Commerce
Barcelona’s economic driving force is its commercial fabric. However, it also fills the our city streets with life. The commercial offering has an impact on the quality of life of citizens, the configuration of urban space and the social cohesion of neighbourhoods.
Over the years, Barcelona has gradually consolidated its commercial model based on the values of proximity, responsibility and sustainability. Thanks to Barcelona’s 61,000 plus shops and restaurants, the city's streets are full of activity. Organised into shopping hubs, associations and guilds, they all work together to offer you a better service every day.
However, Barcelona’s local commerce model is much more than a great economic driving force. It is an essential factor for improving social cohesion, community life and the quality of public spaces in the city. The Department of Commerce, Catering and Consumer Affairs works to promote this model and offers specialised municipal services for the commerce and catering sector, strengthening its network of associations, revitalising shopping areas and providing support for emblematic shops.
The Department of Commerce, Catering and Consumer Affairs is working to make trade and catering a key part of the backbone of a dynamic, enterprising and socially cohesive Barcelona, with the following objectives:
- To promote the association model in the commerce sector.
- To favour participation in the world of commerce.
- To promote local commerce, especially in the city’s neighbourhoods, to avoid commercial desertification and urban degradation processes.
- To defend the social value of commerce.
- To reinforce the introduction of quality in commerce.
- To strengthen dynamism, innovation and ongoing adaptation to the world of commerce, promoting entrepreneurship in particular.
- To defend and promote emblematic shops, a cultural and economic heritage of the city.
- To guarantee the knowledge and training of retail traders, and promote the continual adaptation of regulations in order to provide a rapid response to the needs and priorities of the world of commerce at any given moment.
- To promote responsible, sustainable and digitalised local commerce through financial aid and training to improve competitiveness.
- To launch commercial promotion campaigns and to join forces with those promoted by tradesmen's’ associations to promote commerce in the city.
- To provide information and statistical data on Barcelona's trade through the city's Commerce and Restaurant Observatory.
- To provide information on the regulations applicable to commerce.
- To sign collaboration agreements with public and private bodies that are aimed at promoting local commerce.
- To create the Catalogue of Services for Commerce.
- To promote the continuity and environmental rehabilitation of shops and protect emblematic shops.
