A View From Spain
I've been fortunate to have spent much of the winter of 2019-2020 residing along the southern shore of Spain. Occupying see this rented casa near the middle of an old town for a protracted time, which necessarily involved engaging with sailors, such as commercially with shop keepers and so on, gave me a great opportunity to see how daily financial life is lived at a location far from my New Hampshire home.
To be clear, I truly do have a life outside of financial observation, however for purposes of this piece that I 'll concentrate on a tiny anecdotal contrast between the way people conduct commercial trade in a corner of Spain and at NH. To further set this up, notice that I deliberately lived without a car and had no data plan for 3 months, relying instead on public transport and WiFi (or even wee-fee since they cutely state there).
All these near-monastic practices aside, let me tell you a little about my provisional Spanish hometown. Fuengirola, a little town of about 75K inhabitants, lies across the southern coast about 25 kilometers west of Malaga, the big city in those parts. It's in the autonomous region of Andalusia (such as a US state), which is the biggest of these self-governing regions in Spain. Given that it was controlled from the Islamic Moors for approximately seven centuries that the architecture and culture is a unique mix of Christian and Muslim influences never seen everywhere in Europe. Andalusians have a reputation for being emotional and fun-loving. I concur.
What is most evident commercially is the way conservative things seem, at least to a guy in his late sixties. In NH needless to say we get in our cars and drive to large supermarkets and large box stores to buy our things, or as is increasingly the case, we order things online and have them shipped to our homes. But here, pop over to this site & Pop" stores are alive and apparently well. The sidewalks each day, except Sunday, are teeming with people carrying their daily marketing of fruits, vegetables, medicines, clothing, breads/pastries, alcohol, and lottery tickets (really large here).
I must admit that despite a clear inefficiency with going to one store for your bread, to a different for your vegetables, and also to another for meat I liked the quaintness and private touch of having to know the men and women who worked those institutions. Levels of private service always seemed high and I never felt rushed. Sure Amazon.es and big box stores such as El Corte Ingles exist, but small brick & mortar retail is hanging here fairly well.
Folks sit with family and friends for what seems like hours chatting over coffee and beer throughout workdays and weekends alike. Cafes and pubs are everywhere spilling onto sidewalks. The jabber is lively and unkind and leaves a Yank with the belief that life really needs to be fun and dwelt with gusto. " But go to website will. It's a highly functioning, prosperous, and safe feeling neighborhood. look these up is minimal.
The Euro is the currency. And now its worth is just about 10% greater than the US dollar. However, special info for many commodities seem lower here. I'm often struck by how much value I'm getting for this little money. Granted, gasoline is more than in NH and I don't have a good sense of the costs of energy and big-ticket things, but total prices seem cheaper in Spain. Also, have a peek at this web-site -based society. My pocket regularly is weighed down with those thick coins (a First World problem, I understand ). Sure men and women use credit cards and telephone pay apps, but money is still quite widespread.