Hi everyone,

I would really appreciate your insights about flea markets, especially in the Torrevieja area. What are the rules of selling? Is it necessary to get a licence?
How about car boot sales? I would like to sell a few handmade items (vegan soap) just to try and see if people like them, if there is a need before I go all in and get a proper shop.

If anyone has experience in obtaining licences for a soap lab, I would be more than grateful for that, too! I have just started looking into this, and I am badly in need of info.

Thank you in advance.
Andrea

Best sell online as this would / might attract the tax people and a fine for operating without a license. There is a specialty website just for handmade items.

Sorry I do not know the rules here but in France it was first come who gets a place and this normally means 4-5am

You will definitely need a licence from the town hall to sell in the Torrevieja street market.

Hi.

If selling any type of soap or product that is to used on the skin. You will need licences. Even if selling online.
Add liability insurance and a few other bits and its gong to cost a pretty penny.

Before we moved here, my wife owned a shop that sold Natural products, hand made jewellery, rocks, fossils, crystals, incense, soaps, oils etc.
The shop had to either be licensed or the supplier had to include us in its licence for resale. You have to provide full ingredient lists, allergy information etc.
In the UK there are labs that will do the tests for you, not sure about here, but I'm sure there are some.
We had various licences for the bulk oils, the soap types and the essential oils for perfuming.
My wife made bees wax products and we had to detail where the wax came from (and if it was raw or processed).
After a couple of years we ended up just using a couple of large Uk manufacturers and reselling their products.

We were going to do the same here in Spain but its harder due to the language barrier (ours with regard to the licences etc)
Added to the extra paperwork required, autonomo here costs about €300 a month plus accountant charges, etc. Even if you dont earn that amount, so we didn't bother.

Here is an old link to a company we used to deal with. They are good for information about low impact and sustainable goods.
https://www.lowimpact.org/starting-y...nd-made-soaps/

This is an article from a spanish company.
https://www.lawyersspain.eu/set-up-a...etics-in-spain

See I did my homework when we were looking, you can thank me later.

Licences for markets here in Spain. Bit of a confusing thing.
Yes you are supposed to, but some places will not licence you unless you are Autonomo and can prove it.
Others will let you have a stall, you will need to pay the daily rate plus either have your own insurance or some places let you use theirs.
Our neighbour on the ground floor, runs a mobile phone accessory stall, and is in Altea, Alibir and the surrounding area markets. He is fully Autonomo and reckons he makes just enough to live on, doing markets six days a week.

We have a couple of markets near here and the main ones require a licence from the council. The rastro in Polop is different as you can just turn up and pay a day rate (it is (was) a private market).

You need to visit some and talk to other vendors and ask what charges etc, or try to find the organiser. If its like it is round here, he (or she) will the worried person walking around with the Local Police.

Ive been planning to start a stall with my artwork and to sell the huge collection of Jewellery I made years ago, just to make some pocket money. But as yet Im not prepared to bother.

As to a proper shop. WOW you will need to clear €1000 a week to cover costs (all the business's we've owned or run, you work on covering all costs in the first week of the month. Fixed ones that is). The market you are looking at is fairly small, shop rental, stock, displays, you, packaging. Add the costs of the licences and it all adds up.

In the Uk as stated, my wife had a turnover of around £140,000 a year and after tax her profits were around £12,000 (she ran the shop 6 days a week, 7 on the run up to Christmas 9am to 5pm) I did the stock runs and made the Jewellery she sold. We also did fairs and markets around the area on the Sunday when we were closed.
Add to this we had 2 young children, I worked abroad a lot and was running around the country selling my Jewellery, didn't leave much time for fun (maybe why we only had 2 kids)

Please make sure you RESEARCH, RESEARCH and also dont forget to research.

Is there a shop already in the area selling these products? if so why not see if you can place some of your stuff there.
If not wonder why not!
Spain does not have the same mentality as the Uk when it comes to little craft shops.

But I wish you well, but get costs on everything before you start anything.

When we lived in the Torrevieja area at Playa Flamenca there were several Sunday markets run by an English couple, they were held at various venues, Celtic Isle in Playa Flamena was one, unfortuneatly the local authorities didn't really like them and found various dubious reasons to close them, traffic congestion being one. I don't know if they are still around, but were popular with both Spanish and Brits.

Better to sell your products to small independent shops and stalls and let them have the grief of Spanish bureaucracy ,the Spanish system does not like SME`s and makes it very difficult to make a basic living ,SME`s are too difficult to control for them, if your products do need official approval I`d think twice about the viability of doing it.

The police are quite vigilant in Torrevieja area. You will surely get caught and fined if you try to manufacture and sell without a license / declaring your income.

Problem here is that the small shops may be selling from larger manufacturers who allow them to 'shelter' under their licences.
I can't imagine any shop would take products that were untested and unlicensed. It leaves them open to all the issues.

There is no simple or cheap route here, it may be something to do as a hobby and gift to family.

Just as a sample, these soaps are from the largest Uk supplier (we used to sell these) look at the RRP of £3.50 a bar (100g) You are going to have to shift loads at this price to make anything at all.

You would probably be better off asking the local eco soap dispenser to sell on your behalf as they already have the customer base. My local shop told me he has 3 types of customer; eco warriors, frugal types and those who are simply fed up with having half their bin full of plastic. I fell in to the last category and slowly it changes the mindset. Better still it helps locals earn a living. Good luck.

What do you mean by Torrevieja?. For Spanish people Torrevieja means the town. For foreigners, for some reason they mean Punta Prima , Playa Flemenca etc.
Do you mean the small hippy market in the town by the fair? That is the only market in Torrevieja other than the Friday market.

Do people still use soap (?) as in bar of, have not used any for years myself as its shampoo / shower gel etc now.

From what I have been told it's a growing market. A lot of people are against the plastic waste and plastics in the gels and shampoos, I always use a bar of soap and for the past couple of years I have used shampoo bars, mostly because it's easier to travel with them. They seem expensive but they last longer and means you're a smaller part of the pollution problem.

That generation was the biggest polluter and still is. Hard to teach a old dog new tricks as the saying goes.