Small retailers continue to be the sector facing the most difficulties in Spain. In the last ten years, the country has gone from having 767,317 companies dedicated to this activity to 625,293, which represents a net reduction of 142,024 establishments - taking into account both openings and closures - according to the Harmonized Business Demography statistics published this Wednesday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
In fact, one out of every five business closures in the country falls within this activity, which has a "death rate" of 8.4%, higher than the average of 7.8% for the entire productive fabric, according to 2023 data, the latest available.
Given that the number of closures exceeds the number of openings, this sector is losing weight in the country as a whole and has the worst balance, at -0.8%.
The majority of closures have been self-employed entrepreneurs who had their own business but no employees (68%), highlighting the difficulties faced by entrepreneurs; while 31% had between one and four employees, 1% had between 5 and 9 workers, and only 0.26% had a staff of ten or more people.
Over the past decade, the country has lost 18.5% of the total stock of businesses - equivalent to 39 closures per day - and the regions that have experienced the greatest loss are Aragon (with a closure of 24.6% of its businesses), Galicia (-24.4%), Castilla y León (-24.3%), and the Basque Country (-23.8%). No region is exempt from the decline in the number of businesses, although the most moderate declines occur in the autonomous city of Melilla (-7%), Andalusia (-11.8%), the Region of Murcia (-13%), and Extremadura (-15.7%).
In terms of the number of stores, however, Catalonia has lost the most (-24,225) along with Madrid (-19,749) and Andalusia (-16,138).
When analyzing the reasons putting small businesses in difficulty, store owners always mention the competition from online sales platforms that have greater bargaining power with suppliers, allowing them to offer more competitive prices; an inflationary environment of increasing costs - electricity, rents, raw materials, etc. - rising wage costs for those with employees - either through the Minimum Wage, very present in this activity, or through social security contributions - difficulties in accessing bank financing, and a change in consumer habits prioritizing the convenience of online shopping and often cheaper international suppliers.
Lately, new problems such as the proliferation of tourist apartments are adding to these historical causes. "Touristification and real estate speculation linked to short-stay rentals are leaving no space for those who sustain the real economic fabric, self-employed workers," recently lamented the Union of Autonomous Workers and Entrepreneurs (UATAE), warning that "the uncontrolled increase in tourist accommodations and premises converted into temporary accommodations not only disproportionately raises commercial rental prices but also disrupts the logic of local commerce, transforms neighborhood dynamics, and displaces essential economic activities from the neighborhoods."
"If a self-employed worker cannot rent a premises in their neighborhood, if a store closes because its rent has tripled, that is expulsion," denounced its general secretary, María José Landaburu.
Lorenzo Amor, president of ATA, the largest association of self-employed workers, warned a few days ago that self-employed workers in commerce are "in free fall," posing a risk of losing "the social cohesion generated by the stores in our towns and cities."
Without disaggregating by sector, Spain today has 85,527 more companies than a decade ago and 1.3% more than a year ago, despite the survival rate of companies not being very high: in 2023, only 41.9% of companies born in 2018 were still active.
"The first year of existence is when the greatest decreases in business units occur, with survival rates of 78.5% or lower. It is worth noting that the populations of companies born in 2018 and 2019 have been reduced to less than half after four years," explains the INE.