Local businesses in Barcelona rebel against Black Friday: “It is the worst invention that has ever been made”

On the eve of Black Friday, the center of Barcelona is dressed with offers and promotions to attract an audience looking to fit their needs into their pockets. However, the campaign has gone from being a specific date, with extraordinary offers, to a global phenomenon that, year after year, is brought forward. And at the beginning of November, the shop windows were already decorated for the occasion with illuminated advertisements and posters at the entrances inviting the consumer to plan their purchases. But the phenomenon has reached such intensity that local commerce cannot face the competition from large e-commerce platforms. Black Friday has its origins in the United States and is celebrated the day after Thanksgiving, when businesses need to clear stock. This holiday is not celebrated in Spain, so merchants do not see it logical to make sales one week before the Christmas campaign, the most important of the year, begins. “Importing Black Friday in Spain is the worst invention that has ever been made because it only benefits large stores,” laments Jordi, an employee of a franchise selling household appliances and household products in Barcelona. For Pròsper Puig, president of Barcelona Comerç – an entity that brings together 24 commercial hubs and represents 23,0004 businesses -, promoting this phenomenon is “incomprehensible”. «Aside from large companies, those who participate in the campaign are usually small franchises and businesses that are under pressure from the market. In no case does it mean extraordinary sales for small businesses,» he says. Everyone agrees that Christmas sales have plummeted since Black Friday has been extended. For a small jeans and leather store in the Vila de Gràcia neighborhood, this date is a “scam.” «The sales should be as always, that is, to liquidate products when the winter or summer season ends, for example. The problem comes when the big ones produce a lot of product, of dubious quality and specifically for this date, and then they try to sneak it in as discounted, and it is not like that,» they maintain. Puig trusts in the close connection that Barcelona residents have with small businesses, but is concerned about the impossibility of competing fiscally with large stores. «All competition is good as long as we all play the same cards. We only ask for tax fairness. Large companies are closely linked to electronic commerce without schedules and make extensive use of public space, but then they do not pay taxes here like we do,» he emphasizes. For years, many businesses have chosen not to participate in Black Friday because they claim that it does not benefit them. The most famous case is perhaps that of the Castañer footwear store, a business that has been making espadrilles by hand since 1927. In this edition, in addition to not participating, it will lower the blinds considering that Black Friday is not committed to artisanal fashion production. Barcelona is a heterogeneous city that still maintains its local pulse, especially in districts such as Sants-Montjuïc, Gràcia, Horta-Guinardó or Nou Barris. Carmel Comerç, the merchants’ association of this mountainous and aging neighborhood of the Catalan capital, highlights the associative and social fabric generated by local commerce. «These businesses provide work for people in the neighborhood and we try to launch educational campaigns, like Carmel Escoles, to involve young people with local commerce. In the center, small businesses compete to attract tourism, here we fight not to lower the blinds,» explains Encarna Puig, organizer of the organization.