From 5:00 p.m., when the temperatures begin to drop and tourists from northern Europe are looking for a place to dine, the golden mile of Playa de las Americas it becomes a jumble sale in which it is difficult to walk.
The blankets with products, counterfeit or not, occupy the public space without any permission. Bags, many bags. The authentic ones, from well-known -and very expensive- brands, are sold in local shopping centers in the area, where at least two famous stores have them. The real ones
“I cannot understand how this has proliferated so much. Three towns have been passed,” explains Jimmi Gómez, from the Golden Mile Merchants Association, which represents the businesses of the mile. “The situation is scandalous. Right now they’re taking over the entire front of the Safari shopping center to the children’s playground at the end of the street. You can’t walk”, complains a shopkeeper, familiar with the development of this space, created as a top-level urban development, in search of tourism with high purchasing power.
To the town halls and the sub-delegation
Not just them. He Circle of Entrepreneurs and Professionals of the South of Tenerife (CEST) has sent separate letters to the town councils of Arona and Adeje to demand measures against street vending and the counterfeit trade. A letter that has also been sent to the Government Sub-delegation in the province.
The president of the CEST, Javier Cabrera, assured yesterday in a statement that “the street sale of counterfeits is an undeniable obstacle for the local economy, both for shops and for small restaurateurs and, in addition, constitutes a crime against industrial property, regulated in our Penal Code.
Nobody wants the spotlight to be placed on sellers, who are often victims of exploitation. In fact, this is a matter that goes much further, generating tens of millions of euros in profits for large organizations.
In September 2022, for example, one of the largest operations against counterfeit products in Europe was announced, whose place of distribution was precisely the south of Tenerife. The seized products came from China and had a value of 500 million euros.
A little earlier, the then councilor responsible for Security in Arona, Carolina Reverón, announced in 2017 the seizure of a total of 80 kilos of merchandise on the coast of Los Cristianos and Playa de las Américas.
“Importers of counterfeit products are what are really profiting from this illegal activity and for this they use people who, due to their need to survive, are forced to work in conditions of almost slavery,” he clarifies.
The representative of the area’s businessmen, for his part, complains that the underlying problem is “a lack of tools.” “Here the politicians have changed twice and the situation is the same or worse, because, in the same way that when the Police pass by they pick up the blankets, when they leave they put them back on. They don’t know how to act and that is the real problem, ”he says.
