In February 2023, I read the news in the press and I was depressed because it surprised me and gave me what to think. The store of Jostaldi Kirolak Erdikale Street in Azpeitia will be closed to the public after 48 years of running.

That made me travel in time. I'd been there several times with my grandmother, who had bought sportswear and street clothes. I went with my grandmother to Azpeitia, I bought myself in Jostaldi, took something in the cafeteria of Xiriakon in a nice tertulia and returned with the happiest boy in the world... It gave me a lot of pain, therefore, the news caused me to shed some tear, amidst so many memories and nostalgia...

Just a month earlier, in early January 2023, I spent a lot of time in the Jostaldi store. And it was a nice coincidence to find us in the street, right in front of the store, with the owner who was already retired. We had not seen us for many years, but he heeded me with his eternal smile. He told me that he had heard me through articles of opinion from the press and gave me a phrase that moved me a lot. “I’ve worked for many years in the store, but I’ve seen very few people as happy as when you entered your grandmother.” It was a nice time. I told her that grandma left at the end of 2017, and then I introduced her to the two children who were playing and running. “Life goes on. And don’t get bored with these two!” he told me. We salute ourselves with a hug.

More and more times, more situations, more difficult for small businesses. It is not my opinion, but a very clear (and raw) reality of the data: over the last decade a third of retail establishments, one in three, have been lost. In the period 2018-2021, in Gipuzkoa alone, the number of small businesses decreased by 817. Between 2013 and 2023, a total of 5,658 small shops were lost in the CAV. More and more small shops are dropping the shutter. And the news that is opening up is much less. This is something that can be easily observed in our streets. Another of the collateral damage of the cruel economic globalization: fewer and fewer small shops; more and more shopping malls. In Getaria, for example, when we were little, there were many more options: textile shops, drugstores, mercerias, household appliances stores, shoemakers, hardware stores, toy stores, sports stores, insurers… Yes, all of them in Getaria, without having to move outside. But what about today?

Experts explain several factors that explain this drop in retail stores: Platforms and Internet shopping; expansion of large shopping malls and change of our leisure model; lack of relief and substitution to continue the business; increased rental, electricity or raw material.

And that is that today the Internet offers many facilities that we could not imagine before, and that has changed a lot (too much) of our customs, many times without us realizing. More and more people buy (we) more online. It's very simple, it's attractive. Monsters such as Amazon, websites of each brand, great discounts in times of continuous promotion, ease of shipping or gratuity. Without getting out of the couch, a very wide fan option, with a simple click, all ready!

We've all bought it that way many times. We've all fallen into this network. And I'm not saying that's wrong. But I think we should own our actions and be aware of their consequences.

Our current model of society is increasingly individualistic, isolated and cold. Where the face-to-face relationship has been replaced by the fingerprint movements of mobile screens. The American way of life or McDonald totally conditioned and homogenised. OK.

We can also criticise the attitude (and hypocrisy) of the public administrations and the rulers here. With the small mouth, to say nice words in favour of small shops and, at the same time, to promote and/or support large shopping centres. All right, too.

The increased lifestyle we have suffered in recent years (and the loss of purchasing power) and the difficulties that this entails and the need to look at prices also have a significant weight. Of course it does.

But even if all of them are true, we can't always look for those responsible outside. Because in our hand, it's also deciding, at least in part, our consumption and buying model. Decide where and how to buy. It is also our responsibility. Small businesses don't close by themselves. Because a lot of people have to close when we turn their backs on them.

What streets, neighborhoods or villages do we want? That's the key question. And that is in the hands of all the citizens. To have crowded streets, safe streets… shops are needed. And for that to be possible, the path is that we shop in the shops of our village, the neighborhood, the street.

Unfortunately, today there are very few things (at least much less than I would like) in our hands. But this is one of the little boys. Well, let's think well and try to put our thoughts into practice.

Because these stores can be small in size, but they are many in relation, in quality, in closeness, in trust, in honesty, in effort, in dignity, through sale and in subsequent services... Let us not let those who are large in smallness become small in greatness.

Aitor Irigoien Odriozola