A View From Spain
I've been blessed to have spent much of the winter of 2019-2020 residing along the southern shore of Spain. Occupying a rented casa near the middle of an old city for an extended time, which inevitably involved engaging with locals, including commercially with shop keepers and the like, gave me a great opportunity to see how daily economic life is lived in a place far from my New Hampshire house.
To be clear, I truly do have a life beyond financial observation, however for purposes of the piece I'll concentrate on a small anecdotal contrast between how people conduct commercial trade in a corner of Spain and in NH. To further set this up, notice that I intentionally lived with no car and had no data plan for 3 weeks, relying instead on public transportation and WiFi (or wee-fee since they cutely say there).
why not check here -monastic practices aside, let me tell you a bit about my provisional Spanish hometown. Fuengirola, a small city of about 75K inhabitants, lies across the Mediterranean coast about 25 kilometers west of Malaga, the big city in those areas. It's in the autonomous region of Andalusia (like a US state), that's the largest of those self-governing regions in Spain. Given that it had been commanded from the Islamic Moors for about seven centuries that the architecture and culture is a unique blend of Christian and Muslim influences never seen everywhere in Europe. pop over to these guys agree.
What is look at this web-site is the way conservative things seem, at least to some man in his late sixties. In NH needless to say we get in our cars and drive to big supermarkets and large box stores to purchase our stuff, as well as is increasingly the case, we order things online and have them shipped to our homes. But the little "Mom & Pop" shops are alive and apparently well. The sidewalks every day, except Sunday, are teeming with people doing their daily promotion of vegetables, fruits, medicines, clothes, breads/pastries, alcohol, and lottery tickets (really large here).
I must admit that despite a clear inefficiency with going to one shop for your bread, to a different to your veggies, and to another for meat I enjoyed the quaintness and private touch of getting to know the people who worked those establishments. Levels of personal service always appeared large and that I never felt rushed. Sure Amazon.es and big box stores like El Corte Ingles exist, but small brick & mortar retail is hanging on here fairly well.
People sit with family and friends for what seems like hours chatting on coffee and beer during workdays and weekends alike. Cafes and pubs are everywhere float onto sidewalks. The jabber is lively and boisterous and leaves a Yank with the belief that life really needs to be fun and lived with gusto. I must admit I've wondered more than once, "How can any job get done around here? " But use this link will. It's a highly functioning, prosperous, and safe feeling neighborhood. Police attendance is minimal.
The Euro is the money. And now its value is just about 10% greater than the US dollar. However, prices for most commodities appear lower here. I'm often struck by how much value I'm getting for so little money. Granted, gasoline is greater than in NH and I don't have a good sense of the costs of power and big-ticket items, but total prices seem cheaper in Spain. Additionally, this a cash-based society. My pocket often is weighed down with these heavy coins (a First World problem, I know). Sure people use credit cards and phone pay apps, but money is still quite prevalent.