BOOM TIME FOR COASTAL RESORT SUPERMARKETS

HIGH summer is the season when supermarkets in tourist resorts on Majorca expect to make more money than at any other time of the year and businesses have known how to cater for all tastes by buying in international products.

According to a management spokesman, branches of the Eroski supermarket chain located in Cala d'Or, Porto Cristo, Cala Millor and Portocolom have tripled their sales in comparison to those located in the interior of the island. English tourists are the visitors who are most likely to be clients although the spokesman said yesterday that it is the German population which has most grown in number at the supermarket checkouts this year.

Figures reveal that both the Eroski and Hipercentro supermarkets in coastal resorts have increased their number of clients during the high season in comparison with the same period last year but the average spend has not gone up accordingly. The crisis, explained the Eroski management spokesman, has even eaten its way into the supermarket.

At Hipercentro, a representative said yesterday: “People have changed their buying habits. They're more aware of price differentials and although they of course continue to buy food, customers tend to opt for the supermarket brands which can be considerably cheaper than independent producers.” An important difference between Eroski and Hipercentro, the representative said is that the latter caters for its all-year-round customers, the local residents rather than for the tourist population.

The large supermarkets are open all year round with the exception of Eroski in Cala Egos which closes during the winter months as there is another branch in nearby Cala d'Or.

Although supermarkets claim that sales boomed in August this year, the smaller grocers in the coastal reasorts also say they are managing to keep their heads above water. But one shop owner in Can Picafort, Clara Valls, said that tourists don't do large weekly shops in their premises. “Spending 5 euros on sweets and drinks is as much as we can expect,” she said.