“The game is lost” according to a mayor of the Pyrénées-Orientales

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It’s the event of the week on the other side of the border. THE Gran Jonquera shopping center, in Spain, inaugurated its new face. Around ten new stores, sometimes on two floors, a giant Eiffel Tower and a commercial area which now reaches 58,300 m²…

A few tens of minutes from Perpignan, this true temple of consumption aims to definitively conquer French customers. And in the Pyrenees-Orientales, its extension provokes a huge reaction.

Zara and Primark in La Jonquera rather than in the Pyrénées-Orientales

While many residents are already looking forward to their future shopping trips to La Jonquera, where they will now find Zara, Primark, Adidas or even Stradivarius, the traders of Perpignan look gloomy.

On the outskirts of the city, the mayor of Claira Marc Petit is also very worried, he who hoped to attract such brands to the Salanca shopping center a few months ago. Before the extension project was finally the subject of an appeal, and was rejected by the National Commercial Development Commission (CNAC). A real missed opportunity for the department, according to the elected official.

“We had a project to extend the Salanca shopping center, which could have competed with Gran Jonquera, bringing in locomotives like Primark and Adidas. There was an appeal from the city of Perpignan and merchants in the city center. Finality, today, we will soon strip the city center of Perpignan as well as the peripheral areas,” deplores Marc Petit, contacted by News Perpignan.

“Perpignan and the city center traders have hit the wrong target”

The mayor of Claira is as worried as he is angry. “When we listen to what Mr. Escudero (the founder of Gran Jonquera) said, it is that he wants to attract French customers at all costs. Unfortunately for us, we do not use the same weapons between Catalonia and the Pyrénées-Orientales. It’s a shame,” laments the elected official.

The latter evokes a real “frustration”. And for good reason, “we found six attractive brands, which did not exist in the department”, he recalls:

With this recourse, everyone loses. Perpignan and the city center traders had the wrong target by attacking the extension of the Claira shopping center.

A fear for jobs

From now on, Marc Petit is especially worried about the future of jobs in the commercial zones located in his town. “I fear today that some stores will close in Claira. I fear for the employees. In Claira, we have at least 1,200 jobs in Salanca, Carrefour, Crest and Arcades. This is my biggest worry,” he insists.

And the elected official is hardly optimistic: “For me, the game is lost. All elected officials and stakeholders in the region should work together on departmental-scale projects, and not just look at their navel. But in my opinion, it’s too late.”

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