The ongoing dispute over whether large shopping centres in Santa Cruz de Tenerife should be allowed to open every Sunday shows no sign of nearing a solution, with the centres even threatening to take the matter to court.
Small shops in the Tenerife capital are fiercely opposed to the latest calls to allow the larger stores – including Nivaria Center, Carrefour, Meridiano, El Corte Inglés and MediaMarkt – to trade every Sunday and public holiday if they wish. At present, the stores can only open on a maximum of ten Sundays while small shops in a defined zone of the city centre are permitted to trade every Sunday in order to cater for tourists.
Santa Cruz’s mayor José Manuel Bermúdez is trying to strike a balance between the demands of the larger shops and the fears of the smaller ones that unrestricted Sunday opening could spell their demise due to the footfall the shopping centres would inevitably attract.
A council source says that many of the shops in the designated area for Sunday trading in the centre of Santa Cruz do not actually open and tourists have often complained that the area can become something of a ghost town at times.
The large stores are supported in their renewed bid for total Sunday freedom by several trading bodies in Tenerife and, crucially, the influential Ashotel association which brings together hotels and holiday apartment operators. They point to the successful relaxation of restrictive trading bylaws in other parts of the Canaries, particularly Las Palmas, and criticise the small shops for ignoring the present-day reality of consumer preferences.
Ahead of the forthcoming council meeting at which the issue will be on the agenda, Mayor Bermudez is proposing adding three Sundays to the existing quota of ten per year that larger stores and shopping malls can open, although the olive branch is unlikely to be accepted.
The association of medium and large distribution firms Asodiscan says it does not rule out taking the council to court to lift the current restrictions. Asodiscan secretary general Alfredo Medina is at pains to point out also that other parts of Spain where Sunday opening is now the norm, including Madrid (which relaxed the rules a decade ago), have seen a 10% increase in jobs in the retail sector as a result.
