The owner of what was one of the best stores that Barcelona has known reviews his career and talks about the city. Although he did not like his management at first, now he thinks that Colau “is not doing it wrong & rdquor ;. He believes that no one who wants to open a store in Barcelona should do anything with 20 years; “Maybe some clothes & rdquor ;. A book about his has just been presented: Vinçon 1929-2015 (Editorial Tenov)
Are you an entrepreneur, ‘botiguer’ or buyer? Not necessarily in this order, but those three things. From the heart, buyer; by profession, businessman or ‘botiguer’, it’s the same. I always define myself as a ‘botiguer’, for some it is pejorative, for me it is not. And more than a seller, I am a buyer.
Did you shop on your vacation trips or did you travel to shop? I was traveling to shop, sometimes it’s more fun than going on vacation. He traveled according to the fairs. An Italian explained to me the difference between buying and selling, alluding to the ancient merchants, whose pleasure it was to buy. And if you can sell it later, fine.
You are ‘botiguer’ son of ‘botiguer’. Yes. Sadly, my father didn’t see the hell of a Vinçon that worked. The store was the same, it grew, the only change was the product. When I became a buyer and started from the time I was the last user, to ask myself what I was buying for myself, everything became easy. Before it was difficult to buy. He thought: ‘Will they like this? Will they pay this price? I’m wrong?’
“More than a seller, I am a buyer. When I started to buy the products thinking that I was buying for myself, everything became easy”
He didn’t sell anything he hadn’t bought. Exact. My nephew Sergio and I used to go to the fairs. If we didn’t like something, no matter how commercial it was, we weren’t interested. This marked the Vinçon difference.
Neighbors crossed the store even to shorten their path. It was something natural. We were delighted that people stopped by the store. I had a sign that said: ‘Come with the dogs, please’.
“We were delighted when people stopped by the store. I had a sign that said: ‘Come with the dogs, please'”
In Vinçon you could buy very exclusive and expensive things as well as basic and practical ones. Was it a cult store? It also became a cult store. We sold a lot of strange things, which became little treasures for people. They were our favourites. When you found a very rare thing and put it on the shelf and it was sold, you thought that someone understood the same as we did when we found it.
At what age did you start working in the store and at what age did you close it? I started when I was 15 years old and when we closed it I was 75. The first 10 years we didn’t sell anything. People didn’t like what we had. It wasn’t until my father died that my brother and I began to change things. My brother dedicated himself to the administrative part.
“I started when I was 15 years old and when we closed it I was 75. The first 10 years we didn’t sell anything. People didn’t like what we had”
Vinçon evolves as Barcelona did, which will end up being the Olympic city. Many people are not clear that the store already existed in 1929. It could be, perhaps because first there was only the Passeig de Gràcia exit, with some shop windows that weren’t even interesting. We were gaining space in the warehouse so that the store could grow, until we also opened through Pau Clarís.
The Barcelona of Vinçon is also that of design. In the 1930s there were already very good design stores. Barcelona has always been a city of architects, it is the profession of this city, they have been the soul of this city.
Do architects no longer rule so much in Barcelona? Not anymore. Before they had more power. Now everything goes for contests.
Pasqual Maragall trusted the architects. Maragall is the best we have ever had. He gave Barcelona a boost, above all with enthusiasm. When I still did not know him, they made an appointment with him in La Punyalada. They told me: ‘Pasqual wants to meet you’. And he asked me: ‘Would you mind if he came to spend a week at your house?’ I lived in La Pedrera, in a fourth floor. Came with his family. We had to put mattresses on the floor. I got sick, I don’t know if it was from nerves. From the bed I listened to him. He told me: ‘Let’s walk down the street and tell me things. What do you think?’. He did it with many people from many neighborhoods. In this he touched me.
“They told me: ‘Pasqual wants to meet you’. And he asked me: ‘Would you mind if I came to spend a week at your house?'”
Now you live in Caldetes. It took me two and a half hours to get to Barcelona: there was a small accident and they diverted us.
Has Barcelona become an uncomfortable city? What do you think of Colau’s management? I have recently discovered that all this that bothers us so much is perhaps the right thing to do. That four lanes become two, that one be painted yellow, the bicycles. This is what has happened in London and other places. Now everyone is angry with the council, but in a few years there won’t be the cars that there are now. Until half a year or a year ago I was also pissed off about all this, but if I still lived here I would go with one of those bikes. First I liked Colau. Then I thought not. And now, since recently, I think that he is not doing badly. It seems to me that there is no one to defend Colau. The green axes that he will make: they still work. Let’s see who settles in them: yes bars, workshops. When I enter by car through the Glòries Tunnel, all the cars are stopped and on the left the buses do not stop. I think I could take a bus from Mataró.
“I have discovered that all this that bothers us so much is perhaps the right thing. That four lanes be changed to two, that one be painted yellow, the bicycles”
Vinçon did not work in Madrid. We did not have enough patience for Madrid to understand. We were in a complicated place, in a block courtyard. The store was much better than the one in Barcelona, because we already had the experience of how to place the fabric, how to light it.
But there are many people here who say that Barcelona is bad and that Madrid is very good. People who haven’t been there lately anyway. This is a city of complainers.
Do you think that the Passeig de Gràcia has prevented the touristization of the Rambla? I see the Rambla lost. La Rambla de Catalunya, no: I think it can take over from Paseo de Gràcia.
Many Barcelonans yearn for Vinçon. Does nostalgia make sense? I don’t miss him because the last few years were very hard. The first years we were poor but we did what we had to do. Our bump came in 2008. People stopped buying. We hold out until 2015. They are many years losing money. The first two or three of us laughed a little. Suddenly you look at the numbers and there is a moment when you can’t take it anymore. When you have staff and the wheel is big, it eventually gets stuck. Between Barcelona and Madrid we have more than 100 employees. In Barcelona, at the most, about 80 people.
Should we cry because there are so many chain stores in the city? I would cry. I do not like it.
What would you say to a 20-year-old who wants to open a store? There must be none. A young man who wants to open a store? Perhaps we would only find one in the old town, a clothing store.
“I am a fan of IKEA. They are very good. Excellent. I have always defended it and I tell everyone”
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He likes IKEA. I am an IKEA fan. They are very good. Excellent. I have always defended him and I tell everyone. Since I don’t work, now I’m learning cabinetmaking. Especially watching videos of the Americans. I have a workshop, recently, with a friend, I made a kitchen for his house. I was looking at the kitchen furniture section. It’s all pretty authentic. Price correct.
What remains in Barcelona like Vinçon? Muji, on Passeig de Gràcia with Consell de Cent, is open and great, but she is in the field of clothing, which is a war that I do not know. Perhaps the only thing that remains in Barcelona similar to Vinçon, of a large size and with rigor when buying the product and placing it, is Service Station. I admire you very much.