian, Vueling and others are to be added Air Europa Express, a belated attempt by Globalia to enter the low-cost market, and one which was met with the threat of pilot strike action.
It is informative that statistics are regularly released which indicate the level of this low-cost travel. This is informative not just because of the factual data but also because there is a sense that the data are presented with a pejorative in mind. There is a great deal of resistance to "low cost" in Mallorca of whatever kind it might be. It is a "bad thing".
The assumption, a totally false one, is that if a service is marketed as low cost it will automatically attract a class of traveller castigated by the unthinking pejorative of "low quality". We all know that some travellers are far from well-off, but the folly of this assumption was no better exposed than when the former president of the Majorca Tourist Board expressed it. The response was one of outrage from those who are perfectly well-off, thank you, but who still use low-cost airlines.
The assumption has been shot to pieces even more by an understanding of markets which reveals that consumers - filthy rich, better-off or on their uppers - are now so savvy that they seek out deals. The internet and social media have made this ever easier. Consumers, regardless of circumstance, aren't stupid. If they can spend less, if convenience is satisfied, then they'll make decisions based on these factors. There are naturally those whose aspirations and self-esteem (as well as money) would mean never willingly opting for the pejorative of low cost, but even they might have to if competition has made low cost the main or only option.
It's this word - competition - which says a lot about the antagonism towards low cost in Mallorca. For a tourist destination built on cost that wasn't just cheap as chips but cheaper, it is now payback time, and this comes in the form - it is hoped - of elevated hotel prices with improved quality attracting a tourism class which is the antithesis of what gave the island its wealth in the first place.
But while hoteliers might attempt to sew things up to their RevPar and bottom-line advantage, there is a whole other economy where the competitive forces of low cost are having field days. Airlines are just one example. There are also coach transfer services, car-hire agencies, shops. The list can go on. Hairdressers are another.
Defending local business and economic interests is valid enough, but it is a defence too often predicated on a demonising of operations which have disrupted one-time uncompetitive markets. Low cost is no pejorative, it has become an imperative.
A further one that is highly germane to Mallorca's socioeconomic circumstances is "low cost". Normally used as an adjective, it has become a substantive in its own right. Low cost as a concept is ipso facto a "bad thing", as it assumes a negative consequence by the very fact that cost is low.
We currently have a great deal of low cost to contend with, all of it business-related and, by implication, also associated with social class. Low Cost Travel Group is an obvious case in point. The name itself, which would have been looked upon in a pejorative manner by many even prior to its collapse, always had an inherent marketing conflict. Attractive to some, it would not have been to others. Because of the collapse, the naysayers will now claim that they were right all along. The business model, regardless of cover from bondholders or not, was flawed on account of the low-cost philosophy.
This isn't and shouldn't be the only conclusion to be drawn. Low cost doesn't have to mean an in-built business weakness. Indeed, the online travel agency would have been inspired by the very success of companies which have made a virtue (and lots of money) out of being low cost. Ryanair is one such.
Airlines like Ryanair have of course been condemned for a variety of reasons: sharp practice, not being as low cost as they might appear and rotten service. But the low-cost model for airlines has become so pervasive that it has overtaken regular airlines in terms of passenger numbers coming in and out of Palma's Son Sant Joan. To the ranks of Ryanair, easyJet, Norwegian, Vueling and others are to be added Air Europa Express, a belated attempt by Globalia to enter the low-cost market, and one which was met with the threat of pilot strike action.
It is informative that statistics are regularly released which indicate the level of this low-cost travel. This is informative not just because of the factual data but also because there is a sense that the data are presented with a pejorative in mind. There is a great deal of resistance to "low cost" in Mallorca of whatever kind it might be. It is a "bad thing".
The assumption, a totally false one, is that if a service is marketed as low cost it will automatically attract a class of traveller castigated by the unthinking pejorative of "low quality". We all know that some travellers are far from well-off, but the folly of this assumption was no better exposed than when the former president of the Majorca Tourist Board expressed it. The response was one of outrage from those who are perfectly well-off, thank you, but who still use low-cost airlines.
The assumption has been shot to pieces even more by an understanding of markets which reveals that consumers - filthy rich, better-off or on their uppers - are now so savvy that they seek out deals. The internet and social media have made this ever easier. Consumers, regardless of circumstance, aren't stupid. If they can spend less, if convenience is satisfied, then they'll make decisions based on these factors. There are naturally those whose aspirations and self-esteem (as well as money) would mean never willingly opting for the pejorative of low cost, but even they might have to if competition has made low cost the main or only option.
It's this word - competition - which says a lot about the antagonism towards low cost in Mallorca. For a tourist destination built on cost that wasn't just cheap as chips but cheaper, it is now payback time, and this comes in the form - it is hoped - of elevated hotel prices with improved quality attracting a tourism class which is the antithesis of what gave the island its wealth in the first place.
But while hoteliers might attempt to sew things up to their RevPar and bottom-line advantage, there is a whole other economy where the competitive forces of low cost are having field days. Airlines are just one example. There are also coach transfer services, car-hire agencies, shops. The list can go on. Hairdressers are another.
Defending local business and economic interests is valid enough, but it is a defence too often predicated on a demonising of operations which have disrupted one-time uncompetitive markets. Low cost is no pejorative, it has become an imperative.
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
The HOTguide for Alcúdia and Pollensa 2014
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Killing The Shops: Discretionary spend
I bumped into someone in Puerto Pollensa the other day who I have known ever since he opened his first shop some years ago. Back then, and we're talking probably eight years ago, he was full of enthusiasm. Mallorcan, he spoke perfect English in an often vivid fashion and was imbued with an American mentality of the can-do.
He expanded and opened further shops. It would be totally unfair to make these shops recognisable, but suffice it to say that they weren't (still aren't) the usual fare. They are different, in other words. An Americanisation of marketing had taken over and with it had come differentiation and other expressions from the marketing lexicon. It all seemed like it was progressive, innovative, new. And for a time, it all worked.
The person I met the other day was not the same one I had first come to know those years ago. He's keeping the Puerto Pollensa shop going for the season, but at the end of the season is likely to close it.
It is of course only early into the season, too soon perhaps to make a judgement, but he was saying that the evenings, in terms of passing trade, were like those he had once known in March. He asked me what I thought. I shook my head, not because I was unable to supply an explanation but because I have all but given up bothering to offer one.
A strengthening pound, and Puerto Pollensa is very British, and you would think there would be more action. There again, word coming from some sources suggest that all the forecasts as to volume of British tourism that were emanating from the trade fairs during the winter are proving to have been wide of the mark. There is also a good deal of concern being voiced by local tourism sources as to the "chauvinistic" campaign by David Cameron to impress upon the Brits the value of the staycation.
There are always reasons one can latch onto. One that doesn't obtain in Puerto Pollensa to anything like the extent that it does in other resorts is that of the all-inclusive. It has grown in the resort but remains only a small contributor to the overall market.
The main reason, and despite a strengthening pound, is that shops have born the brunt of the economic downturn, more so than bars and restaurants. The only shops which have remained on an even keel or even flourished have been the chemists, the tobacconists and the supermarkets, the latter thanks to a growth in eat-in by tourists.
Tourism spend has always been discretionary. During the boom times, this spend found its way into shop tills for products that were rarely or if at all essential. It is the rise in consumer discretion that has been as significant a factor as all-inclusives and downturn in determining the impact on resorts' shops, and this rise pre-dates economic crisis.
This rise in spending discretion also draws into question the viability of revised opening hours, such as in Palma, and especially where larger stores are concerned. The tourism market, when it does spend in shops, tends to look for the more unusual or the local. Larger stores tend to deal in the familiar and in the domestic market; the benefits they are likely to make from tourism, when set against higher operational costs, are debatable.
But even the spend on the unusual or the different has been affected. The shops of the chap I bumped into in the street trade in the different. As such, they conform with a call for the wider tourism trade to innovate, yet they have not proven to be sustainable. And it is discretionary spend, more than anything, which is killing them.
The starkest change to this shopowner is in the way his enthusiasm has ebbed away. He admitted that he has lost his motivation, that he has become sick of it all. Not because he has lost enthusiasm or motivation for what he sells, but because of the way in which the market has changed over the past few years and which has sapped him of the motivation. He is not alone, and to the economic factors you can add, in Puerto Pollensa, the arrival of an evening market. It might benefit other businesses, but it does nothing for the shops. They have been strangled by economic factors, and there is little life left and likely to be little life in the future.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
He expanded and opened further shops. It would be totally unfair to make these shops recognisable, but suffice it to say that they weren't (still aren't) the usual fare. They are different, in other words. An Americanisation of marketing had taken over and with it had come differentiation and other expressions from the marketing lexicon. It all seemed like it was progressive, innovative, new. And for a time, it all worked.
The person I met the other day was not the same one I had first come to know those years ago. He's keeping the Puerto Pollensa shop going for the season, but at the end of the season is likely to close it.
It is of course only early into the season, too soon perhaps to make a judgement, but he was saying that the evenings, in terms of passing trade, were like those he had once known in March. He asked me what I thought. I shook my head, not because I was unable to supply an explanation but because I have all but given up bothering to offer one.
A strengthening pound, and Puerto Pollensa is very British, and you would think there would be more action. There again, word coming from some sources suggest that all the forecasts as to volume of British tourism that were emanating from the trade fairs during the winter are proving to have been wide of the mark. There is also a good deal of concern being voiced by local tourism sources as to the "chauvinistic" campaign by David Cameron to impress upon the Brits the value of the staycation.
There are always reasons one can latch onto. One that doesn't obtain in Puerto Pollensa to anything like the extent that it does in other resorts is that of the all-inclusive. It has grown in the resort but remains only a small contributor to the overall market.
The main reason, and despite a strengthening pound, is that shops have born the brunt of the economic downturn, more so than bars and restaurants. The only shops which have remained on an even keel or even flourished have been the chemists, the tobacconists and the supermarkets, the latter thanks to a growth in eat-in by tourists.
Tourism spend has always been discretionary. During the boom times, this spend found its way into shop tills for products that were rarely or if at all essential. It is the rise in consumer discretion that has been as significant a factor as all-inclusives and downturn in determining the impact on resorts' shops, and this rise pre-dates economic crisis.
This rise in spending discretion also draws into question the viability of revised opening hours, such as in Palma, and especially where larger stores are concerned. The tourism market, when it does spend in shops, tends to look for the more unusual or the local. Larger stores tend to deal in the familiar and in the domestic market; the benefits they are likely to make from tourism, when set against higher operational costs, are debatable.
But even the spend on the unusual or the different has been affected. The shops of the chap I bumped into in the street trade in the different. As such, they conform with a call for the wider tourism trade to innovate, yet they have not proven to be sustainable. And it is discretionary spend, more than anything, which is killing them.
The starkest change to this shopowner is in the way his enthusiasm has ebbed away. He admitted that he has lost his motivation, that he has become sick of it all. Not because he has lost enthusiasm or motivation for what he sells, but because of the way in which the market has changed over the past few years and which has sapped him of the motivation. He is not alone, and to the economic factors you can add, in Puerto Pollensa, the arrival of an evening market. It might benefit other businesses, but it does nothing for the shops. They have been strangled by economic factors, and there is little life left and likely to be little life in the future.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Monday, March 26, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Palma shops open on Sundays from 1 April
All shops in the centre of Palma will be able to open on Sundays and holidays from 1 April until October. Until now, only small shops have been permitted to open on any Sunday they wish. There will also be cultural and musical street activities. The official announcement of the change to opening times was made today in a joint statement by the mayor of Palma and President Bauzá.
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
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, November 13, 2011
Lidl By Lidl
The people of Campos have never known anything quite like it. They've finally got a supermarket, or at least this is the impression one gets. I confess to not being intimate with the details of supermarkets in Campos and its neighbouring Ses Salines, but one shopper was reported as saying that she wouldn't any longer need to trek off to Al Campo.
I do rather suspect that there were already other supermarkets, but what there wasn't, was a Lidl. There now is. And the astonishing thing is that every time a new Lidl store opens in Mallorca, it becomes not just a news event but also an occasion of such magnitude that, as with the opening of Lidl's Alcúdia store in October last year, it is comparable to days of yore when the train first arrived.
The Campos shop is number thirteen in a series of twenty Lidls that will be dotted about the island. Slowly but surely, little by little, Mallorca is succumbing to a process of Lidlisation; Germanic commercial empire-building. Well, it makes a change to the Chinese emporia I suppose.
Lidl has benefited from relaxations to land rules that have permitted greater commercial property development. While the rest of the economy stumbles along, the supermarkets are booming. With their value for money, they are to be welcomed, though their impact in terms of employment is only quite small; the Campos store apparently received 3,000 CVs for the 30 jobs on offer. Mallorca, as I quoted recently in a different context, that of tourism, is getting itself more, but not so many, McJobs.
Despite feeling that Lidl wasn't breaking entirely new ground in propelling Campos into the modern shopping era, the excitement surrounding its arrival does remind one of times past when there certainly weren't such things as supermarkets. I can't speak for Mallorca, but the supermarket first came to town some time in the mid-60s. It was a Sainsbury and it offered a whole new self-service and time-saving mode of shopping for the upwardly mobile housewife that its previous store hadn't.
The old Sainsbury was a place of personal service and lengthy queues. It was also a place that was so outmoded that its walls were decorated with enamel dark-green tiling. If it hadn't been for the cheese, the loose tea and the pound of sausages, it could have been mistaken for a public lavatory.
Back in the day, and prior to the moment the Sainsbury family was good enough to cash in on the new consumerism of the sixties, shopping was distinctly inconvenient but was, courtesy of shops' quirkiness and even smells, infinitely more inclined to leave an impression than the monotony of the modern-day barn.
Just two of these shops in our local village were Underwoods, the ironmongers, a general store packed to the gunwales with all manner of rubbish and which had an alarming and potentially disastrous smell of paraffin and paint-stripper, and the grocers, that owned by Mr. Cutt.
It was Mr. Cutt's misfortune to have a garage that backed onto our garden and my sandpit in particular. It was doubly unfortunate that, rather than brick, it was made of far from substantial wood. The temptation for a seven-year-old hooligan with a nicely sharp-edged spade was way too great. Thus started my vendetta with Mr. Cutt, one that was to take in my stories as to our flopsy, who did mysteriously disappear one day, being served up on his meat counter and to the awful things he actually did with his bacon-slicer.
It was probably as well that we moved not long after but also a shame that I had come to be barred from the shop, as that bacon-slicer was always a point of fascination. And the smell of bacon was what hit you as soon as you entered the place. It was the evocative smells that contributed, pre-supermarkets, to what were old curiosity shops.
The point is that in Mallorca you don't have to ever go into a supermarket. Everything still exists in a way that it did in deepest Surrey in the early 1960s. Some ferreteria are just like Underwoods. Stocked to the rafters, ramshackle and utterly mad. There are delis by the ham loads. And then there are the markets.
Little by little, the Lidls and others take it all away. I'm not complaining. But, inconvenient or not, the individual shops retain the character, the quirkiness and the smells that transport you back decades. Just for one day perhaps, forget the supermarket and do these individual shops in the local towns. But if you see any rabbit ... .
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
I do rather suspect that there were already other supermarkets, but what there wasn't, was a Lidl. There now is. And the astonishing thing is that every time a new Lidl store opens in Mallorca, it becomes not just a news event but also an occasion of such magnitude that, as with the opening of Lidl's Alcúdia store in October last year, it is comparable to days of yore when the train first arrived.
The Campos shop is number thirteen in a series of twenty Lidls that will be dotted about the island. Slowly but surely, little by little, Mallorca is succumbing to a process of Lidlisation; Germanic commercial empire-building. Well, it makes a change to the Chinese emporia I suppose.
Lidl has benefited from relaxations to land rules that have permitted greater commercial property development. While the rest of the economy stumbles along, the supermarkets are booming. With their value for money, they are to be welcomed, though their impact in terms of employment is only quite small; the Campos store apparently received 3,000 CVs for the 30 jobs on offer. Mallorca, as I quoted recently in a different context, that of tourism, is getting itself more, but not so many, McJobs.
Despite feeling that Lidl wasn't breaking entirely new ground in propelling Campos into the modern shopping era, the excitement surrounding its arrival does remind one of times past when there certainly weren't such things as supermarkets. I can't speak for Mallorca, but the supermarket first came to town some time in the mid-60s. It was a Sainsbury and it offered a whole new self-service and time-saving mode of shopping for the upwardly mobile housewife that its previous store hadn't.
The old Sainsbury was a place of personal service and lengthy queues. It was also a place that was so outmoded that its walls were decorated with enamel dark-green tiling. If it hadn't been for the cheese, the loose tea and the pound of sausages, it could have been mistaken for a public lavatory.
Back in the day, and prior to the moment the Sainsbury family was good enough to cash in on the new consumerism of the sixties, shopping was distinctly inconvenient but was, courtesy of shops' quirkiness and even smells, infinitely more inclined to leave an impression than the monotony of the modern-day barn.
Just two of these shops in our local village were Underwoods, the ironmongers, a general store packed to the gunwales with all manner of rubbish and which had an alarming and potentially disastrous smell of paraffin and paint-stripper, and the grocers, that owned by Mr. Cutt.
It was Mr. Cutt's misfortune to have a garage that backed onto our garden and my sandpit in particular. It was doubly unfortunate that, rather than brick, it was made of far from substantial wood. The temptation for a seven-year-old hooligan with a nicely sharp-edged spade was way too great. Thus started my vendetta with Mr. Cutt, one that was to take in my stories as to our flopsy, who did mysteriously disappear one day, being served up on his meat counter and to the awful things he actually did with his bacon-slicer.
It was probably as well that we moved not long after but also a shame that I had come to be barred from the shop, as that bacon-slicer was always a point of fascination. And the smell of bacon was what hit you as soon as you entered the place. It was the evocative smells that contributed, pre-supermarkets, to what were old curiosity shops.
The point is that in Mallorca you don't have to ever go into a supermarket. Everything still exists in a way that it did in deepest Surrey in the early 1960s. Some ferreteria are just like Underwoods. Stocked to the rafters, ramshackle and utterly mad. There are delis by the ham loads. And then there are the markets.
Little by little, the Lidls and others take it all away. I'm not complaining. But, inconvenient or not, the individual shops retain the character, the quirkiness and the smells that transport you back decades. Just for one day perhaps, forget the supermarket and do these individual shops in the local towns. But if you see any rabbit ... .
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Monday, January 10, 2011
China In Your Hand
Here's an illuminating fact. In just one month, October of last year, the volume of Chinese products that were bought in Mallorca was double that for the whole of the year 2000. The Chinese invasion, that can be seen in the growth of the number of shops selling cheap products, shows no sign of slowing down. While crisis forces others out of business, Chinese businesspeople step in and snap up premises. The Chinese population in Mallorca, now just over 4,000, is only around a quarter the size of the British, but it is also growing and is different in one respect - the Chinese do not come to Mallorca to retire; they come to work and to run businesses. Period.
What has brought the Chinese invasion about? There is a commonly held belief that Chinese businesses enjoy tax breaks. Though you will find many a reference to tax holidays for five or seven years, there is also ample evidence to suggest that these are something of an urban myth. The director of the Spanish confederation of small to medium-sized business organisations is one who disputes the idea. The tax office has also denied that such assistance exists. Where help, of a governmental nature, is available, it is more likely to come from the Chinese Government in the form of a grant.
Why would the Chinese offer financial assistance? One reason lies with the need for a sort of economic "lebensraum", an acknowledgement of China's domestic inability to satisfy employment and business opportunities. Another is that it is a form of economic imperialism, which may not be far from the truth.
It is the fear, real or not, of an economic army marching on Mallorca and Spain, allied to the tax-break story, that helps to fuel some of the xenophobia directed towards Chinese businesses. Business organisations maintain that there is no "war" against the Chinese entrepreneurs, but complaints about their practices are rising as quickly as new shops open: complaints as to the legality of premises, as to proper licences, as to the quality of products and as to the hours that are worked.
Anxiety as to what is perceived as favourable treatment of Chinese businesses has been heightened by what might otherwise be seen as good news for Spain: ever closer economic ties between Spain and China, as evidenced by trade agreements signed last week. There is also the matter of the Chinese Government holding, via the Bank of China, some 10% of Spanish debt.
What should be seen as generally positive is not. Rather, it is looked upon in some quarters as Chinese expansionism, with Spain as its main foothold in Europe. It's the idea of economic imperialism again, and the Chinese bazaar or restaurant on the high streets of Mallorca's towns is the foot soldier for Beijing's imperial palace.
These fears and anxieties, the "denuncias" for alleged infractions and the rest can themselves be seen as disguising the fact that local businesspeople simply can't get their heads around how the Chinese operate. The suggestions of financial favouritism ignore systems of family support for arranging funding for businesses and for sharing debts and also what in certain instances can be a pyramidal system of investment. The charges as to low prices and therefore - perish the thought - aggressive competition overlook the presence of vast warehouses on the mainland that supply Chinese businesses and also the existence of some local networks of businesses co-operating in purchasing in bulk. The complaints as to long hours being worked, despite working-hours agreements in employment law and orders as to opening hours, are symptomatic of the unpalatable truth that the Chinese function according to a work ethic which is alien to many a Mallorcan.
There is more bad news for Mallorcan businesses which have laboured for too long not labouring long enough and being largely immune to real competition. This is the emergence of Chinese brands, especially in the clothing and footwear sectors. Mulaya is one such and it, along with others, is growing in terms of its outlets and taking on the likes of Zara.
For all the angst about high prices in Mallorca, the Chinese businesses are doing their part to dispel it. They should be welcomed, and increasing numbers of consumers are welcoming them, but xenophobia and lack of local competitiveness combine to try and put obstacles in their way. Not to me, and not, I imagine, to many of you, as we walk home with some China in our hands.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
What has brought the Chinese invasion about? There is a commonly held belief that Chinese businesses enjoy tax breaks. Though you will find many a reference to tax holidays for five or seven years, there is also ample evidence to suggest that these are something of an urban myth. The director of the Spanish confederation of small to medium-sized business organisations is one who disputes the idea. The tax office has also denied that such assistance exists. Where help, of a governmental nature, is available, it is more likely to come from the Chinese Government in the form of a grant.
Why would the Chinese offer financial assistance? One reason lies with the need for a sort of economic "lebensraum", an acknowledgement of China's domestic inability to satisfy employment and business opportunities. Another is that it is a form of economic imperialism, which may not be far from the truth.
It is the fear, real or not, of an economic army marching on Mallorca and Spain, allied to the tax-break story, that helps to fuel some of the xenophobia directed towards Chinese businesses. Business organisations maintain that there is no "war" against the Chinese entrepreneurs, but complaints about their practices are rising as quickly as new shops open: complaints as to the legality of premises, as to proper licences, as to the quality of products and as to the hours that are worked.
Anxiety as to what is perceived as favourable treatment of Chinese businesses has been heightened by what might otherwise be seen as good news for Spain: ever closer economic ties between Spain and China, as evidenced by trade agreements signed last week. There is also the matter of the Chinese Government holding, via the Bank of China, some 10% of Spanish debt.
What should be seen as generally positive is not. Rather, it is looked upon in some quarters as Chinese expansionism, with Spain as its main foothold in Europe. It's the idea of economic imperialism again, and the Chinese bazaar or restaurant on the high streets of Mallorca's towns is the foot soldier for Beijing's imperial palace.
These fears and anxieties, the "denuncias" for alleged infractions and the rest can themselves be seen as disguising the fact that local businesspeople simply can't get their heads around how the Chinese operate. The suggestions of financial favouritism ignore systems of family support for arranging funding for businesses and for sharing debts and also what in certain instances can be a pyramidal system of investment. The charges as to low prices and therefore - perish the thought - aggressive competition overlook the presence of vast warehouses on the mainland that supply Chinese businesses and also the existence of some local networks of businesses co-operating in purchasing in bulk. The complaints as to long hours being worked, despite working-hours agreements in employment law and orders as to opening hours, are symptomatic of the unpalatable truth that the Chinese function according to a work ethic which is alien to many a Mallorcan.
There is more bad news for Mallorcan businesses which have laboured for too long not labouring long enough and being largely immune to real competition. This is the emergence of Chinese brands, especially in the clothing and footwear sectors. Mulaya is one such and it, along with others, is growing in terms of its outlets and taking on the likes of Zara.
For all the angst about high prices in Mallorca, the Chinese businesses are doing their part to dispel it. They should be welcomed, and increasing numbers of consumers are welcoming them, but xenophobia and lack of local competitiveness combine to try and put obstacles in their way. Not to me, and not, I imagine, to many of you, as we walk home with some China in our hands.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Monday, January 03, 2011
Is The Price Right? Yes and no
What was I saying yesterday? The year has barely started and the recurring theme of prices, their alleged excessiveness and their control is already being aired. As every year. And as ever, the discussion is littered with anecdotal evidence that can be cited to support an argument of excessive prices. My personal favourite remains the one about the cost of a packet of paracetamol. Five euros at a supermarket, lamented a tourist letter-writer. An example of rip-off Mallorca. Yes, it was a rip-off, but more importantly the supermarket had no right to be selling the drug; the example was the right symptom but the wrong diagnosis.
For all the talk of high prices, the Balearics' consumer price index is one of the lowest among the regions of Spain. The most recent data related to price increases, those for November, show that the Balearics' increase was in the lower range. Statistical information, though, does not give the whole picture, certainly not when anecdotes can be dragged out to contradict it. For the most part, the debate is biased towards individual experiences of price, be it for a meal, a coffee, this or that product which are then used as a basis for a call for someone to do something; this something often being the demand for price control.
Price regulation does exist to an extent. In the case of tobacco, for example, it is not only prices that are subject to control; so also is the distribution chain. It is an example of price regulation that might be said to work. It doesn't create a shortage of supply or any obvious black market, two disadvantages of price control in the form of a price cap. Generally, as with the control of all medication through chemists alone, the market mechanism functions to the benefit of the consumer, eliminating any need for a more liberalised market.
Could a price-control approach be applied more widely? To the bar and restaurant sector, for instance? It's hard to see how. Unlike the sale of tobacco through the licensed tobacconists, bars and restaurants are too diverse. Even items such as a coffee are far from being homogeneous. There are too many types of coffee, too many types of bar in too many different locations with too many different circumstances.
Price controls can bring with them certain downsides. One is a loss of quality, assuming the cap is set too low (and set too high would make a nonsense of the attempt at control). Another is the sheer complexity and cost of enforcement. Yet another is that controls run counter to the principle of the free market which, by and large, Mallorca and Spain abide by. And the free-market element has an historical political factor. Current-day market liberalism is the culmination of dismantling any vestiges of what once existed under Franco - that of price control and centralised, statist regulation of most economic activity.
The market dictates, which is how it should be. That a coffee or a plate of steak and chips might seem expensive (or cheap) is the consequence. When President Zapatero, quizzed about the price of a coffee on Spanish television, gave his reply of 80 centimos, he also offered the caveat of "it depends". And it does depend. Depends on the market and on the bar or restaurant owner being allowed to fix his own prices. If he gets them wrong, that's his problem. No one else's.
It is not for government to intervene where it has no right to intervene, and one thing that the local government can do little about is the in-built disadvantage of Mallorca in terms of its isolation and its limited resources, land most obviously. Nevertheless, it is here that government should be more involved.
The costs of this isolation cannot be underestimated. The director of the small to medium-sized businesses organisation (PIMEM) has said that transport alone adds some 30% to the cost of production in Mallorca. And transport cost applies both to businesses importing as well as exporting. For the local producers, they also have to factor in the cost of land.
The vice-president of the local chamber of commerce has called for an end to the speculative acquisition of industrial and commercial land that has pushed the average cost per metre to buy a plot and establish a factory to roughly six times as much as it would be in, for example, Aragon on the mainland or over a third more than in somewhere even more isolated, the Canaries.
A further pressure on cost comes from what PIMEM's director has described as the "minimal installations for goods transportation at competitive prices and the lack of competition between shipping companies". This, combined with other factors, goes a long way to explaining why there is a lack of competitiveness in Mallorca, which has seen its industrial base decline by nearly 30% since 2005 (far greater a decline than in any other part of Spain). It also goes towards explaining why certain prices in Mallorca, because of the island's geographical competitive disadvantage, are what they are.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
For all the talk of high prices, the Balearics' consumer price index is one of the lowest among the regions of Spain. The most recent data related to price increases, those for November, show that the Balearics' increase was in the lower range. Statistical information, though, does not give the whole picture, certainly not when anecdotes can be dragged out to contradict it. For the most part, the debate is biased towards individual experiences of price, be it for a meal, a coffee, this or that product which are then used as a basis for a call for someone to do something; this something often being the demand for price control.
Price regulation does exist to an extent. In the case of tobacco, for example, it is not only prices that are subject to control; so also is the distribution chain. It is an example of price regulation that might be said to work. It doesn't create a shortage of supply or any obvious black market, two disadvantages of price control in the form of a price cap. Generally, as with the control of all medication through chemists alone, the market mechanism functions to the benefit of the consumer, eliminating any need for a more liberalised market.
Could a price-control approach be applied more widely? To the bar and restaurant sector, for instance? It's hard to see how. Unlike the sale of tobacco through the licensed tobacconists, bars and restaurants are too diverse. Even items such as a coffee are far from being homogeneous. There are too many types of coffee, too many types of bar in too many different locations with too many different circumstances.
Price controls can bring with them certain downsides. One is a loss of quality, assuming the cap is set too low (and set too high would make a nonsense of the attempt at control). Another is the sheer complexity and cost of enforcement. Yet another is that controls run counter to the principle of the free market which, by and large, Mallorca and Spain abide by. And the free-market element has an historical political factor. Current-day market liberalism is the culmination of dismantling any vestiges of what once existed under Franco - that of price control and centralised, statist regulation of most economic activity.
The market dictates, which is how it should be. That a coffee or a plate of steak and chips might seem expensive (or cheap) is the consequence. When President Zapatero, quizzed about the price of a coffee on Spanish television, gave his reply of 80 centimos, he also offered the caveat of "it depends". And it does depend. Depends on the market and on the bar or restaurant owner being allowed to fix his own prices. If he gets them wrong, that's his problem. No one else's.
It is not for government to intervene where it has no right to intervene, and one thing that the local government can do little about is the in-built disadvantage of Mallorca in terms of its isolation and its limited resources, land most obviously. Nevertheless, it is here that government should be more involved.
The costs of this isolation cannot be underestimated. The director of the small to medium-sized businesses organisation (PIMEM) has said that transport alone adds some 30% to the cost of production in Mallorca. And transport cost applies both to businesses importing as well as exporting. For the local producers, they also have to factor in the cost of land.
The vice-president of the local chamber of commerce has called for an end to the speculative acquisition of industrial and commercial land that has pushed the average cost per metre to buy a plot and establish a factory to roughly six times as much as it would be in, for example, Aragon on the mainland or over a third more than in somewhere even more isolated, the Canaries.
A further pressure on cost comes from what PIMEM's director has described as the "minimal installations for goods transportation at competitive prices and the lack of competition between shipping companies". This, combined with other factors, goes a long way to explaining why there is a lack of competitiveness in Mallorca, which has seen its industrial base decline by nearly 30% since 2005 (far greater a decline than in any other part of Spain). It also goes towards explaining why certain prices in Mallorca, because of the island's geographical competitive disadvantage, are what they are.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Intensive Uncared-for Units
"Look at all these places that are closed." I had bumped into a mate in Puerto Alcúdia. There were a number of "locales" that were empty. The tell-tale signs of abandonment were clear - whitewashed glass, mail piling up on the floors inside, fraying posters for this and that fly-billed onto the exteriors. "Yea, but they're units under the apartments. It's no wonder. They stick these places up, and on the ground floor they always have 'locales'. There's just too much of this stuff."
Too much. Too many bars or cafés, too many shops. There is too much of everything. Too little of what matters. Demand.
The economic crisis has served to highlight what should have been obvious - the over supply of bars and shops. Perversely, the crisis has not reduced the supply, it has seen it increase, thanks primarily to the units that sit, mainly empty, under residential buildings.
The reason for these units is the consequence of a land law in the Balearics, one that has not been adopted elsewhere in Spain. The law goes as follows. There has to be a limit to the number of apartments per building. Were the ground floor to also be used for residential purposes, the average size of all apartments would have to increase. A solution, that of making buildings lower, isn't a solution when it comes to the owners of land who want to maximise their returns. Another would be to scrap the law on the maximum number of apartments, so long as their sizes do not go below a minimum.
One view in favour of ground floors being reserved for commercial use is that people simply don't want to live on the ground floor. It's an understandable view, but only up to a point. Not wishing to be on the ground floor may have more to do with where the buildings are constructed rather than with a reluctance per se to inhabit a street-level apartment: a thoroughfare in Puerto Alcúdia is probably a case in point. But even this ignores the fact that houses, of older stock, open out onto narrow pavements right next to busy roads all over the island.
The downside of the regulation, apart from adding to the unnecessary supply of units, is that the buildings end up creating an impression of reducing desirability rather than the one that you would hope they would - that of increasing desirability. And this applies not just to the building itself but also to the general environment. Empty units benefit no one, but the mystery is why anyone thought that they could keep being created and keep being filled. Where they have been occupied, and some have been in Puerto Alcúdia, they have then become unoccupied. The crisis is not solely to blame; there is just no point to most of them.
The surfeit of bars and cafés should be enough to make any prospective tenant of the under-apartment "locales" wary of handing over his traspaso or, if he has any sense, just the rent. Other types of commercial exploitation should be met with a far bigger "buyer, beware" sign. What, for the most part, have they been? Fashion shops, if Alcúdia is anything to go by. They might also have been gobbled up by the johnnies-come-lately of the estate agency world, but the carnage in this market has robbed the units, as it has the island's high streets in general, of their absurdly excessive presence. For the fashionista chicas who take on a unit, there is something else to bear in mind, not just the fact that their shops are an irrelevance. This is the relaxation of rules on commercial centres. Out of town, in other words. The pointless units become even more pointless as consumers shift their own centres of operation.
The law needs to be changed, but any reform should be more fundamental in terms of more coherent appraisals as to the style of towns such as Puerto Alcúdia where residential and commercial building has created a functionalist mish-mash of architecture. Attention should be paid to greater harmony in terms of the look of buildings and also to the introduction of semi-pedestrianisation. This might, for example, enable the apartment blocks to be shielded by gardens at their entrance, enhancing their appearance and greening the dominant and characterless sense of concrete.
If a change means the government and town halls interfering with the market and telling owners that the ground-floor "locales" have to go, that they have to stick to reasonable prices and they lose the rents from the units, then so be it. They're not gaining rents as it is, while everyone else is losing out.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Too much. Too many bars or cafés, too many shops. There is too much of everything. Too little of what matters. Demand.
The economic crisis has served to highlight what should have been obvious - the over supply of bars and shops. Perversely, the crisis has not reduced the supply, it has seen it increase, thanks primarily to the units that sit, mainly empty, under residential buildings.
The reason for these units is the consequence of a land law in the Balearics, one that has not been adopted elsewhere in Spain. The law goes as follows. There has to be a limit to the number of apartments per building. Were the ground floor to also be used for residential purposes, the average size of all apartments would have to increase. A solution, that of making buildings lower, isn't a solution when it comes to the owners of land who want to maximise their returns. Another would be to scrap the law on the maximum number of apartments, so long as their sizes do not go below a minimum.
One view in favour of ground floors being reserved for commercial use is that people simply don't want to live on the ground floor. It's an understandable view, but only up to a point. Not wishing to be on the ground floor may have more to do with where the buildings are constructed rather than with a reluctance per se to inhabit a street-level apartment: a thoroughfare in Puerto Alcúdia is probably a case in point. But even this ignores the fact that houses, of older stock, open out onto narrow pavements right next to busy roads all over the island.
The downside of the regulation, apart from adding to the unnecessary supply of units, is that the buildings end up creating an impression of reducing desirability rather than the one that you would hope they would - that of increasing desirability. And this applies not just to the building itself but also to the general environment. Empty units benefit no one, but the mystery is why anyone thought that they could keep being created and keep being filled. Where they have been occupied, and some have been in Puerto Alcúdia, they have then become unoccupied. The crisis is not solely to blame; there is just no point to most of them.
The surfeit of bars and cafés should be enough to make any prospective tenant of the under-apartment "locales" wary of handing over his traspaso or, if he has any sense, just the rent. Other types of commercial exploitation should be met with a far bigger "buyer, beware" sign. What, for the most part, have they been? Fashion shops, if Alcúdia is anything to go by. They might also have been gobbled up by the johnnies-come-lately of the estate agency world, but the carnage in this market has robbed the units, as it has the island's high streets in general, of their absurdly excessive presence. For the fashionista chicas who take on a unit, there is something else to bear in mind, not just the fact that their shops are an irrelevance. This is the relaxation of rules on commercial centres. Out of town, in other words. The pointless units become even more pointless as consumers shift their own centres of operation.
The law needs to be changed, but any reform should be more fundamental in terms of more coherent appraisals as to the style of towns such as Puerto Alcúdia where residential and commercial building has created a functionalist mish-mash of architecture. Attention should be paid to greater harmony in terms of the look of buildings and also to the introduction of semi-pedestrianisation. This might, for example, enable the apartment blocks to be shielded by gardens at their entrance, enhancing their appearance and greening the dominant and characterless sense of concrete.
If a change means the government and town halls interfering with the market and telling owners that the ground-floor "locales" have to go, that they have to stick to reasonable prices and they lose the rents from the units, then so be it. They're not gaining rents as it is, while everyone else is losing out.
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.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Shut That Door!
Now, here's a potential little treat, courtesy of the Spanish Government. Once again, thanks to Ben for giving me the heads up on what, this time, might just have some important ramifications for bars and shops. I say might because, as ever with some law in Spain or Mallorca, things are not exactly transparent. Maybe they are just not reported well, or maybe no-one really knows. Anyway, to cut to the chase.
As part of its broader law on a "sustainable economy", the cabinet agreed a measure at the end of last week that would impose certain temperature and humidity requirements on establishments such as bars. Moreover, this measure would also mean that doors which open on to the street (and presumably also a terrace) cannot be left open. This would require the installation of automatic doors that open and shut as customers and staff pass through. The point of this would be to maintain mandatory temperatures inside, and these are - no higher than 21 degrees in winter and no lower than 26 degrees in summer.
Firstly, just read those temperatures again. The winter one seems ok, but the summer one? 26 is 79 in old money. That is fairly warm. Clearly, this all seems designed to cut back on air-conditioning use. While this measure would not make AC units obsolete, the investment that may have gone into them would now be open to question. And what is meant by summer? If the temperature inside is below the 26 degrees - naturally - in, say, May, do they have to crank the heating up? There are also any number of bars and restaurants that make a virtue of air-conditioning as part of their publicity. Not at 26 degrees they won't be.
The confusion about what this all might mean is not helped by different references in reports. There is one suggestion that it may only apply in certain instances - administrative centres and cultural venues have been mentioned - but "El País", for example, refers to the splendidly vague concept of "public spaces", which can be interpreted as meaning anything and anywhere. There is also the reference to opening onto a street, so does this include terraces or doesn't it?
If one assumes that this is intended to apply across the board, terraces, streets, whatever, you can begin to imagine the implications. Surely the government does not plan to have every single bar operating automatic doors. Or does it? Bars have enough on their plate without having to fork out for such systems. And then there is the ambience angle, ironically, as the measure is all designed to control ambient temperatures. Bars, restaurants, shops want their doors open. It shows that they - the bars - are open and that the interior and exterior are seamless.
Just think about the practicalities. Imagine a bar packed with sweaty boozers during a big football match. Doors closed, the temperature at least 26. They've got to be kidding. Maybe they really don't mean every bar and in every situation, but you can't be sure they don't, and you can't be sure that, in the pursuit of saving the planet and meeting a 20% target of reduced carbon emissions, they don't intend it. But one has got used to legislation which is not as it may seem. The definition of evenings and noise in Mallorca, that law from the summer; well that seemed to mean one thing and then they said it didn't, or more likely someone realised it was absurd and so they quietly put it to one side.
This measure does not yet have royal assent, but that's a formality. As to when it might be implemented, don't know. But if it is as broadly based as it might be, then I think you will be hearing quite a bit more about it.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Madness, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VahMbHOBwu0. Today's title - oh go on then, whose catchphrase was this?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
As part of its broader law on a "sustainable economy", the cabinet agreed a measure at the end of last week that would impose certain temperature and humidity requirements on establishments such as bars. Moreover, this measure would also mean that doors which open on to the street (and presumably also a terrace) cannot be left open. This would require the installation of automatic doors that open and shut as customers and staff pass through. The point of this would be to maintain mandatory temperatures inside, and these are - no higher than 21 degrees in winter and no lower than 26 degrees in summer.
Firstly, just read those temperatures again. The winter one seems ok, but the summer one? 26 is 79 in old money. That is fairly warm. Clearly, this all seems designed to cut back on air-conditioning use. While this measure would not make AC units obsolete, the investment that may have gone into them would now be open to question. And what is meant by summer? If the temperature inside is below the 26 degrees - naturally - in, say, May, do they have to crank the heating up? There are also any number of bars and restaurants that make a virtue of air-conditioning as part of their publicity. Not at 26 degrees they won't be.
The confusion about what this all might mean is not helped by different references in reports. There is one suggestion that it may only apply in certain instances - administrative centres and cultural venues have been mentioned - but "El País", for example, refers to the splendidly vague concept of "public spaces", which can be interpreted as meaning anything and anywhere. There is also the reference to opening onto a street, so does this include terraces or doesn't it?
If one assumes that this is intended to apply across the board, terraces, streets, whatever, you can begin to imagine the implications. Surely the government does not plan to have every single bar operating automatic doors. Or does it? Bars have enough on their plate without having to fork out for such systems. And then there is the ambience angle, ironically, as the measure is all designed to control ambient temperatures. Bars, restaurants, shops want their doors open. It shows that they - the bars - are open and that the interior and exterior are seamless.
Just think about the practicalities. Imagine a bar packed with sweaty boozers during a big football match. Doors closed, the temperature at least 26. They've got to be kidding. Maybe they really don't mean every bar and in every situation, but you can't be sure they don't, and you can't be sure that, in the pursuit of saving the planet and meeting a 20% target of reduced carbon emissions, they don't intend it. But one has got used to legislation which is not as it may seem. The definition of evenings and noise in Mallorca, that law from the summer; well that seemed to mean one thing and then they said it didn't, or more likely someone realised it was absurd and so they quietly put it to one side.
This measure does not yet have royal assent, but that's a formality. As to when it might be implemented, don't know. But if it is as broadly based as it might be, then I think you will be hearing quite a bit more about it.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Madness, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VahMbHOBwu0. Today's title - oh go on then, whose catchphrase was this?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Saturday, June 06, 2009
We're Tumbling Down
80%.
Following yesterday's 100%, a fall of twenty per cent, but no less significant. Not 80% home-made, but 80% down, as in 80% less revenue. This was the admission from the owner of a shop, a branch of which is on the front line in Puerto Pollensa. Stop for one moment and think what that means. You shouldn't need to think very long.
The economic malaise, especially that affecting the British tourist, was always likely to translate into a tough season for shops. More than places of food or drink, shops offer something purely discretionary, unless they are supermarkets or are selling underpants. The shop concerned is not alone. One nearby is reporting a similar tumble. Partly, this may well reflect the overwhelming Britishness of Puerto Pollensa. Another opinion is that there is a quasi-Club Mac-ist dumbing-down of PP, i.e. tourist stock with, in the main, less than bulging pockets. Even for places of food and drink, things are not universally rosy. Maybe there is some truth in the 60% decline at a well-known PP bar that helped to push a well-known bar owner to a breakdown.
There is a weakness in a place being essentially a one-product resort, as is the case with Puerto Pollensa. Contrast it with Puerto Alcúdia where there is a far greater diversity in terms of nationalities and relatively far greater numbers of non-Brits; the Scandinavians in particular are doing much to hold Alcúdia together, and reflect the historical importance of the Scandinavian market to the resort. Any one-product or largely one-product business is susceptible to adverse market conditions. And a mark of that one-product Britishness, it might be recalled, was reflected in advice to German tourists in "Bild" to give Puerto Pollensa a miss because it was a "well-known English holiday citadel" (4 June, 2008: Hans Plays With Lotte, Lotte Plays With Jane).
While bars and restaurants have long been potential victims of punters "doing a runner", shops have their own problems in the form of what the trade likes to call "shrinkage": shoplifting to you and me. It may not be peculiar to this season, but anecdotally there appears to be an increase. In a way, it is desperately sad. One shop owner in Alcúdia's old town tells of incidents that previously were rare. One such involved a lady who went off with a bag. When tackled, she said that she didn't have any money. A gift for someone back home, maybe? No money, so what to do? In the ensuing struggle, the lady did actually wet herself. Her camera was also taken from her, and she was told that she could get it back from the police. She did finally leave the scene with the bag, and presumably did not go and claim the camera.
More home-made
Coming back to percentages, my thanks to Ben for admitting to have been moaning in a Victor Meldrew-ish manner about the home-made claim for some years. He makes a good point in respect of an episode in a pub in England when the owner was challenged as to the home-made nature of the breakfast. Bacon, sausages and so on are prepared as opposed to being made, and prepared, moreover, on the premises, as opposed to the home. Theoretically, an establishment could make sausages or even go to the lengths of curing and smoking or whatever you do to turn Porky into bacon, but one suspects that this is not normally the case. And then one comes to the 100%. Could food be, for example, 85.7% home-made? It wouldn't have the same ring, I guess. "Our burgers are 85.7% made in the home." No, it wouldn't work. It either has to be 100% or not, and I leave it to you to decide as to whether 100 or zero is the more meaningful number.
There is always the alternative, namely "hand-made". This claim one does encounter from time to time. Much as it may sound like a Blue Peter exercise involving sticky-back plastic and your mum's best table, it isn't an altogether spurious claim. There are indeed restaurants where the chef slaves for hours over, for instance, the hand crafting of some ravioli. All good stuff, but invariably it costs an arm and a leg. Making by hand carries a premium; man hours, cost of, and all that. Nope, if the price is right, I couldn't really care less where or how it's made. Bring on that tex-mex; yumm, yumm.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - England football team. Here it is, but first you get the good one (Skinner and Baddiel): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8nkLV1V8B4. Today's title - line from a terrific song with a Byker Grove "ooh".
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Following yesterday's 100%, a fall of twenty per cent, but no less significant. Not 80% home-made, but 80% down, as in 80% less revenue. This was the admission from the owner of a shop, a branch of which is on the front line in Puerto Pollensa. Stop for one moment and think what that means. You shouldn't need to think very long.
The economic malaise, especially that affecting the British tourist, was always likely to translate into a tough season for shops. More than places of food or drink, shops offer something purely discretionary, unless they are supermarkets or are selling underpants. The shop concerned is not alone. One nearby is reporting a similar tumble. Partly, this may well reflect the overwhelming Britishness of Puerto Pollensa. Another opinion is that there is a quasi-Club Mac-ist dumbing-down of PP, i.e. tourist stock with, in the main, less than bulging pockets. Even for places of food and drink, things are not universally rosy. Maybe there is some truth in the 60% decline at a well-known PP bar that helped to push a well-known bar owner to a breakdown.
There is a weakness in a place being essentially a one-product resort, as is the case with Puerto Pollensa. Contrast it with Puerto Alcúdia where there is a far greater diversity in terms of nationalities and relatively far greater numbers of non-Brits; the Scandinavians in particular are doing much to hold Alcúdia together, and reflect the historical importance of the Scandinavian market to the resort. Any one-product or largely one-product business is susceptible to adverse market conditions. And a mark of that one-product Britishness, it might be recalled, was reflected in advice to German tourists in "Bild" to give Puerto Pollensa a miss because it was a "well-known English holiday citadel" (4 June, 2008: Hans Plays With Lotte, Lotte Plays With Jane).
While bars and restaurants have long been potential victims of punters "doing a runner", shops have their own problems in the form of what the trade likes to call "shrinkage": shoplifting to you and me. It may not be peculiar to this season, but anecdotally there appears to be an increase. In a way, it is desperately sad. One shop owner in Alcúdia's old town tells of incidents that previously were rare. One such involved a lady who went off with a bag. When tackled, she said that she didn't have any money. A gift for someone back home, maybe? No money, so what to do? In the ensuing struggle, the lady did actually wet herself. Her camera was also taken from her, and she was told that she could get it back from the police. She did finally leave the scene with the bag, and presumably did not go and claim the camera.
More home-made
Coming back to percentages, my thanks to Ben for admitting to have been moaning in a Victor Meldrew-ish manner about the home-made claim for some years. He makes a good point in respect of an episode in a pub in England when the owner was challenged as to the home-made nature of the breakfast. Bacon, sausages and so on are prepared as opposed to being made, and prepared, moreover, on the premises, as opposed to the home. Theoretically, an establishment could make sausages or even go to the lengths of curing and smoking or whatever you do to turn Porky into bacon, but one suspects that this is not normally the case. And then one comes to the 100%. Could food be, for example, 85.7% home-made? It wouldn't have the same ring, I guess. "Our burgers are 85.7% made in the home." No, it wouldn't work. It either has to be 100% or not, and I leave it to you to decide as to whether 100 or zero is the more meaningful number.
There is always the alternative, namely "hand-made". This claim one does encounter from time to time. Much as it may sound like a Blue Peter exercise involving sticky-back plastic and your mum's best table, it isn't an altogether spurious claim. There are indeed restaurants where the chef slaves for hours over, for instance, the hand crafting of some ravioli. All good stuff, but invariably it costs an arm and a leg. Making by hand carries a premium; man hours, cost of, and all that. Nope, if the price is right, I couldn't really care less where or how it's made. Bring on that tex-mex; yumm, yumm.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - England football team. Here it is, but first you get the good one (Skinner and Baddiel): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8nkLV1V8B4. Today's title - line from a terrific song with a Byker Grove "ooh".
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
What's The Difference Between?
Two supermarkets, same company, three kilometres apart, same stretch of road, same town - different prices. How does that work, do you suppose?
Let me be more precise. Two Eroski stores, both on the Carretera Artà, the main coast road from Puerto Alcúdia, one store close to the port, the other close to Playa de Muro. Now, would you think the prices would be the same in the two stores? You might think it, but you would be wrong to do so, because they're not. Take, for example, the bakery-provided "pan integral cortado" (smaller pack). 65 centimos down the near-to-Playa de Muro end of the Eroski empire, 67 centimos near to the port. A bottle of bog-standard Rioja, the Siglo - 3.50 in one and 3.66 in the other. A pack of plain-flavour crisps (small family size), a difference of 6 centimos. I daresay that there are other price differentials. I'm not about to check the whole stock. Who or what do you think I am? Watchdog or something? How can it be, though, that two stores in the same chain so close to each other can have different prices? It could just be an aberration in the close-to-the-port store, i.e. a cock-up, though cocking-up more than one price sounds more like policy. In the Pollensa Eroski, the one close to the old town, the prices for the above items are as in the near-to-Playa de Muro one. So, all I can say is that, unless you have to use the one near to the port, I wouldn't bother, because it's cheaper to go to the one down the road. Now, I wonder what the prices are in the one near Hidropark and the one by the Can Picafort roundabout ... .
Shop theme today. Despite its name, Alcúdia Pins - both the area and the hotel - is not in Alcúdia; it is in Playa de Muro, very much in Playa de Muro, almost into Can Picafort very much in Playa de Muro. Alcúdia Pins is not really an area that people would go to, unless they were staying there. At least you wouldn't go there, if you were local and Mallorcan and wanting to go shopping. Not only are there not many shops, what shops there are can be avoided elsewhere. Alcúdia Pins is a hundred per cent tourist zone; it serves no other purpose.
While the eponymously named Alcúdia Pins hotel (or is it that the area is eponymously named?) is very strongly British, the tourist mix in the area is varied. Germans, Scandinavians, the new tourists of eastern Europe, Irish, mainland Spanish. There may well be the odd Catalan speaker knocking about, but not many. And what number there might possibly be would not be as great a number as the other nationalities, even the Irish. Why, therefore, is there a shop selling gifts and clothes with a sign in English and Catalan? Easy, you might say, because we are in Mallorca, and they speak Catalan. Well of course. But who is this shop's market? Tourists. Tourists from places that do not speak Catalan. If you were to choose a second language for that sign, then go for German. You could stick Gaelic up and it would probably be understood by more people.
Now I don't know that this is the case, but it is just possible that the sign is a beneficiary of the linguistic subvention. Which is? The system by which local authorities grant money for the use of Catalan for promotional purposes. And these promotional purposes include shop signs. It doesn't matter that there is no-one there to read it. In other words, they chuck money around in support of the language even when it serves no purpose. I could of course be wrong, and there is no subvention in this particular instance, but the principle behind it might just be deserving of some attention.
Ben's Classic Car Rally link
When this went up yesterday, there was a fault. It was fixed later, so if you tried yesterday and it didn't work, apologies. It's all correct now.
The Can Picafort cyclist accident
A 66-year-old cyclist from Luxembourg was killed in a head-on collision in Can Picafort at eight o'clock yesterday evening. Without wishing to pre-empt the thorough investigation, the report (from "The Diario") says that the cyclist was in the centre of the road and not wearing anything reflective - at eight o'clock it is dark.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - The Stranglers (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy9-epdDw9E). Today's title - you may have noticed I don't go with rap too often, but this was something really good - three willy-holders together.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Let me be more precise. Two Eroski stores, both on the Carretera Artà, the main coast road from Puerto Alcúdia, one store close to the port, the other close to Playa de Muro. Now, would you think the prices would be the same in the two stores? You might think it, but you would be wrong to do so, because they're not. Take, for example, the bakery-provided "pan integral cortado" (smaller pack). 65 centimos down the near-to-Playa de Muro end of the Eroski empire, 67 centimos near to the port. A bottle of bog-standard Rioja, the Siglo - 3.50 in one and 3.66 in the other. A pack of plain-flavour crisps (small family size), a difference of 6 centimos. I daresay that there are other price differentials. I'm not about to check the whole stock. Who or what do you think I am? Watchdog or something? How can it be, though, that two stores in the same chain so close to each other can have different prices? It could just be an aberration in the close-to-the-port store, i.e. a cock-up, though cocking-up more than one price sounds more like policy. In the Pollensa Eroski, the one close to the old town, the prices for the above items are as in the near-to-Playa de Muro one. So, all I can say is that, unless you have to use the one near to the port, I wouldn't bother, because it's cheaper to go to the one down the road. Now, I wonder what the prices are in the one near Hidropark and the one by the Can Picafort roundabout ... .
Shop theme today. Despite its name, Alcúdia Pins - both the area and the hotel - is not in Alcúdia; it is in Playa de Muro, very much in Playa de Muro, almost into Can Picafort very much in Playa de Muro. Alcúdia Pins is not really an area that people would go to, unless they were staying there. At least you wouldn't go there, if you were local and Mallorcan and wanting to go shopping. Not only are there not many shops, what shops there are can be avoided elsewhere. Alcúdia Pins is a hundred per cent tourist zone; it serves no other purpose.
While the eponymously named Alcúdia Pins hotel (or is it that the area is eponymously named?) is very strongly British, the tourist mix in the area is varied. Germans, Scandinavians, the new tourists of eastern Europe, Irish, mainland Spanish. There may well be the odd Catalan speaker knocking about, but not many. And what number there might possibly be would not be as great a number as the other nationalities, even the Irish. Why, therefore, is there a shop selling gifts and clothes with a sign in English and Catalan? Easy, you might say, because we are in Mallorca, and they speak Catalan. Well of course. But who is this shop's market? Tourists. Tourists from places that do not speak Catalan. If you were to choose a second language for that sign, then go for German. You could stick Gaelic up and it would probably be understood by more people.
Now I don't know that this is the case, but it is just possible that the sign is a beneficiary of the linguistic subvention. Which is? The system by which local authorities grant money for the use of Catalan for promotional purposes. And these promotional purposes include shop signs. It doesn't matter that there is no-one there to read it. In other words, they chuck money around in support of the language even when it serves no purpose. I could of course be wrong, and there is no subvention in this particular instance, but the principle behind it might just be deserving of some attention.
Ben's Classic Car Rally link
When this went up yesterday, there was a fault. It was fixed later, so if you tried yesterday and it didn't work, apologies. It's all correct now.
The Can Picafort cyclist accident
A 66-year-old cyclist from Luxembourg was killed in a head-on collision in Can Picafort at eight o'clock yesterday evening. Without wishing to pre-empt the thorough investigation, the report (from "The Diario") says that the cyclist was in the centre of the road and not wearing anything reflective - at eight o'clock it is dark.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - The Stranglers (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy9-epdDw9E). Today's title - you may have noticed I don't go with rap too often, but this was something really good - three willy-holders together.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Bits And Pieces
So, even more by way of updates. This time the canal incident and the Beep Romanian row.
Someone came through anon with a comment appended to the piece on 19 May, saying that he or she had seen the car at 6.30 in the morning sticking out of the canal and, moreover, had seen the way the police handled the episode, by essentially letting all and sundry have a good look at what was going on with the forensics. I don't know what that really tells us, but I would guess that elsewhere, let's say the UK, it might have been dealt with a tad more discreetly. Apart from the voyeuristic, the general Joe or Jose Public has no need to be presented with death and an incident of this nature in such a way.
This is the comment in full: "I saw the car sticking out of the canal at 6.30am. I couldn't believe the time it took to get that poor girl out of the canal and how laid back the police were in letting passers-by look in and witness them taking her out and doing forensic tests on her in full view of the public.. It was both shocking and very sad."
And so to the Beep story (14 May). It did occur to me that there might be something more behind that sign than a mere dislike of Romanians. But there was nothing that I read in the press other than the facts of the sign and the resultant hoo-hah. So I'm very grateful to Nicole for pointing out that the shop had had 3000 euros worth of laptop lifted by a couple of Romanians, and that they were caught on camera but had not been tracked down - yet.
Well, I can understand the store owner being somewhat annoyed. When I had the break-in and the expensive camera was lifted, I wasn't exactly overjoyed. But had the police ever discovered who did it and had that person been of eastern European origin (for sake of argument), it would not have made me harbour the view that all people from that area were burglars. The point about the sign was that, by implication, Romanians were being branded thieves or potential thieves. You cannot do that. And if you were allowed to do so, therein would lie the roots of civil disorder to say nothing of sanctioned racism.
But I am doubly grateful to Nicole as it highlights the risk that we all, myself included, take received information either of a biased or a partial nature (and by partial here I mean in the sense of being incomplete) and form a judgement that may not be accurate. We interpret that information to suit our world view, even if some of us strive for a balance rather than seeing merely black or white. But I admit that I read the story and formed a distinct impression. In fact initially I laughed as it was so preposterous, but then I could conceive of only one word - racism. I still hold with that, but to begin with I had acted without the knowledge of some background. Had the fact of the theft been reported at the time, it would not have changed that impression; indeed it may well have hardened it. At least, however, I would have been acting on complete(-ish) or verging towards complete rather than partial information. For what it's worth though, sympathetic as I am to the store-owner in terms of the theft and of his frustration, I cannot excuse him his action.
There is a whole wider issue here, and it is the fact that rarely do any of us know the full story, and yet we make conclusions, utter opinions, become dogmatic with the benefit of only bits or pieces of information or, worse, information that is flawed, prejudiced, one-sided, wrong and sometimes malicious. The sources of this partial information are clear - gossip, embellished gossip, newspapers, television, the Internet. We take this partial, biased or manipulated information because we want to, because it suits our world view, our prejudices. The McCanns were/are a classic example.
And yet, were we to stop and wish to check every bit of information, we would get nowhere. There is an inevitability about human discourse, that it is incomplete. Of course it is. But this is not to say that there shouldn't be some responsibility, and no more so than on the Internet. I can feel a very long thesis coming on, so I shall close, but you've been warned: I might just publish it here.
QUIZ
Chain - Led Zeppelin to "Stairway to Heaven" to Heaven 17 who basically were the British Electric Foundation. Simple. And so how do you get from Heaven 17 to "Papa Was A Rolling Stone"? Dead easy. Today's title - who?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Someone came through anon with a comment appended to the piece on 19 May, saying that he or she had seen the car at 6.30 in the morning sticking out of the canal and, moreover, had seen the way the police handled the episode, by essentially letting all and sundry have a good look at what was going on with the forensics. I don't know what that really tells us, but I would guess that elsewhere, let's say the UK, it might have been dealt with a tad more discreetly. Apart from the voyeuristic, the general Joe or Jose Public has no need to be presented with death and an incident of this nature in such a way.
This is the comment in full: "I saw the car sticking out of the canal at 6.30am. I couldn't believe the time it took to get that poor girl out of the canal and how laid back the police were in letting passers-by look in and witness them taking her out and doing forensic tests on her in full view of the public.. It was both shocking and very sad."
And so to the Beep story (14 May). It did occur to me that there might be something more behind that sign than a mere dislike of Romanians. But there was nothing that I read in the press other than the facts of the sign and the resultant hoo-hah. So I'm very grateful to Nicole for pointing out that the shop had had 3000 euros worth of laptop lifted by a couple of Romanians, and that they were caught on camera but had not been tracked down - yet.
Well, I can understand the store owner being somewhat annoyed. When I had the break-in and the expensive camera was lifted, I wasn't exactly overjoyed. But had the police ever discovered who did it and had that person been of eastern European origin (for sake of argument), it would not have made me harbour the view that all people from that area were burglars. The point about the sign was that, by implication, Romanians were being branded thieves or potential thieves. You cannot do that. And if you were allowed to do so, therein would lie the roots of civil disorder to say nothing of sanctioned racism.
But I am doubly grateful to Nicole as it highlights the risk that we all, myself included, take received information either of a biased or a partial nature (and by partial here I mean in the sense of being incomplete) and form a judgement that may not be accurate. We interpret that information to suit our world view, even if some of us strive for a balance rather than seeing merely black or white. But I admit that I read the story and formed a distinct impression. In fact initially I laughed as it was so preposterous, but then I could conceive of only one word - racism. I still hold with that, but to begin with I had acted without the knowledge of some background. Had the fact of the theft been reported at the time, it would not have changed that impression; indeed it may well have hardened it. At least, however, I would have been acting on complete(-ish) or verging towards complete rather than partial information. For what it's worth though, sympathetic as I am to the store-owner in terms of the theft and of his frustration, I cannot excuse him his action.
There is a whole wider issue here, and it is the fact that rarely do any of us know the full story, and yet we make conclusions, utter opinions, become dogmatic with the benefit of only bits or pieces of information or, worse, information that is flawed, prejudiced, one-sided, wrong and sometimes malicious. The sources of this partial information are clear - gossip, embellished gossip, newspapers, television, the Internet. We take this partial, biased or manipulated information because we want to, because it suits our world view, our prejudices. The McCanns were/are a classic example.
And yet, were we to stop and wish to check every bit of information, we would get nowhere. There is an inevitability about human discourse, that it is incomplete. Of course it is. But this is not to say that there shouldn't be some responsibility, and no more so than on the Internet. I can feel a very long thesis coming on, so I shall close, but you've been warned: I might just publish it here.
QUIZ
Chain - Led Zeppelin to "Stairway to Heaven" to Heaven 17 who basically were the British Electric Foundation. Simple. And so how do you get from Heaven 17 to "Papa Was A Rolling Stone"? Dead easy. Today's title - who?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Night Boat To Cairo
If it's the 20th May, must be update day. Follow-ups to the Chinese bazar and tourism density stories.
On the first one, it's been bugging me since I wrote that piece. Then I realised what it was I'd failed to mention the other day - the existence of other "bazar"-type shops; other shops not run by Chinese, but run by Spaniards, Mallorcans even.
In Alcúdia, there are three shops of this nature - De Tot Un Poc by the market square, one up near the tourist office and a third by the old hospital. Maybe there are more. In Puerto Alcúdia, there used to be one quite big cheapo place in what was taken over by a combination of the Petits i Mamas shop and Genius toy store, the latter now Engel & Völkers. It was pretty good; my household still has some decent towels to testify to that. Puerto Pollensa has at least one, as does Pollensa town, both of these, like one of the shops in Alcúdia, made a thing of selling stuff for one euro.
The point is that the cheap and cheerful Chinese bazar is not significantly different to any of these Spanish-run shops. Except in one respect - Chinese. I'm not sure if one can draw any conclusions, but let's just say that the low-cost shop phenomenon was not unknown before the arrival of the Chinese bazar and is also not unknown as a line of business for the local Mallorcans. I leave it to you to draw a conclusion.
And so to the tourism density issue. Having declared Can Picafort the tourist-sardine centre and having asked for any suggestions of somewhere that could rival Can Pic's claim to this award, I duly got one. Seamus volunteers Peguera. Something about more hotels than you'd find Frauleins in Lederhosen in Munich. Which does raise a whole different issue, but let's not dwell on that. But I take the point. In fact Peguera is a sort of German colony. There is, I understand, even a German school there. There again, Can Pic was essentially a German colony as well; before the Brits started to occupy to some extent. Mallorca can seem like another of the Bundesländer, and Peguera is like a Hauptstadt, one of hotel-squeezed sunbedsraum.
And weather. No surprise to learn that May thus far has exceeded records in terms of rain. Yesterday was yet another utterly miserable contribution to what has been a diabolical month overall. To give a measure of how much rain there has been, in Palma there has been 138 litres per square metre till now; the norm is 31. In all this I guess people will be searching for evidence of this that and the other, but I suggest it is no more than a righting of nature as the winter had been generally very dry. However, that is a rather facile explanation, so I myself went searching for explanations and was amazed at the sheer deluge of websites and blogs and so on devoted to weather. I had thought that perhaps the explanation would lie in the influence of La Niña, but I'm none the wiser despite having trawled through all this meteorological worthiness. Let's just say it's been very wet.
QUIZ
Chain - So how do you get from Led Zeppelin to the British Electric Foundation? Today's title - couldn't think of anything "bazar", so thought Arabic and here's the youtube of the nutty boys - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSTHMxBttlU
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
On the first one, it's been bugging me since I wrote that piece. Then I realised what it was I'd failed to mention the other day - the existence of other "bazar"-type shops; other shops not run by Chinese, but run by Spaniards, Mallorcans even.
In Alcúdia, there are three shops of this nature - De Tot Un Poc by the market square, one up near the tourist office and a third by the old hospital. Maybe there are more. In Puerto Alcúdia, there used to be one quite big cheapo place in what was taken over by a combination of the Petits i Mamas shop and Genius toy store, the latter now Engel & Völkers. It was pretty good; my household still has some decent towels to testify to that. Puerto Pollensa has at least one, as does Pollensa town, both of these, like one of the shops in Alcúdia, made a thing of selling stuff for one euro.
The point is that the cheap and cheerful Chinese bazar is not significantly different to any of these Spanish-run shops. Except in one respect - Chinese. I'm not sure if one can draw any conclusions, but let's just say that the low-cost shop phenomenon was not unknown before the arrival of the Chinese bazar and is also not unknown as a line of business for the local Mallorcans. I leave it to you to draw a conclusion.
And so to the tourism density issue. Having declared Can Picafort the tourist-sardine centre and having asked for any suggestions of somewhere that could rival Can Pic's claim to this award, I duly got one. Seamus volunteers Peguera. Something about more hotels than you'd find Frauleins in Lederhosen in Munich. Which does raise a whole different issue, but let's not dwell on that. But I take the point. In fact Peguera is a sort of German colony. There is, I understand, even a German school there. There again, Can Pic was essentially a German colony as well; before the Brits started to occupy to some extent. Mallorca can seem like another of the Bundesländer, and Peguera is like a Hauptstadt, one of hotel-squeezed sunbedsraum.
And weather. No surprise to learn that May thus far has exceeded records in terms of rain. Yesterday was yet another utterly miserable contribution to what has been a diabolical month overall. To give a measure of how much rain there has been, in Palma there has been 138 litres per square metre till now; the norm is 31. In all this I guess people will be searching for evidence of this that and the other, but I suggest it is no more than a righting of nature as the winter had been generally very dry. However, that is a rather facile explanation, so I myself went searching for explanations and was amazed at the sheer deluge of websites and blogs and so on devoted to weather. I had thought that perhaps the explanation would lie in the influence of La Niña, but I'm none the wiser despite having trawled through all this meteorological worthiness. Let's just say it's been very wet.
QUIZ
Chain - So how do you get from Led Zeppelin to the British Electric Foundation? Today's title - couldn't think of anything "bazar", so thought Arabic and here's the youtube of the nutty boys - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSTHMxBttlU
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Saturday, May 17, 2008
The Chinese Way
Some while back I posed the ethno-hospitality question - how many Chinese restaurants does a place need? It was asked in respect of Puerto Alcúdia where anyone on a fortnight's holiday could eat Chinese in a different restaurant every day and still not get round all of them. But now it is not just the Chinese restaurant that proliferates, it is also the Chinese bazar. So plentiful are these bazars, that they are causing problems for the indigenous shops.
Apparently there is an annual increase of between 10 and 15 per cent of Chinese businesses in Mallorca, and this has caused losses in terms of turnover of up to 20 per cent for shops and 10 % for bars in areas near to Chinese shops and restaurants.
In today's "Diario", it is reported that the "traditional" businesses are being obliged to rent their "locales" out or to put them up for traspaso. And the problem is at its greatest in tourist areas, with Puerto Alcúdia, Puerto Pollensa and Can Picafort all listed as being areas especially affected.
I am aware of a number of these bazars. It is the case that you seem to walk in many a main commercial area and there will be a Chinese bazar. During a break from my internment last week at the printers, I took a hobble on the bad toe around part of Inca. There was a Chinese bazar. Never noticed it before.
Personally, I am rather mystified as to the arrival of so many of these shops. Take a look around one and, to be blunt, the stuff is very much Mekong as opposed to Milan. Cheap in other words. But the low prices are one of the reasons why the bazars are putting the more traditional shops to the sword. The other is that they are open all hours. Anyone with even a passing acquaintance with the Chinese work ethic will know that they would gladly be open 24 hours were they allowed to be. And perhaps it is this work ethic that is the real issue. Those traditional shops with their haphazard opening times, their siesta breaks and their very "tradition" are struggling because that tradition has bred complacency. The Chinese (and also it must be said the Indian) bazar is another market change, and the traditional business does not know how to respond.
But I am also somewhat mystified as to what these "traditional" shops are. The bazars stock a range of stuff, much of it household, stationery and the like. Accordingly, maybe the ferreterias have seen an erosion of their sales for items likes of cutlery, but hang on a minute, go to a market and you will find all manner of cheap household stuff for sale. So the bazars are just, in a sense, making permanent the cheap elements of the weekly market. If any traders are likely to suffer I would have thought it would be those stallholders and not the regular shops. Perhaps though they doth protest too much about the Chinese bazars. The current economic climate has seen a decided drop in consumer spend, and this has nothing to do with the bazars except of course that, at a time of economic difficulty, cheap can become very attractive to the consumer.
QUIZ
Gerry and the Pacemakers and Frankie Goes To Hollywood both registered number ones with their first three singles. And how do you get from Frankie to "I'm Not In Love"? Yesterday's title - Marvin Gaye. Today's title - which group?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Apparently there is an annual increase of between 10 and 15 per cent of Chinese businesses in Mallorca, and this has caused losses in terms of turnover of up to 20 per cent for shops and 10 % for bars in areas near to Chinese shops and restaurants.
In today's "Diario", it is reported that the "traditional" businesses are being obliged to rent their "locales" out or to put them up for traspaso. And the problem is at its greatest in tourist areas, with Puerto Alcúdia, Puerto Pollensa and Can Picafort all listed as being areas especially affected.
I am aware of a number of these bazars. It is the case that you seem to walk in many a main commercial area and there will be a Chinese bazar. During a break from my internment last week at the printers, I took a hobble on the bad toe around part of Inca. There was a Chinese bazar. Never noticed it before.
Personally, I am rather mystified as to the arrival of so many of these shops. Take a look around one and, to be blunt, the stuff is very much Mekong as opposed to Milan. Cheap in other words. But the low prices are one of the reasons why the bazars are putting the more traditional shops to the sword. The other is that they are open all hours. Anyone with even a passing acquaintance with the Chinese work ethic will know that they would gladly be open 24 hours were they allowed to be. And perhaps it is this work ethic that is the real issue. Those traditional shops with their haphazard opening times, their siesta breaks and their very "tradition" are struggling because that tradition has bred complacency. The Chinese (and also it must be said the Indian) bazar is another market change, and the traditional business does not know how to respond.
But I am also somewhat mystified as to what these "traditional" shops are. The bazars stock a range of stuff, much of it household, stationery and the like. Accordingly, maybe the ferreterias have seen an erosion of their sales for items likes of cutlery, but hang on a minute, go to a market and you will find all manner of cheap household stuff for sale. So the bazars are just, in a sense, making permanent the cheap elements of the weekly market. If any traders are likely to suffer I would have thought it would be those stallholders and not the regular shops. Perhaps though they doth protest too much about the Chinese bazars. The current economic climate has seen a decided drop in consumer spend, and this has nothing to do with the bazars except of course that, at a time of economic difficulty, cheap can become very attractive to the consumer.
QUIZ
Gerry and the Pacemakers and Frankie Goes To Hollywood both registered number ones with their first three singles. And how do you get from Frankie to "I'm Not In Love"? Yesterday's title - Marvin Gaye. Today's title - which group?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Not Welcome
Here's something charming. Charming in the sarcastic form.
A sign was placed in front of a shop in Alcúdia which read something to the effect of no entrance without prior notice to dogs and Romanians.
As I said, charming huh?
Maybe it's one of those little racist jokes. Like the Lewis Hamilton joke. You know, the joke that is acceptable because a bit of racism is not taken seriously. Nah, it's just a joke, mate. No offence. And there were apologists, even among the English media (one at least who lives in Spain), that agreed the Hamilton thing wasn't too clever, but one had to understand ... Yea, yea, yea.
I happen to know some Romanians, and I don't reckon they will see the joke.
This story, as reported in the "Diario", did not actually mention the shop in question in its main feature, but it did show a picture, did mention the proprietor (who apparently has form of a "discriminatory" nature) and did also have a side bar which did mention the shop. Beep. The computer shop in Alcúdia. I was shocked. Somehow I found it hard to associate this sort of thing with a computer store and especially with Beep, a shop I know quite well and which has had a fair amount of euros of mine pass over its counter. Well, I think I might think twice in the future.
Sorry, this is a bit dashed-off today. No quiz. It's known as all day at the printers and it's done my head in. And there will probably be another similar day tomorrow, and I had to go to the hospital with an infected toe, and I haven't slept since ...
Till tomorrow. Maybe.
QUIZ
Yesterday's chain - Captain Sensible did "Happy Talk" from "South Pacific". Today's title - Extreme. No quiz today.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
A sign was placed in front of a shop in Alcúdia which read something to the effect of no entrance without prior notice to dogs and Romanians.
As I said, charming huh?
Maybe it's one of those little racist jokes. Like the Lewis Hamilton joke. You know, the joke that is acceptable because a bit of racism is not taken seriously. Nah, it's just a joke, mate. No offence. And there were apologists, even among the English media (one at least who lives in Spain), that agreed the Hamilton thing wasn't too clever, but one had to understand ... Yea, yea, yea.
I happen to know some Romanians, and I don't reckon they will see the joke.
This story, as reported in the "Diario", did not actually mention the shop in question in its main feature, but it did show a picture, did mention the proprietor (who apparently has form of a "discriminatory" nature) and did also have a side bar which did mention the shop. Beep. The computer shop in Alcúdia. I was shocked. Somehow I found it hard to associate this sort of thing with a computer store and especially with Beep, a shop I know quite well and which has had a fair amount of euros of mine pass over its counter. Well, I think I might think twice in the future.
Sorry, this is a bit dashed-off today. No quiz. It's known as all day at the printers and it's done my head in. And there will probably be another similar day tomorrow, and I had to go to the hospital with an infected toe, and I haven't slept since ...
Till tomorrow. Maybe.
QUIZ
Yesterday's chain - Captain Sensible did "Happy Talk" from "South Pacific". Today's title - Extreme. No quiz today.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Monday, April 07, 2008
We're Shopping
Shop till we drop. No. Shop if the prices drop. Or shop when consumer confidence doesn't drop - or something like that. Bad times on the Mallorcan high streets, or calles mayores if you prefer. "The Bulletin" reports on significantly reduced retail activity in March, compared with last year. It is not difficult to work out the reasons. The credit crunch is one issue, but add on inflation and a general lack of confidence, and it is easy to understand why there is less spend on those high streets.
While Palma is the centre for much shopping, the small towns all of course have their shops. In addition to the supermarket chains - Eroski, Caprabo and Mercadona being the largest - there are other chain stores, such as the Milar electrical goods outlet, and then there are any number of franchise operations, especially in the clothing sector, Gas for example. And the small towns are littered with all manner of other shops, not just those catering almost exclusively for the tourist market. Take the clothing sector. Again, continuing in a sense the recent theme on this blog, if you wander around there are seemingly innumerable clothes and fashion shops. And you wonder quite why there are so many, given that the real populations of the towns are relatively small and also given that a trip to Palma takes only 30 odd minutes from the likes of Alcúdia.
It's when you get to know some of these shops that the reason starts to emerge. Many are run by the daughter of so-and-so, or the wife of so-and-so. These so-and-so's are often quite successful businesspeople in other sectors, e.g. restaurant owners. Something is needed for the daughter, so up pops another little fashion shop. Which is not to say for one moment that they shouldn't start a shop, but it is to say - is it really needed? Once more, you come back to the whole notion of supply and demand, and quite frankly I don't get it.
The supply of shops (and of bars etc.) has been increased by the way in which apartment blocks are created. Invariably there are a number of "locals" on the ground floor of these blocks, and equally invariably there is at least one clothes shop. Why? And then, having set the place up, stocked it, spent an arm and a leg on the design, there is a discovery that there are "muchos gastos" (many costs) attached to the running of a shop. You think, do they ever do something as basic as a cash-flow analysis before getting the interior designers around to give them a huge quote? Even if they do, what do they base it on? Nothing would be my guess.
I know what, can't think of anything better, let's open a shop, there's a unit going under the new flats. And then reality kicks in, and the current reality is none too rosy. Shop till we drop. Nope, shop and the shop will drop.
And just a small "Bulletin" moment for all fans of its editorial rigidity. In the context of the contribution of immigrant workers, it says that there has been an increase of "85 percent (not per cent, but the Americanised "percent") in GDP in the islands during the period 2000 and 2006. 85 per cent!? Given that average annual GDP increases have been in the 3% region, I think not.
QUIZ: Yesterday - Said I wouldn't again, but - Peter Gabriel. Today's title - another this time duo who are sort of regulars here. Which?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
While Palma is the centre for much shopping, the small towns all of course have their shops. In addition to the supermarket chains - Eroski, Caprabo and Mercadona being the largest - there are other chain stores, such as the Milar electrical goods outlet, and then there are any number of franchise operations, especially in the clothing sector, Gas for example. And the small towns are littered with all manner of other shops, not just those catering almost exclusively for the tourist market. Take the clothing sector. Again, continuing in a sense the recent theme on this blog, if you wander around there are seemingly innumerable clothes and fashion shops. And you wonder quite why there are so many, given that the real populations of the towns are relatively small and also given that a trip to Palma takes only 30 odd minutes from the likes of Alcúdia.
It's when you get to know some of these shops that the reason starts to emerge. Many are run by the daughter of so-and-so, or the wife of so-and-so. These so-and-so's are often quite successful businesspeople in other sectors, e.g. restaurant owners. Something is needed for the daughter, so up pops another little fashion shop. Which is not to say for one moment that they shouldn't start a shop, but it is to say - is it really needed? Once more, you come back to the whole notion of supply and demand, and quite frankly I don't get it.
The supply of shops (and of bars etc.) has been increased by the way in which apartment blocks are created. Invariably there are a number of "locals" on the ground floor of these blocks, and equally invariably there is at least one clothes shop. Why? And then, having set the place up, stocked it, spent an arm and a leg on the design, there is a discovery that there are "muchos gastos" (many costs) attached to the running of a shop. You think, do they ever do something as basic as a cash-flow analysis before getting the interior designers around to give them a huge quote? Even if they do, what do they base it on? Nothing would be my guess.
I know what, can't think of anything better, let's open a shop, there's a unit going under the new flats. And then reality kicks in, and the current reality is none too rosy. Shop till we drop. Nope, shop and the shop will drop.
And just a small "Bulletin" moment for all fans of its editorial rigidity. In the context of the contribution of immigrant workers, it says that there has been an increase of "85 percent (not per cent, but the Americanised "percent") in GDP in the islands during the period 2000 and 2006. 85 per cent!? Given that average annual GDP increases have been in the 3% region, I think not.
QUIZ: Yesterday - Said I wouldn't again, but - Peter Gabriel. Today's title - another this time duo who are sort of regulars here. Which?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
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