It doesn’t matter how you look at it. Small retailers have everything to lose when competing with the multinational machinery of e-commerce.
My husband checks the catalogs of the most prestigious brands of machine tools in search of good prices and in very few opportunities the hardware store on the corner can beat them. After all, to calculate the retail price of a hammer, for example, the hardware dealer has to take into account what he paid the wholesaler, add the costs of transportation, premises, basic services such as water and electricity. light, in addition to the salary of the two employees who have worked with him for years. And we cannot forget that a profit margin must also be added, because without a profit there is no point in engaging in a commercial activity.
On many occasions the accounts do not add up and the streets of the towns of Spain have ceased to have the color of the past due to the number of businesses that have had to close their doors.
But the city council of Ribadeo, a town of 10,000 inhabitants in Galicia, decided to face this situation and created a local currency to stimulate local merchants and hoteliers.
The new currency is called Pancha And when you use it in one of the establishments affiliated with the program you have a 25% discount. The difference between what you spend on pans and the real value in euros is assumed by the city council.
The measure had already been successfully adopted before the pandemic and the enhanced 2021 season began on September 1 and will close on December 31.
The website panchamoedalocal.ribadeo.org explains that anyone can access the panchas no matter where they are. You just have to register and download an electronic wallet, which they called PanchaPeto, and there you can redeem up to a 210 euros for 280 panchas.
With that money you can buy in the 114 businesses that have joined the campaign. Every time you want to pay, you must use an application to show an individual QR code that will update your virtual wallet and subtract the packs used.
The local government has allocated 150,000 euros to circulate some 600,000 panchas.
Disclaimer: This article is generated from the feed and not edited by our team.
