Games, hackathons, raffles and treasure hunts to save local businesses

At a time when local businesses are struggling to survive against the pressure of large digital platforms and changing consumer habits, innovation has become a necessity rather than an option. In this context, initiatives like Komerz, planned by the Girona Chamber of Commerce for November 15th, emerge as a breath of fresh air for a sector seeking to reinvent itself. Komerz is a hackathon—an intensive event focused on innovation, learning, and collaborative work—organized by the Girona Chamber of Commerce with the support of the Directorate General of Commerce. Over a weekend, young talent, businesses, and professionals from the region come together to address real challenges facing local businesses, contributing both technological and non-technological ideas and solutions.

Participating teams must work against the clock, guided by expert mentors, and have access to training, tools, and resources to develop their projects. The goal is not only to imagine the future of commerce but also to prototype it and present it publicly to a jury of professionals and representatives from industry organizations. The challenges addressed are not theoretical: they have been co-created with local businesses, so the solutions stem from concrete needs in the region. For example, Txot's restaurant's challenge is: "How can we add value to the service and work of the hospitality sector to make it attractive and respected by young people?" Librería 22's challenge also seeks to connect with a younger audience: "How can we create a young reading community in Girona to position Librería 22 as a key cultural agent in the region?" The Toni Pons footwear brand is following the same path: "How could we design attractive footwear for the 20-30 age group and at the same time strengthen Toni Pons' digital communication to better connect with this segment?" In addition to these three establishments, the Xaloc perfumery and the official Girona FC store are also participating in the Girona hackathon.

At the end of the day, the best project receives a prize of 1,000 euros, but beyond the financial reward, the real gain is the connection between young people and traditional commerce, an essential bridge to ensure generational renewal and the transformation of the sector.

"Komerz wants to demonstrate that the future of local commerce lies in collaborative innovation, as the urgency of the moment forces local businesses to reinvent themselves. Only in this way can they continue to be the living heart of our cities," says Cristina Cots, head of the commerce department at the Girona Chamber of Commerce.

Figueres is one of the cities fighting to prevent the loss of one of the main pillars of its economy: a commercial network historically sustained by visitors from Northern Catalonia and by residents with second homes in neighboring towns in the Empordà region. The capital of the Alt Empordà is the Catalan city with more than 20,000 inhabitants that has the highest number of shops per 1,000 inhabitants. In absolute numbers, the city currently has 2,215 businesses, the vast majority concentrated in the city center. 19.90% of these are closed, either because the owners have retired without generational succession or due to business unviability. The commercial pressure exerted on Figueres by the large shopping centers in La Jonquera, which have grown exponentially in recent years, has contributed to the closure of some businesses.

Empty storefronts are a concern for the City Council, which has launched initiatives to promote the opening of new businesses and encourage residents to shop locally. "If you love Figueres, shop in Figueres," says the slogan of the campaign launched a week ago by the council, which will run until November 25.

The initiative offers residents registered in the city two €10 vouchers to spend at participating businesses, nearly one hundred in total. In the first week, residents downloaded 7,500 €10 vouchers from the campaign website, and the City Council expects all 12,500 available vouchers to be used up in the coming days. "The response so far has been very good," says Manel Rodríguez, the Councilor for Economic Development and Commerce, who assures that if the final results are positive, the campaign will be repeated in February, a traditionally slow month for retail. "The aim is to bring residents closer to the local businesses in the city and inject money and optimism into a sector that is going through a difficult time due to the rise of online shopping, competition from large retailers, and smaller establishments." outlet "And that people's purchasing power has not grown in recent years," the councilman states.

Rodríguez maintains that local businesses bring life to cities and are a social element. He believes it is necessary to defend the business model of small shops, "where personal and individualized service is paramount, where people know each other, talk, and share stories." "That is what many shoppers in Northern Catalonia value about the shops in Figueres," the councilor points out.

This local business model is also promoted by the city of Girona, where the sector "is not as badly affected as in other Catalan towns, but it needs to be nurtured and incentivized with attractive proposals to keep it alive," says Mercè Ramírez de Cartagena, president of the Girona Centre Eix Comercial Association. "Local businesses contribute to revitalizing cities, making them safer and creating more jobs," says Ramírez, who, from the Federation of Commerce of the Girona Region, linked to the employers' association FOEG, has promoted the ComerÇiada campaign together with the Chambers of Commerce of Girona and Palamós. Between October 6 and 12, the campaign held its third edition in some twenty towns in the Girona region, distributing €10,000 in discount vouchers to more than a thousand businesses.

As part of this campaign, and to attract young shoppers in particular, the city of Girona has opted for fun initiatives, such as a scavenger hunt that challenged shoppers to find mismatched products in shop windows: a perfume in a bookstore or a shoe in a jewelry store, for example. The prize for those who guessed correctly was entry into a raffle for five €200 vouchers to spend in the city's businesses. In addition, €1,000 in discount vouchers were raffled off among all purchases made in participating businesses during the campaign week. "The goal is not only to sell more, but also to raise awareness of the importance of local businesses, to show that although an online purchase can be very quick and convenient, it cannot offer the personalized service and advice of a professional in a shoe store," says Ramírez.

These types of playful initiatives complement more traditional ones, such as street shops, which allow retailers to set up a stall in front of their establishment to sell discounted products from previous seasons.