From Guitarland you can easily leave convinced that your life needs a guitar to acquire the full dimension of its meaning. Richard and José Luis have been running this shop on Carrer del Diluvi in Barcelona since 2003, right in the heart of Gràcia, a neighborhood that has been becoming orphaned of this type of establishment –contrary to its personality, with deep-rooted festivals and a tradition for musical taste– for a type of resident who is a very interesting potential customer for the services a music store can offer.

The Trade Advisory Council approved on Tuesday the calendar of holidays on which shops can open in 2027, which incorporates for the first time greater flexibility as outlined in the 2025 law. Shops focused on everyday purchases and food will be able to substitute up to three of the eight Sundays and holidays. According to the Commercial Director of Commerce, Marta Angerri, this will help avoid the food waste that occurred when some establishments were closed for too many consecutive days. Furthermore, the law also gives municipalities more flexibility, allowing them to substitute two days on the general calendar with other holidays (except for January 1st and 6th, Easter Sunday and Monday, May 1st, June 24th, September 11th, and December 25th and 26th). For their part, local councils have the power to add two additional dates to the general calendar.

Recently recognized with the Respon.cat 2025 award for her track record in corporate social responsibility, Anna Sorli, administrator of the supermarket chain that bears her family name and has already celebrated its 103rd anniversary, also champions gender equality and the fight against sexism through a foundation. The group, which has gyms in 8 of its 106 stores across Catalonia, reflecting its commitment to health, nutrition, and well-being, closed 2025 with a turnover of €292 million, 2.5% more than the previous year; and an operating profit of €17 million, more than triple that when they began the company's transformation, in which they have invested €104 million over 10 years.

At Cafés Roure on Comte Borrell street in Barcelona, ​​in the heart of Sant Antoni, coffee is a way of life. Always has been. Unpretentious, unfazed by trends, without boasting about that now-fashionable label of "specialty coffee" or "the coffee experience." Today, everything is about "experiences." Daniel Marín, the current owner, downplays the hype and champions the essence—literally—of good coffee.

The traditional January sales began this Wednesday in shops across Spain after a Christmas campaign that left Catalan retailers satisfied. However, as has become the norm in recent years, the sales are less pronounced than in previous years due to the November discounts offered by Black Friday and the rise in online shopping. Gabriel Jené, president of Barcelona Oberta—the association of shops in the center of the Catalan capital—described the now-ending Christmas campaign as "very good," despite the fact that rain and bad weather negatively impacted sales on some of the Saturdays leading up to the holidays. Looking ahead to the discount period that begins this Wednesday, Jené stated in comments reported by ACN that it is "necessary" because sectors like fashion "clear out their seasonal stock" at lower prices and prepare items for the following season.

It's a stately corner of Barcelona's Rambla de Catalunya. We're in Mauri Pastry Shop: a paradise of sweet and savory treats. If we look up at the ceiling, we see some original paintings. We find Amalthea, surrounded by cherubs, toppling the cornucopia from which fruit overflows. If we look ahead, we see that what once rained from the cornucopia has been transformed before our very eyes into a sea of tea biscuits, cakes, cristinas, diplomates, secalls, cream-filled rolls, croissants—here, they still sell more shortbread than butter—croquettes, and sandwiches—we could go on forever. "We have more than a thousand products," explains the manager, Marc Mauri. Everything is fresh, without additives or preservatives. "It's a little ocean liner in the middle of Barcelona," he says. I would say it's also a small work of art. Every day, Marc dedicates more than an hour to placing the order for what will need to be made the following day. A necessary document of great complexity. How many Three Kings' Day cakes should they produce, for example? To make these decisions, he uses data from previous years. But he also needs to consult the data from the year in which the same day of the week fell. Quite a puzzle, and to solve it, he draws on his past as an IT consultant. Marc is the fourth generation of Mauri. The shop was opened by his great-grandfather, Francesc Mauri. Then his grandfather, Francesc Mauri, continued the business, and later his father, Francesc Mauri, expanded it and left it in a state of grace for the current generation. It's worth mentioning that Marc has a brother 11 months older who goes by the name, of course, Francisco.

It's Thursday morning. The Barceloneta neighborhood is slowly waking up as shutters are raised, uniformed dockworkers make coffee in a bar, the market is already open, and crates of fish are piled high in the stalls. The butane delivery man, who has parked at the entrance to Pescadors Street, acts as an alarm clock by banging the gas cylinders with a hammer, in case someone needs to refill them. This week, these streets have been in the headlines of all the media outlets so that Barceloneta is already the most gentrified neighborhood in the entire country. According to the latest study by the Center for Demographic Studies at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). When asked about this issue, most residents don't react with surprise: "Gentrification has been out of control here for a long time," they agree resignedly. ARA visited the neighborhood to talk to residents—both newcomers and long-timers—and see firsthand what it's like to continue living in a neighborhood where the machinery of the system tends to push you out.

Everyone stops. The windows of Bombonería Almera are like a mesmerizing flame. It's impossible not to be captivated by this historic shop. In fact, Pedro Almodóvar himself once came in, hoping to feature it in one of his films. I'm standing at the door when I run into a lifelong customer. She's come to buy two boxes of chocolates for some friends. She says her mother, who lived well into her nineties, came here to buy sweets her whole life. Receiving a gift from Ca l'Almera, as any Badalona resident will call it, is always a big celebration. Because of the quality and the love they put into wrapping the packages. On Sunday, their day off, Teresa Almera was inside the shop making bows, of all things. "Nobody makes bows anymore," she tells me. Teresa is the kind of shopkeeper who doesn't count the hours and who lives her work with enthusiasm for preserving her grandfather Cinto's legacy.

Barcelona's Passeig de Gràcia has once again topped the list of Spain's most expensive shopping streets for the fourth consecutive year, with rents averaging €3,420 per square meter annually, an 8% increase over last year. It has also moved up one place, from 17th to 16th, in the global ranking of the world's most expensive shopping streets, according to real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield.

BonÀrea's expansion beyond Catalonia includes a mandatory stop in Aragon. The Guissona-based company (Segarra) has been building a large-scale production and logistics center in the town of Épila, in the province of Zaragoza, since 2019. This center is intended to supply the company's supermarkets beyond the Catalan market.

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.

Sunday, September 14th, will be the last Sunday in which Barcelona's shops and shopping centers will be free to open. Starting on the 15th, the city's retailers will have to return to their regular hours and Sunday rest, except for the Maremagnum shopping center, which can open 365 days a year thanks to its location on the Paseo Marítimo.

Anna doesn't move from the door of the Nadal pharmacy on Barcelona's Ramblas. The store is dark and doesn't allow customers to enter due to the general power outage This is affecting all of Catalonia, Spain, and Portugal. Without electricity and internet, many pharmacies can't sell prescription drugs, as the system has crashed. Anna can't collect payments without cash and says she's taken some money out of the register in case someone comes in to buy. "But generally I can't sell," she admits. Furthermore, some products require refrigeration, and if the cold chain is broken, the medication spoils. "It happened suddenly. I don't understand anything," she admits.