I visited one of the out of town shopping centres on Sunday; it was packed, the mixture of all the shops being open and the beautiful weather was a fantastic combination. Majorca is very lucky because shoppers are now spoilt for choice but there is a downside; it does appear that the smaller shops in the city are closing down.
Businesses which have been open for many years are closing down because they find that they are unable to compete. This state of affairs couple with the closure of many bank branches means that there are now quite a few empty shop fronts on the Palma High Streets.
Unfortunately, it is a trend which will continue. I was rather shocked to see in Britain how the high street is disappearing of shops with more out of town shopping centres and more people shopping online. So how can the city council give the high street a boost?
Well I am sure that many of these shops, which in some cases have been open for more than 100 years, could become tourist attractions, especially bakeries and old style cafes. During the summer months hundreds of thousands of tourists head to Palma and perhaps the council could consider a guide of shops which are of historical interest. Up until recently you could safely say that many of the smaller shops I remember as a child in Palma were still open for business, this is no longer the case with many small traders closing their doors in the last few years, which is sad.