The lack of generational change has ended with several of them in recent years and although the economic crisis that
Covid-19
has unleashed
has hit them hard, it has not managed to bring them down. With well-rooted roots and the last descendants behind the counter, the
centenary shops
of
Madrid
have withstood the onslaught of the pandemic, although not without the added sacrifice of those behind:
hours and hours walking to the store, credits, salary reductions, loss of savings ...
As a living history of the city and its own families, its owners, driven by their lifelong workers, have fought every day not to disappear, looking askance, yes,
some accounts shattered
, and also those
tourists
who are already beginning to appear in the center, until recently a desert.
La Violeta
, that little shop in the Plaza de Canalejas that has been selling the typical candies that has been printed in its name since 1915, has had a bad time, but little by little it is raising its head.
"It has been a disaster," says
Mónica de Prado, the third generation in charge of the business.
"At the beginning we didn't sell anything. There was no one on the streets. We opened for trying.
Do you remember that day we sold only two euros, from a box of sweets?
", She asks Jessica Méndez, her shop assistant, seeking her complicity. busy packing violets in automatic mode.
Since the state of alarm was suspended, "everything is better," says the owner.
"It's not like before, it sells more and it looks more cool," he
adds with his eyes on the door.
"Look, they pass by with some suitcases," he says, very aware that tourism, the one on which his business depends, arrives as before.
"You
are beginning to see the French, the English, the Italians, but we miss the Japanese and the Chinese
, who came in groups and brought a lot of money," says her employee.
"They were very good customers, they are a great fan of violets, they love them. And the Americans too," adds De Prado.
The interior of La Violeta, overflowing with candies.BERNARDO DÍAZ
While she explains that the business was started by her grandparents (present there in the form of a photograph), the owner of the premises also tells us that
to survive they have had to ask for a loan
.
"If not, it was impossible; we would not have been able to get ahead. We were closed for two months, plus no one came. Let's see if now they give us help," he resolves.
The website "does not pull much"
and hotels, one of its regulars, still "do not allow themselves the luxury of putting some sweets to their customers."
"We will try to recover them," says the owner, assuring that if they have already arrived here ... they will hold the pull.
Experience and a lot of feeling
In Puerta del Sol, between the chords of street musicians, a little more movement begins to be seen.
And the historic shops in the square also notice it.
In
Casa de Diego
, popular for that showcase overflowing with
artisan fans
, they begin to see the light although the way out of the tunnel is still long, says Arturo Llerandi, sixth generation of this family business, which keeps that essence that the past gives off .
Experience, he says, has made them survive.
"When we saw the situation the first day, the first thing we did was fold our wings," he says, recalling what his grandfather taught him, who fought "a thousand economic battles."
Thus, almost all of those who set up this company, six out of eight, went to ERTE.
And what else did you do?
"Fight.
Less sleep, we were here all day. And order one ico and another and another
."
Three credits that must be returned between now and 2026. "We need twice as many tourists to arrive in the next five years to mitigate the great losses" - 500%, he says, between what they have stopped earning and what they have lost.
Because
tourism is 85% of your business
.
Diego's house, with the family portrait of the current owners' grandmother.BERNARDO DÍAZ
"If we had closed all of last year we would not have lost so much," he laments.
"Now, every day you get up they are in the red and that is how it will be for the next five years. You have to pay everything that is owed. That is the issue. But ... strength, enthusiasm and Spanish blood," he says optimistically before to say that only the civil war, and the bomb that fell on its doors, has done more damage to the premises throughout its history.
"We have worked hard for love and affection. Not everything is money.
The feeling keeps you here. Your ancestors,
" adds Llerandi while pointing to the family symbols that are still there: his grandfather's hat, placed in the same place as him. He did, and the portrait that Agustín Segura painted of his grandmother, which crowns the trade.
They have had fewer losses for a week.
"
Today is the first day of
traffic jams
since May of last year
. Maybe we will equalize (expenses and income)," he acknowledges after the journalist asks him about the movement he perceives in the premises (of his property), the only one in the two they had before the pandemic that is still open to the public.
"At Mesoneros Romanos now we only have the workshop."
"The worst is over, but there is still
,
" he
says inside the store -which keeps more than 10,000 different fans, artisans, and more than 100 types of umbrellas-, because in his case,
online
purchases
have served and still do. of little.
"People want to play, they want to see ...", he sums up.
From disaster to "we can't complain"
They say the same thing from the
Old Clock Shop
on Calle de la Sal, a few steps from the Plaza Mayor, where we arrived amid the deafening noise of various works. There, in that historic corner crowned by an automaton clock designed by
Mingote
, a close friend of the previous generation, and where someone escapes at the end of the year to drink the grapes,
"things are going better
.
"
"When the confinement ended we opened and it was astonishing that from here to Puerta del Sol we were the only ones who were open. The neighborhood was sad.
Until two months ago there was no one on the street, but there is more
and
more joy
and there are more visits of national public ", say Nacho and Reyes García, cousins and third generation in charge of the business together with Javier, brother of the first. "We miss the foreign tourist," they add, because it adds 15% to their accounts.
Although the figures are not yet those of these years ago, they say, they are "surviving".
Long-time customers attend normally, they continue to sell "well" to companies - fundamental in their business - and the workshop "works correctly".
"We cannot complain,"
says she, who points out that only the snowfall turned them upside down after the worst of the pandemic had passed.
The facade of the Old Clock Shop, with the clock that Mingote designed.BERNARDO DÍAZ
In their case, they have not needed financing to get ahead.
"We have pulled reserves,"
says Nacho, who adds that they have requested a subsidy that they give up.
"If they give it to someone else who needs it more ...", he says before pointing out that they have the advantage that the place belongs to the family and that
their secret to get ahead has no other recipe than their way of working, "with everything paid and a lot of order"
.
Tourism slopes
A few meters away, in the
Medrano Hat Shop
, the oldest in all of Spain, Héctor Medrano, third generation of the last family that has passed through there [two others did previously], says that they have also survived by
tightening their belts
but without the need to ask for any credit.
In their case, the local clientele and mainly
the sales for the cinema or the theater have saved them
.
And be specialists in a subject, in making the product they sell by hand.
"It is being a complicated time," says Medrano, who details that although they have had months with ups and downs, now things are more stable and that star time of year for his sector is approaching. "That has been noticed and that there are no restrictions.
We have gone from being unemployed to a lot of activity,
" he says, acknowledging that they are still far from the numbers of other years.
They are also waiting for more tourists, national and international, to arrive, because they account for 60% of their business.
In his case,
online purchases have increased but they are not going for much
.
"It is illusory," says Medrano, to think that this is the solution in his company.
"You have to try the hats on," she says under the watchful eye of her mother, who accompanies her husband and head of the business, Beltrán Medrano, in the business, immersed in the workshop.
The network as a lifeline
Online
sales
, however, have been
Capas Seseña's
safe haven
during this pandemic to get ahead.
That, and having "a good government", because
without the ERTE "it would not have been possible" to continue
, says Marcos Seseña, fourth generation, who rolled up his sleeves in full confinement to send from his own home all the
stock
they had in the store and he dedicated himself to making a highly personalized, "human and almost family-oriented" sale with his clients via e-mail.
The façade of Capas Seseña, unique in the matter.BERNARDO DÍAZ
Although they have lost much of the sales at the street level, fundamental, the network helped them to survive, just like the experience of these years ago. "We have lived through millions of crises and we have been able to cope with all of them.
We have always been prudent and humble in business ambitions
, and we have maintained a very niche product that does not generate great income but also does not generate great losses," says the owner, who also misses to tourists (60% of its sales are to foreigners, especially from the US, and 90% to clients outside of Madrid).
"We have been hearing silence for a year
,
" he
says about the store, absent from customers in the half hour we spent there talking.
For him, the worst for this company dedicated above all to the classic cape is yet to come.
"From February to May has been worse than last year because people, then, buy online. With the confinement everyone was glued to the computer, but not now," says the businessman.
"
This year is going to be the worst in the history of Seseña
. The previous year, we had losses of 35% and this year we are already at 60% compared to usual," he adds.
For now, this 2021 they have asked for extra financing, in case things continue to be ugly.
When the problem is not sales
Bad, or regular, they are also going through it at
Guitarras Ramírez
, although their problem is
something
else. This family business, famous for the artisanal elaboration of this instrument, which even hangs in the
Metropolitan in New York
, has been dragged down by the effects of the crisis in some of its suppliers.
In addition to selling their own guitars, they also have cheaper ones for sale, designed by them but made in other factories, which are arriving "with a dropper." And half of your income depends on them.
"We have many sales but we cannot make them effective," says
Cristina Ramírez, fifth generation, owner of the business with her brother José Enrique and her aunt Amalia.
"Not having customers is bad but not having a product is just as bad," he
adds.
Yours is not primarily a national business.
Most of what they produce goes abroad
- they have distributors in the US, Japan, China, Italy, Germany ... - although that does not mean that the closure of the tablaos and live music as well as the fall has not hurt them. tourism, because some of its best clients come from outside of Spain.
"They give us a lot of money because they are not looking for an inexpensive guitar," says the businesswoman, who details that the instruments they make by hand range from 4,000 to 22,000 a piece for collectors.
Cristina Ramírez works with a handmade guitar.BERNARDO DÍAZ
With the store "at half gas", the
internet has been his salvation
.
"It has been essential not to ruin us," says Cristina, who says that both her brother and she
have had to work "triple" and request an ICO to move forward
.
In his opinion, adapting to the new times "is fundamental", something that is missing in some centenary shops.
Despite the difficulties, they are not throwing in the towel.
"We love this, it is our story and we want to continue with it," he says.
If the Covid had started earlier ...
Nor do they plan to do it at
Casa Mira
, that place brimming with nougat and sweets on the Carrera de San Jerónimo where the few tourists in Madrid stop to watch.
In their case, the Christmas campaign,
their August
every year, has saved their business, which returned to activity later than the rest, last October.
They have been lucky because
"if the Covid had started earlier ... we would have entered swampy waters
,
"
explains Carlos Ibáñez, 170-year-old sixth generation of this business, aware of the
privilege
that the best-selling days of the year could be at hand. cannon foot to cover many of your expenses.
And it has gone better than they expected because in those days they have only lost 10% compared to other years.
Not without difficulties they get ahead.
"We have not had to fire anyone - he has 10 employees - but we have lowered our salary,"
says the businessman.
"That has helped us sustain ourselves," he adds.
That and the momentum of a website that was still in mind before the pandemic hit.
"We have had to hire people to pack," he says in this regard.
The lack of foreigners is touching them too.
"Other years, with that we covered expenses."
"We are waiting for them to come back."
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