Barcelona challenges the omicron with new pre-Christmas crowds

Almost (or without the almost) like before the pandemic on a pre-Christmas Saturday. It depends on who you talk to. The center of Barcelona was packed this Saturday with buyers in search of the first gifts and of walkers whose intention was to once again enjoy the pulse of the city. Tourists, rare. Few suitcases and quite a few bags with the anagram of well-known shops. At five in the afternoon the traffic was heavy. After an hour the traffic jams and collapse appeared in the main access roads to Plaça de Catalunya. Floods of walking people flooded the Paseo de Gracia. The dough was uniform. Buses and subways, full. “Congested traffic,” announced the Guardia Urbana.

“The atmosphere of Barcelona has returned”. With these words, Cerezo defined what he was experiencing. She is from Vacarisses (Vallès Occidental) and with her son she went to town to “see the lights” for Christmas and, incidentally, do some shopping. “People want to go out and it shows,” he acknowledged. On your side, in the Portal of the AngelDozens and dozens of passersby walked. It was a non-stop.

The agglomeration situation It was foreshadowed at five in the afternoon when the buses traveled from the plaza de Espanya towards the center loaded and with the corridors complete, emptying the passage at the stops of the University square or of Paseo de Gracia. When the movies on mainstream television ended, the crowds took over the area, to such an extent that it was difficult to walk through the area. Portal de l’Àngel.

Queues in the boxes

That leaving behind the bad moments of the covid is the spirit with which the trade faces this month of December. This Saturday afternoon, the stores registered a constant influx. In some, queues were formed at the checkout counter to pay, as is customary in times of peak consumption. “There are a lot of people, the truth. Almost or the same as before the pandemic at this time. Let’s say it is like a normal saturday before Christmas, “explains a security guard from a clothing sales chain. As the hours progress, the situation was ‘in crescendo’.

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In the Plaza de Catalunya, the crowd took over the sidewalk. Queues were seen on the escalators of a large shopping center. “We are recovering the levels of before. It looks like the pandemic normality“emphasizes an employee. The corner of the Ronda de Sant Pere It was once again the meeting point for walkers. The kiosk located in that place, David, insisted: “This Saturday you can buy another one in December pre-covid.” In his opinion, however, the traffic of citizens has dropped a bit this month in comparison, like October or November.

In an electronics store in the Fontanella street There was a certain satisfaction with the flow of customers. “There are many more people than last Saturday,” says a salesperson. “Only a few specific queues have been formed at the cashiers to collect, but they go fast,” he specified. The situation, in his opinion, is recovering. “I’m even surprised by the people there are,” he confesses. The same says the clerk of a youth clothing store in the Portal de l’Àngel: Not like the Black Friday, in which there were many sales, but this Saturday is not bad at all. “The center of Barcelona became a great bazaar again.