The Balearics are once again at the bottom of the ranking in terms of shops open during the month of December. Despite being a predominantly tourist region and a notable increase in visitors beyond the high season, the region maintains a limited calendar that only allows three of the eight public holidays in the month to be open: 6, 21 and 28 December. This figure contrasts with the policy of most tourist regions, which are much more open during these dates of high consumer activity.
The group of autonomous regions that open the least also includes Extremadura, La Rioja and Asturias, with the same three days as the Balearics. Cantabria and Navarre reduce the margin even further, as they only allow opening on 6 and 21 December. In the case of the Basque Country, the regulations do not regulate the calendar of Sundays and public holidays, leaving it to other administrative criteria to be set.
The picture changes radically in the rest of the country. Galicia, Aragon, Andalusia, Catalonia, Castile-La Mancha and the Canary Islands allow shops to open on the 6th, 8th, 14th, 21st and 28th, five days in total. Murcia also allows shops to open on the 7th, making a total of six days. Castile and León remains at four authorised days (6, 14, 21 and 28) and the Valencian Community adds the 6th, 8th and 14th, although the declaration of a High Tourist Traffic Zone during Christmas allows its shops to open on the rest of the public holidays. In Madrid, each retailer decides on the opening days without administrative restrictions.
Sources from large stores, hypermarkets and franchise chains insist that the Balearics, and Palma in particular due to its tourist importance, ‘should have a less restricted opening calendar in the middle of the Christmas season’. They consider that this restriction ‘only benefits large online platforms, which operate 24 hours a day throughout the year’.
Large retailers give recent examples to illustrate the situation: ‘On the 7th and 8th, Sunday and Monday, which were public holidays, Palma was full of people and the shops were closed, with no possibility of shopping or taking advantage of the influx’. They stress that greater opening hours for shops on Sundays and public holidays ‘should not be at the expense of workers’ rest or family life’.