A lukewarm start to the January sales in Palma

"The sales prospects are very uncertain because of the pandemic, which has led to a very significant economic crisis, as well as restrictions and capacity constraints,” he said.

Some stores in Palma have slashed their prices as much as 70% in the hope of making some money, but traders say they’ll never be able to make up the revenue they lost in 2020.

Fuster points out that although a number of shops dropped their prices days ago sales have been less than encouraging and traders are expecting sales to be down 30-40% compared to the same time last year.

El Corte Inglés

"This year the sales started with big discounts of 40-50% on all clothing, from day one,” said an El Corte Inglés Spokesperson. “We hope that the recent cold weather and aggressive discounts will persuade customers to come into our stores to buy warm clothing, despite the current economic situation and pandemic opening restrictions."

Large stores and shops measuring more than 700 m2 will not be allowed to open this weekend because of the new restrictions to curb the spread of coronavirus.

All stores must also close by 20:00 and some are stopping customers from entering from 19:00 to make sure they meet the deadline.