Shops open until midnight, music, street entertainment and discounts: that's how it goes on Fridays in downtown Faro, between the 8th of July and the 26th of August, at the first edition of the Baixa Street Fest. The event, which will have around 80 participating establishments, including stores and restaurants, wants to give a new dynamic to the Faro commerce and will also work as an experience of extending the hours, one of the solutions identified to fight large surfaces, with IKEA "the head".
The initiative promoted by the Chamber of Faro, ambifaro, Associação do Comércio da Baixa, ACRAL and AHISA was launched “to attract more people and give more dynamic to commerce. There are eight Fridays, where the aim is to give more hours to commerce, with music, street entertainment and a passport, which guides customers through the participating stores, and which gives a set of benefits to those who consume downtown », explained Paulo Santos, vice president of the Chamber of Faro, at the presentation of the event.
In addition to a 10% discount, there are «a series of incentives for shoppers, such as free entrance to various municipal facilities, such as museums, swimming pools, or activities at the Nautical Centre. There is also the possibility of guaranteeing discounts for Festival F, or for shows at Teatro das Figuras», adds Paulo Santos.
It is not only the Chamber that will give incentives to those who buy at the Baixa Street Fest, merchants can also give their offers to consumers, because «the passport will also allow, by merchants who wish, the attribution of vouchers with values to be discounted in November'.
This passport, which will be on sale at the Arco da Vila Interpretive Center and at some of the participating establishments, costs one euro, which reverts to an IPSS in the municipality.
Although the Baixa Street Fest is not a local business response to the IKEA shopping centre, which is being born “on the doorstep” of Faro, Paulo Santos says that «this idea is a test for the extension of the hours» of the Faro commerce because «there is a need to further affirm the city's downtown», given the arrival of the Swedish multinational and the other 200 stores that will be in operation next year.
This strategy is welcomed by Álvaro Viegas, president of ACRAL, who says that the remaining municipalities in the Algarve should replicate the Faro example. «ACRAL challenged AMAL and the first City Council that “grabbed” this alert that we launched was to Faro. This is not intended to be a 2016 initiative, it has to continue in 2017, 2018, 2019. This is the only way [to “fight” with IKEA]. We have to live with the structure that is coming, which is huge. The decision is made and it is not worth crying over spilled milk. Now it's up to us entrepreneurs, traders, local authorities and associations to figure out how best to transform what may be a threat to local commerce into an opportunity».
Taking advantage of the opportunity depends, according to Álvaro Viegas, “by changing several things. Entrepreneurs have to meet what the consumer wants and the consumer wants to have the opportunity to buy at a different time. Sometimes it is not by free will, but by force, that you have to change what has been static for many decades. It is not possible to continue with a schedule from 9:00 am to 13:00 pm and from 15:00 pm to 19:00 pm. It's been a 30-year timetable».
Álvaro Viegas makes «an alert for the rest of the Algarve's councils to look at what is being done here and replicate it, because the whole Algarve will feel the effect of IKEA» and says that «we have to get the many thousands of visitors who go to IKEA, come to the cities of Faro, Olhão, São Brás, Albufeira… Don't come to IKEA and leave the Algarve».
This position is supported by the president of the Chamber of Faro Rogério Bacalhau, for whom “IKEA is a space that will not survive only with residents. If it only has 400 visitors a year, who are residents of the Algarve, it will not survive. So many people will come from outside. The challenge is to take advantage of it». And, for the mayor, cities have something that shopping centers cannot offer «we have heritage, we have gastronomy, culture, events…», he concludes.
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