Shopping in Spain reminds me of how things used to be in the UK. Yes, there are masses of out of town shopping centres, and yes, you will find all the major chains in the High Street, but there’s still room for the ‘little guys’, for the quirky independent establishments that somehow manage to thrive and survive.   

One of the first shops you ever come across when you move to Spain is the ferretería, which disppointingly does not sell ferrets, but rather all those bits and bobs you need to keep your house in working order: ie an old-fashioned hardware store. Some have been modernised with new-fangled aisles and shopping baskets and check-out desks, but many are still tiny and poky and cluttered and staffed by knowledgeable gentlemen in brown overalls from behind counters that are backed and flanked by an orderly chaos of every imaginable component of a tool box, and much much more. For the DIY enthusiast, it’s like a sweet shop of old: I’ll have 10 tornillos (screws), eight alcayates (hooks), eight tacos (plastic peg-things for hooks to go in), and two 5mm broquetas (bits you stick in a drill), por favor. And you still get change from a Euro.

The ‘female’ equivalent of the ferretería is the mercería, the haberdasher’s. I’m not being sexist -while plenty of women go to the ferretería, I’ve yet to see a bloke queuing for bits of ribbon, buttons, press-studs, lace, zips, tapestry silks, tights, false bra cups (!) or cross stitch patterns.

You’d be surprised at the trade they do. On the times I’ve needed to stock up on bits of ribbon and buttons and false bra cups I’ve had to take my place in the queue, and keep it, fighting off crafty battleaxe señoras who’ll do anything to colar (push in). Actually, queue isn’t quite the right word. No-one actually stands in line. There isn’t room. You just have to say “¿Quién es el último?” (Who’s the last?), and then it’s you, if you see what I mean.

Where the ferretería and mercería came from there are plenty more -erías to dive into, each with its own treasure trove of not-the-same-as-everywhere-else wares. There are lencerías (lingerie shops) and chocolaterías (oh yes, chocolate shops), tapicerías (upholsterer’s) and perfumerías (perfume and cosmetics shops), licorerías (wine and liquor stores) and herboristerías (health food shops), cristalerías (glassware shops) and yeserías (shops selling carved plaster). The other day I even came across a ”preservativería‘ or tienda de preservativos: a condom shop.

Tags: Spain shops, Spanish language, Spanish life

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 6th, 2010 at 9:11 am and is filed under Miscellaneous, Spanish life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.