The historic center of Lorca is the area of the city that has most affected the closure of shops or transfers to other more inhabited areas in recent months, because “no people live here, we do not have raw materials and it is increasingly difficult to stay”. , explains to LA VERDAD the president of the Historical Center association, Diego Re.
The main workhorse of the small shops is that there is no generational change and the owners complain about the lack of government aid to make apprenticeship contracts and that young people continue with businesses that, otherwise, are doomed to disappear . “Our children do not want to be merchants because they know the suffering of their parents,” acknowledges the new president of the Regional Union of Merchants, Ginés Basilio Cánovas.
New consumption habits
Together with his two brothers, heir to a curtain business that totals ten stores, only one of his nieces is willing to continue. “He has more modern thinking, he wants to consolidate the business and expand, his is a digital native generation,” explains Cánovas, who believes that this will be his great asset in adapting to changes in customer consumption habits.
Not knowing how to adapt to ‘online’ commerce weighs “like a slab” on traditional commerce and the announcement of the opening of stores by firms such as Primark and Leroy Merlin in the Parque Almenara shopping center, far from the urban center, “does not augur anything good” to the future of their business.
“We need more support, we are going through a very difficult stage, since the pandemic everything has changed and selling is more complicated,” says this veteran salesman. “Today’s merchant is a hero,” says Cánovas convinced.
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