One of the most deeply rooted traditions in Spain is in danger of disappearing. This may be due to the new generations and the change of habits in the population, it is also an expensive product compared to others, adding the new concept of healthy eating, but the reality is that the number of churrerías has decreased in the main cities of Spain.
This change has been especially noticeable for the owners of these stores. They claim that they no longer sell even a quarter of what they used to sell years ago. Currently they sell three thousand churros per day, when a couple of years ago they sold six or seven thousand, and at Christmas they sold up to 16,000 churros, this more than twenty years ago.
Churro stands in danger of extinction
The churro stands are slowly disappearing in Barcelona due to the fact that since 1990 the City Council decided not to renew the concessions for them to occupy the public highway.
The children of the original owners, who are the only ones who can inherit the family business, often decide to follow other professional paths or simply not continue with the business, so the concession is lost and the shop closes its doors. So, after lowering the shutters, the stand is dismantled and removed forever from that street or square, leaving another neighborhood without a churrería.
In the last 20 years the number of churro stands on the street has fallen by half, and if there is no legal change regarding concessions and permits, in ten years there will be only a small number left.
The entity ensures the homogeneity of criteria in the 10 districts and has been fighting for years to make the transfer criteria more flexible: "It is logical that you cannot sell a concession, because after all it is a public space, so it does not belong to anyone, but it cannot be that a century-old churrería, which has been run by three generations of the same family, cannot continue through an indirect relative", said José Argilés, president of the Gremi Artesà de Xurrers de Catalunya and owner of the busy churrería on the Marina bridge.
An ancient tradition
The churro shops in the street were extremely popular during the second half of the 20th century and until the 1990s. "Their disappearance would be a cultural loss for the city, because they were part of the now almost extinct universe of street food sales," said historian Josep Maria Contel, vice president of the Taller d'Història de Gràcia.
Those who still sell churros say that the secret of success is to make a good product and keep the business open, adapt to the new market and enter it.
In spite of everything, they declare themselves "optimistic": "I have faith in their children's children and in the fact that one day the concession may pass from grandparents to grandchildren". "If the profession is exercised with affection, it does not have to disappear".
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