The Fàbrega pastry shop closes after 63 years on Sant Antoni Abat street, in Raval. And a long-standing client consoles herself by saying that surely there is another one on her way to heaven… María José, behind the counter, gets excited all the time. Many neighbors come to the establishment to get hold of the last Panchitos, with their sweet star, and in passing lament the future of these times.
La Fàbrega is not closed by any investment fund, nor by any heartless landlord, but by a few family imponderables. But his goodbye highlights the slow loss of unique businesses on this side of Ciutat Vella, businesses that have always attracted local residents and others from other neighbourhoods. Retirements are usually succeeded by available posters. Around these latitudes, people remember, until not long ago, you could also find tailor shops, butcher shops, hardware stores… And right now, among the barely 60 numbers of this street that leads to the Sant Antoni market, you have more than 20 greengrocers , greengrocers and grocery stores.
The closure of the historic Fàbrega pastry shop warns of the slow loss of unique businesses
Arbaaz explains that he opened his fruit shop seven years ago. “So there were only two or three around here. It’s just that Pakistanis work like that. If you see that a business works in one place, then we open another one just like it. Later I opened another one on Carme Street. It is also a religious question. Many of us do not like to sell alcohol. Most of us earn just enough, but some do have a lot of money and open dozens of greengrocers everywhere… Besides, it’s easier to set up a greengrocer here than other businesses with more complicated permits.”
It is a very thorny issue. No one wants the fight against monoculture to be tainted with racist overtones. The latest use plan for Ciutat Vella, which has been going on for five years, above all restricts the opening of bars and restaurants. Very few expected that commercial homogenization would later take these paths. Neighbors and merchants ask the administrations for measures.
“The City Council has to do something to promote commercial diversity –they say in the Xarxa Veïnal del Raval–. The neighborhood is losing a good part of its local businesses. We have to find a balance where everyone has a place. And in Eix Raval, the merchants’ association, they add that the administrations have to take measures to curb the rise in commercial rents, facilitate generational changeovers and offer training that multiplies the variety of shop windows. “A new use plan is not enough,” they stress.
The City Council is taking note of the situation. The mayor of Ciutat Vella, the common Jordi Rabassa, recalls that the greengrocers are proximity businesses aimed at the people of the neighborhood, and that he should not see their concentration as something negative. “In any case, I think there are already enough supermarkets, especially large and medium-sized ones.”
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