It’s Friday at noon and the boqueria bustling with visitors. It is difficult to enter among the seasoned local buyers, a crowd of curious people and many others literally devouring that universe of flavors. The 10 bars and their terraces are full, but also the corridors and the perimeter are a maelstrom of moving jaws. Anyone would say that there has not been a pandemic that emptied the tourist market (and many paradistas). That he reconciled him with the local buyer but showed that there was no business for everyone. That Friday looks like 2019, with the difference that the Boqueria inaugurates presidentelected hours before, after being part of the board 21 years ago and being vice president 13 years ago. Jordi Morefrom the lineage of ‘botiguers’ and high business training (with his own ‘retail’ consultancy and as a teacher), breaks molds and aspires to modeling a historical market to the dictates of the 21st century and become a tourist icon.
Once again, you can see more ham cones than fish market bags. Hasn’t the crisis made you rethink the market model? We are now at 65% tourists and 35% local customers. But this was only three weeks ago. We have understood that if there is no traffic there is no success, before it was not like that. This time we had passed to a market without internationalization. In addition, stops have been amortized, with 3% closed (the city council recovers them taking advantage of the drop in transfers) to fluff up the enclosure. This Boqueria is more sensitive, it needs to recover the illusion, attitudes. If there is traffic, people are for sale, for trade, and that is when a model of change begins.
Does it imply changing the commercial mix? For some time now we have been visualizing what the right product mix is and how to strike a balance. The market of the future wants a balance between local and tourism. I like to express it differently: We don’t have tourists, we internationalize La Boqueria from home, this is the change. When someone comes here, they take an emotional piece of the market home with them, and that is internationalizing. Like when a Japanese man came to us at the Mas Gourmets stand with a photo of us that he had seen recommended in a guide.
When someone comes here, they take an emotional piece of the market home with them, and that is internationalizing
Would it be unfeasible to return to the neighborhood market in this location? Consumption habits have changed. Do we want a 100% market for product sales only from supplies? It would have to be much smaller and here we have 4,500 square meters. The model must be hybrid, as in other large cities, but well done.
What about the perversion of its essence? We put up barriers when it comes to getting older. It is an educational change that must be made in people, it is not negative. Why do people from outside love us and not people from here? You have to work on it. At a delicatessen for Christmas we used to sell a lot of suckling pigs, and now they hardly order them. Should we have them and throw them away? It is necessary to adapt to the evolution of the consumer.
They have 220 businesses. Do you think there is something left or missing? Balance needs to be improved. For example, there is a lack of a way of understanding gastronomy with tasting, adaptation to new consumption habits. There are no vegan product stalls… This would help bring more customers from the city.
We have to work to dignify the ‘take away’. For us, cata is a seller who helps and explains
How would you set the balance of customers? Our idea would be a 50%-50% local and foreign clientele, even if it is a utopia. But the important thing is that we have to preserve the traditional quality of the market trying to get traffic. And having traffic means filling the market. We cannot spend two years suffering as we have. And we have many projects to achieve it. Like the Boqueria classroom at ground level (in addition to the one above), which has to provide experiences to the resident buyer.
He is ambitious. But where to start? The first thing is to work on the profitability of the market due to the impact that the closures have had (loss of associates and quotas), secondly, the commercial mix and thirdly, union. The 17 members of the board, from a market with 1,500 people working, we have to make pineapple. The future starts from there being a passion to transmit this wealth to the market. From the council we hope to improve various infrastructures, starting with the new floor, although it has now been painted, and much more.
It can be difficult to seduce the local crowd if you see this crowd. The Barcelonan is lazy because we don’t make it easy for him. You have to make claims. From within we will try to make things happen, and the city council must also work on mobility and so that the Rambla and this part of the city form more of a part of Barcelona. As an objective, we want La Boqueria to help revitalize the center for the resident.
The Barcelonan is lazy because we don’t make it easy for him. You have to make claims
The Gardunya square, renovated, acts as a picnic area for the visitor who buys and eats on the spot. What do you think? We would like another type of space because it is the second door of the market and today it does not act as such. It is uncomfortable, lack of light. It has not been done as we would have wanted
Related news
On some occasion he has defended that 20% of the space be for tasting. Would that be a claim? The ideal would be for there to be a tasting area, which is currently not viable due to municipal ordinances, where you can enjoy the product. But you have to work to dignify the ‘take away’. For us, tasting is a seller who helps and gives an explanation, selling a cone of fuet and someone leaving alone is selling. There is a long way to go to create gastronomic culture. The ideal would be to fluff up some areas for that tasting, but you have to think about how to carry it out. We present a strategic plan, but one thing is what and another is how, which is complex.
The ‘e-commerce’ skyrocketed during covid. Will they continue pampering him? People have to know that they can buy thanks to digitization and that they get it at home. But we will also take advantage of digitization applications for payment and to avoid queues.