“Enough is enough. We ask for understanding, affection and support”. It is the desperate cry of Julián Cruz, president of the Association of Street Traders of Extremadura (Acaex), one more sector than breaks out and asks for help to cope with the effects of the inflationary drift. The group denounces the slow agony that the markets of towns and cities in the region are suffering: the sector had not yet managed to return to the figures from before the pandemic and the increase in fuel prices has come to give them the finishing touch.
This week in Badajoz half of the usual positions have been counted; in Jerez de los Caballeros you could see completely empty streets and in Montijo they began to pick up at mid-morning due to the low influx of customers. They are examples of a stamp that is repeated throughout Extremadura and that those affected do not remember having lived before. For this reason they have begun to mobilize to request an exemption from the fees to the municipalities and aid to the Junta de Extremadura.
“Our activity is a tradition in many cities and a generator of life for small towns”
The increase in fuel prices in recent weeks means that Many merchants find it unfeasible to travel from their municipalities of origin to the markets for those who have a license: the costs are much higher than the sales that are expected to be achieved, since the influx of customers has not been the same after the health crisis.
Fear of contagion and mobility restrictions have not only caused a decrease in publicor in recent months, but have “accustomed” these customers to online shopping, displacing the market even in small towns where there is not a great commercial offer.
According to Acaex data, sales are at 30% of their normal level and the situation is such that there are shopkeepers who have chosen to abandon street vending to start working on the fruit campaign or tourism in the Balearic Islands. “We are self-employed, small businesses. We pay our taxes and we also offer leisure, we help to revitalize the life of the towns,” recalls Cruz, who puts the number of families in the sector in Extremadura at around 3,000.
the testimonials
One of them is that of Vicente Gómez, who has been dedicating himself to street vending for 30 years. He has an underwear and lingerie stall that he ran first with his wife and now only because she can’t work. “We have eaten and lived from this all our lives. You ate and paid, but now if you pay you don’t eat“, he affirms. More than half of his earnings are taken by payments: self-employed fee, municipal taxes, filming tax, van insurance and diesel.
Vicente is from Badajoz and has a stall in the markets of the capital of Badajoz, Almendralejo, Montijo and Villafranca de los Barros. But given the sales expectations, he assures that today it is more profitable for him to stay at home and allocate the money that would be spent on fuel to food.
In the same situation is Antonia Gamero, who has a pickle stand. She is “her life of her” since she was 12 years old and the work with which she has been able to support a family with three children. But she with the current conditions she cannot survive. “You stay all morning to take 10 euros home, which is what I have left after deducting all the expenses“, he says with regret. And it is not only the fuel: he has paid 12 euros for a can of five kilos of olives, compared to the 10 that it cost last week, 20% more.
“The supplier has risen 20% in the last week. You stay all morning to take 10 euros home”
“I can’t talk about benefits, everything is a loss”, confirms Florentino Suarez, another street vendor from Mérida. He sells fabrics and remnants for textile clothing, but in the last week he has chosen not to go to the markets for which he has a license: Trujillo, Cáceres, Badajoz, Zafra and Montijo. “How am I going to go from Merida to Trujillo, if the trip alone costs me 40 euros?” He asks himself. In his case, he has not even been able to afford the purchase of stock for the new season.
Municipal and regional aid
Given this situation, the association will transfer the need for aid to the municipalities of Extremadura, either through the recovery of the fee exemption, as was done during the pandemic, or through direct subsidies. The goal, Cruz explains, is to maintain an activity “that is a tradition in many cities and a generator of life for multiple towns.”
The president of the collective has asked cities like Badajoz to return the aid initiatives promoted during the pandemic, and consistories such as Cáceres or Mérida, of which the sector has lacked support measures throughout the health crisis, that they begin to bet on them now if they want the markets to continue. Acaex has also requested a meeting with the Federation of Municipalities and Provinces of Extremadura (Fempex) to address the problem and seek solutions.
One of the municipalities that has already taken measures in this regard is Valverde de Leganés. It has maintained in 2021 and 2022 the exemption from fees for market stalls and hotel watchmen because, according to its mayor, Manuel Borrego, they have been two of the sectors hardest hit by covid-19.
Thus, every Wednesday the municipality of Badajoz celebrates its market, with between 35 and 40 food, clothing, footwear or craft stalls. “The market helps to give life, the days that the town is celebrated moves and more economy is generated. It is important that it is maintained, we all benefit,” says Borrego. A model that Acaex applauds, and that calls for it to be extended to the rest of the region.