If there is a fact that defines the evolution of trade in Spain, it is the number of businesses that continue to lower the blind daily: 26 in Spain in the last year.
In the last twelve months, 9,739 shops have disappeared, “a figure that reflects a structural phenomenon, small trade remains in crisis, unable to resist the increase in costs, unequal digitalization and competence of large platforms with their liberalization of schedules and structures that strengthen their online sales channels”, as warning from the union of associations of autonomous workers and entrepreneurs (UATAE). If the magnifying glass is put in the data, the impact varies through territories, but the pattern is clear. The communities that have lost more businesses are Catalonia, with 1,679 less; Andalusia, with 1,631, Castilla y León, with 1,000 and Galicia with 984. There are four autonomous communities with different characteristics, but with a common denominator. According to UATAE, there is no doubt: “Small trade suffers and the self -employed that support it do not find sufficient support to deal with current challenges and challenges.”
A structural problem
From the organization they warn that this fall is not conjunctural, but part of a process of wear of the local trade that has been accumulating for years. “We are seeing a closure of shops that is not only a consequence of recent economic factors, but of a structural problem,” explains María José Landaburu, general secretary of UATAE, who affect that, “if urgent measures are not taken, we will continue to see how the streets of our cities and towns lose life and employment.”
The data show that trade is one of the most beaten sectors of autonomous work. In the last five years, closures of closures have been constant and recovery after the pandemic has not stopped the trend.
Support measures
From the union of freelancers they propose, among other measures, Bonuses for digitalization, facilitating its adaptation to new forms of consumption; the regulation of the rental price of commercial premises, To prevent small businesses from being expelled from the tension and political areas that encourage consumption in proximity trade, such as loyalty and financial support programs for store modernization.
Despite the growth of autonomous employment in other sectors, trade remains the great loser. The number of businesses is negative in almost all of Spain, which means that there are more closures than openings in most communities. “Urban areas are not the only ones affected, in Castilla y León or Galicia, where proximity trade is key to the life of municipalitiesthe loss of establishments is especially worrying, “says UATAE.
Rental costs
All this, derived from the high rental costs, supplies and the difficulty of competing with online trade that make them the main reasons that explain the decline of this sector. For UATAE, the lack of specific support policies is accelerating its disappearance. “We cannot resign ourselves to the small shops close while large corporations continue to capture market without restrictions,” says Landaburu, so it is urgent to apply measures that balance the pitch. “
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