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Umbrella in the Municipal Mercat de Dénia

November 16 from 2015 - 00: 01

Dénia is a city that cares for and appreciates good food, so much so that it has requested to be Creative City of Gastronomy of Unesco, a worldwide recognition. Everyone knows that to prepare a good plate of food is essential to have good food products, fresh and top quality.

It is easy to find these items in the Municipal Market; the fish from its fish market directly from the port boats, the butchers with its fresh and tasty genus without additives, the fruit shops with a great variety of fruit and vegetables of national origin, the handcrafted manufacture of the bakeries and the products of international stores they are just a sample of it. Undoubtedly this space has a large number of varied positions with a wide range, but traders say that it does not work as it did a few years ago.

Central hall of the Municipal Market of Dénia

The market situation

The market has gone from being a point of reference at the time of making the purchase to be hard hit by the crisis and the opening and expansion of large food platforms such as Consum and Mercadona. The current visitors of the Market have been practically reduced to the "lifelong customers, who are already friends", says Trinidad Ribes, owner of the bakery The raconet of Trini.

Side entrance of the Municipal Market

Although the large supermarkets have influenced their performance to worsen, the reality is that the type of client that wants to reach a group and the other is different: while the first group has lower prices and a commodity field (as toilet paper) wider, the Market is distinguished by the fact that its products are of higher quality and the treatment of customers is close. Therefore not only the factors influence and there are possible internal changes that would propel sales in this space.

Merchants and users say

Several Spanish markets have chosen to create a mixed model in which supermarkets are incorporated within the same space or around. Others, however, have chosen to combine the traditional with the current and completely change the sales model, as in the case of Mercado de San Miguel de Madrid, in which the preparation of tapas instantly and a place to eat them has been a very good option. In this case, both customers and sellers agree that there are several points that could help improve the situation:

The fact that it is located in such a central location also has great disadvantages; adapting the place so that people can access it by car is key if one takes into account that most customers have to carry heavy bags. "It is very difficult to find a place in this area since here you can only park for a few minutes, and in the nearby areas where you can park you have to pay because it is a blue zone", reports Maria Francisca, a regular buyer.

Maite Ivars, who runs a butcher shop for around 30 years, says that in some occasion other buyers have come down to pick up their shopping bags and when they get back to the car they already had a fine or warning; Maite also emphasizes that she appreciates the effort made by customers to continue shopping in the Market despite inconveniences of this nature.

Signal loading and unloading at the Mercat de Dénia

The Mercat is living an era of change with the new local conformation of the government. The tenants of the positions report that they are happy with the first initiatives that the new Market Councilor has taken, Javier Scotto, but there is still much to be done. Both sellers and users agree that the maintenance of the market (both internal and external) is something that has to be significantly improved. They tell us that they miss a little more cleaning in the bathrooms and the Market in general and that the people in charge of maintenance and cleaning do not concentrate all their efforts in carrying out their work. The floors are also uneven and peeling and, in some cases, this is due to the bad procedure that was followed when renovating the roof.

Trinidad Ribes has open umbrellas in one of its stalls so that the roof leaks do not create any damage between its products, leaks in a roof that was invested to repair it not long ago.

Umbrellas that a vendor has placed in the Mercat

The tenants also complain about the air conditioning "In winter it is very cold and in summer a heat that is unbearable and this is a problem we have been dealing with for years"says Josefa Perles, who owns a sausage stand. The facade is spoiled and unattractive to customers and buyers say that a more modernized and uniform looking market would like more tourists and new consumers.

The advertising of the establishment is also a key factor for sellers; these agree that the City Council should promote the integration of the municipal market and local commerce and should treat them as a point to promote in Dénia and not forget them. Events like International Creative Cuisine Contest of the Red Prawn of Denia They attract a large number of clients but they are not done very often.

Regarding tourists, Maite Ivars says that they like the Market and that foreigners who live in our city often buy products to take to their children, friends or relatives when they go to see them because of the quality they have, which demonstrates once again that commercial strategies may not be the right ones. Also diverse merchants are not identified with the advertising posters that are in the entrances, definitely a girl with bags that do not seem of food is not the type of commerce that they represent. The truth is that some of the promotional campaigns, such as distributing reusable bags with the Mercat logo among customers, have already started and are being a success.

Changes in opening hours?

As in any neighborhood community, it is sometimes difficult to agree on issues that affect all those involved; with the Mercat case, the same thing happens. There is talk of changing business hours but the truth is that there is some dispute between the merchants because some think it would be beneficial and the public would expand and others that things would remain the same.

Access to the municipal market of Dénia

Society has changed and, as the sellers say, the public that claims them now is older because young people do not have time to go shopping in the morning. While large supermarkets can hire several employees, in most of these positions do not work more than one or two people, therefore, working in the afternoon would involve working all day or hire, something that is not profitable. Even so some of them have proposals such as opening later instead of at seven in the morning and closing past noon or opening on Friday afternoons, since it is on weekends when the market shines brighter and more vitality through its corridors.

Traders and regular buyers encourage us to take advantage of the fact that we have a great Municipal Market and good products in Dénia. The solution may not be as radical a change as the Mercado de San Miguel de Madrid, but what is clear is that sellers and consumers are demanding changes and are already demanding them.

1 Comment
  1. Antonietta says:

    The city council, left or right, is not ashamed?


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