That all the historic centers of the big cities look alike is a cliché, a litany that has been repeated since the advent of globalization. The same stores, the same pizzas, the same hamburgers, the same perfumes, the same knick-knacks… That is why traditional and local commerce has today almost become an endangered species, worth protecting. Gloves Piqueras belongs to this lineage, which has been open in Valencia since 1886. Gloves, handmade fans and hats make up its offer in the renovated Plaza de la Reina, now a destination and place of passage for tourists and neighbors and one of the spaces with the highest commercial potential today, which has triggered rental prices.
“It has been very hard to endure the 15 months of works, but now the square is pleasant and many people come. You can hear them speaking in Spanish, which was not very common before, and I see that young people stay here, ”says Margarita Piqueras from her counter, which preserves the old wooden drawers. “I think people are getting tired of always finding the same thing and appreciate different stores, with history,” says this owner, who inherited the business from her mother who, in turn, kept the store where she entered as an apprentice when the owners of the then Gloves Camps retired. The old and huge gloved wooden hand hanging on the facade, which served as a popular advertising claim, was so popular that it was stolen and a fiberglass copy had to be made. “When the first hand was made in the 19th century, there were many people who did not know how to read and it was useful,” she points out. Now the sculpture survives in the photographs hanging on the walls of the shop, in which a young Italian couple took away several artisan fans last Monday.
“A lot of Italians come. They really like the fans and the gloves, of Spanish production. They are popular among foreigners. We also sell a lot of gloves for clavariesa and for attending weddings”, he adds. What she no longer has, because the factory that supplied her has closed, are quality cloth handkerchiefs, like the one an elderly lady has just ordered.
The biggest problem for this century-old business is the rents that continue to skyrocket. These high prices have ended up suffocating several surrounding businesses. There are low closed for a few years. Margarita acknowledges the problem, although she acknowledges that her landlord was sensitive to her in the fateful months of the coronavirus pandemic.
A good part of the closed shops in Plaza de la Reina and its surroundings bear the sign of To rent of the real estate company Alain. Pedro García, general director of the firm, maintains that these stores will open very soon. “Most of them are already rented and with powerful brands that are going to give the market a boost. We are overwhelmed by demand. We believe that there are two reasons: the opening to tourism of Valencia, in August there have been record data; and the opening of the central square after almost two years of work”, he explains. In the first nine months of the year, the company has increased its operations in the historic center by 61%, which has also benefited from the pedestrianization of the nearby area of the Central Market and the Lonja.
García admits the problem of rising rents despite the facilities for establishing businesses, and that it is companies with strong financial muscle that can face them. “Traditional commerce must be protected, although it maintains old income, but also the interests of the owners in search of balance must be safeguarded,” he maintains.
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The nuns of the Paulinas bookstore do not pay rent, because the spacious ground floor of the Plaza de la Reina is owned by their Daughters of San Pablo congregation. Surrounded by hamburgers, ice cream parlors, chocolate shops or pizzerias, Sister Julia affirms that they feed in a different way, “bread of the spirit, of the word, to spread the word of Jesus Christ”. Specializing in religious, philosophy, and social science books, the manager of the bookstore has detected that many people lost hope in the pandemic and now she “seeks to rekindle her faith” with readings. Her sister smiles and prefers not to talk about the real estate interest aroused by the ground floor on which this establishment with 75 years of history sits.
Julia Martínez, manager of the Association of Merchants of the Historic Center of Valencia, acknowledges that pedestrianization in the city usually leads to an increase in rents for commercial premises and homes. “We are in favor of gaining pedestrian space, we have even asked for it in areas of the city where there is a concentration of commerce, but sometimes it is a double-edged sword because the owners raise the rents and that is not fair either because if that street has been improved it is, in part, because trade remains open.”
In Valencia there is a perverse effect, according to Martínez, and that is that when a pedestrian street is built, the owners of premises find it more profitable to rent it for the hotel industry than for retail. “Because it charges the square meters of the premises and the potential surface area of the terrace”.
The experience of pedestrianization for retail trade has brought good things and others not so much. “We did a study in 2005 of streets with a high commercial concentration that we proposed to pedestrianize and we delivered it to the City Council. Many streets were changed between Avenida del Oeste and Plaza del Ayuntamiento: Adressadors, Maestro Clavé, En Sanz… But five years later we realized that many of those axes had been expelled from trade. Before, En Sanz street was all wedding dress shops and now there are five or six catering establishments”, says the manager. It was the reason why the merchants put the brakes on the same plans for the Ensanche of the capital: “We prefer to bet on the widening of the sidewalks,” recalls Martínez.
In the Plaza de la Reina, after its remodeling, the merchants of the historic center have asked the local government not to authorize more terraces. “There has to be a balanced commercial mix. It cannot be that in the end everything is a bar”, defends Martínez, who asks the owners of the premises “more coherence” because high rents, which in the end cause a lot of business turnover “and that is not good for anyone ”. The small business coexists peacefully with the residents of the neighborhood and is an excellent animation for the streets.
The pandemic affected hospitality establishments more than conventional commerce, which close mainly due to the retirement of the owner and the lack of generational change. Many experiences have been tried so that employees or entrepreneurs take over the reins of the business and thus centenary or emblematic businesses do not close, but it is not easy, says Martínez. The council of Borja Sanjuán discounts the payment of almost all VAT to centenary or emblematic stores in Valencia.
The association has launched, with the help of the City Council, an experience to install a people flow counting system in 15 shops, to measure how many people pass by, how many enter the store, at what times… “ It is a very useful tool that franchises already have because buyer patterns are analyzed. We want merchants to become more technical, but with sense”, concludes Martínez.
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