I had a walk around Malaga in Spain the other day. I then also had a walk around Seville – also in Spain - a day or two later, and noted the closed and shuttered arcades in both cities. It isn’t any more a case of location-location-location, for the Malaga arcade was within 200m of the city’s main Maria Zambrano railway station, right opposite the concourse, in fact.
The cage-shutters in both instances had been pierced only with dumped circulars and litter, the forlorn testimony to a plunging economy.
Hundreds of Spanish arcades have closed down as unemployment hits 30 per cent, and over 50 per cent of the younger generation.
The country’s 17 semi-autonomous provinces have some of the world’s most liberal gambling laws for street locations, but it still doesn’t really help.
If folk won’t go through the doors, they’re not going to play. Transplant that situation into a British pub. If they are being deserted by the drinkers, then the most attractive AWP (OK, Category C) features in the business won’t zap up the cashbox. Transplant the same situation to Italy, or even to Germany’s unquestionably richer environs; you have to get the player into the place first before you can tempt him to play.
It’s always been that way, but never so starkly illustrated than in today’s cash-strapped society.
But going to my local Co-op store to pick up some overlooked everyday commodity needed to sort out tonight’s dinner (yes, it is usually up to me) and I end up frustrated in a long line of patiently waiting people with one or two items at the “fast” check-out because some clot at the front wants the girl behind the counter to check whether his numbers have come up – before buying a bunch more.
(Have to make the point: we should never have put the National Lottery into shops, supermarkets and newsagencies etc, where they just hold up the proper processes of shopping. It should be like Spain where lottery tickets are sold on street corners. Net result: It keeps the time-consuming frustration out of the shops and gives a respectable job to those who might be otherwise unemployable. Rant over).
That’s where your punters are; there and online. But then, we always knew that before, I suppose. Makes me feel like a dinosaur poised on the edge of the abyss…
