Mercat de l'Olivar in Palma, Mallorca

The Mercat de l'Olivar has offered a free hour of parking. | Jaume Morey

Andrew EdePalma02/01/2025 07:51
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Mallorca's retailers, both large and small, say that this Christmas season has been the best since before the pandemic. And it has been a season marked by more spending on upmarket brands, especially food and drink.

Antonio Sánchez, head of communications and institutional relations at El Corte Inglés, points to greater spending on gourmet products than in recent years. "Local consumers have raised the quality level of their purchases. Sales performance is very close to what we had anticipated after a (tourism) season of full employment."

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With there still to be the final push for the Three Kings weekend, the Mercat de l'Olivar in Palma makes a similar assessment to El Corte Inglés. The free parking hour offered this year has undoubtedly been of benefit to traders.

Carolina Domingo, president of Pimeco, one of the small retailers associations, points to the success of promotional campaigns for local businesses. She agrees that this has been the best year since 2019. One reason is that consumers have been returning to the shops, having switched so much to online shopping during the pandemic. The fall in inflation has been another factor.

There is plenty of optimism for the rest of January, as following Kings will be the sales.