Making A Living In Spain
 

I was talking to the owner of our local cafe and I commented how it is difficult to make money in Spain, he thought for a moment and said I was very wrong...."its impossible!" he exclaimed ,I think many would agree.


Rgds


Rotor

Re: Making A Living In Spain
 

Thanks for the laugh. A bit like the old one that says it is easy to make a small fortune running a restaurant, providing you start with a large one!!:thumbup:

Re: Making A Living In Spain
 

i was in a cafe at the beach today, near Huelva. On going to pay, the woman shouted to her husband (they own the cafe), "how much shall i charge the foreign girl)-(in spanish, naturally)
Thankfully, as i was about to do one, the hubby came out, and said "the same as everyone else"!!
it shows that now the holiday makers are turning up in thir campervans etc, "some" of the bar owners see it as a way of conning money out of them!
We have frequented this bar a handful of times, and told the owner, that due to his wifes behaviour, they will be seeing neither ourselves or many friends/family that visit during the year!

Re: Making A Living In Spain
 

Maybe she just wasn't sure how much to charge you.

Re: Making A Living In Spain
 

What?


Eh?



Am I in the twilight zone here?

Re: Making A Living In Spain
 

2 coffees and 2 tostada enteras.....probably something she is asked for 30 times a day!!!we are talking about the owner, not a casual worker!

Re: Making A Living In Spain
 

por...?

Re: Making A Living In Spain
 

maybe she didn't remember what you had, assumed you didn't speak spanish, and asked her husband how much...

Re: Making A Living In Spain
 

Its just an odd post, with little point and replied in a bizarre fashion.


Welcome back by the way, I wondered where you were the other day.

Re: Making A Living In Spain
 

we were the only ones in there, as we timed it to miss the rush &she served us when i asked for them in spanish....

i racked my brains and there was no excuse...so i spoke to the husband who we have seen on the other occasions...all he could do was apologise for her!..i dont like to think of all the holidaymakers she will be conning this summer tho, who wont know what shes saying/doing!

Re: Making A Living In Spain
 

Would you have had the same reaction if she'd said, "cuanto cobro la chica guapa??" or "cuanto cobro la mujer del carnicero?". I suspect if they were out to con foreigners, they would have some incredibly advanced cunning plan set out before hand, like, just adding 20% on to all foreigners.

I think you've got the wrong end of the stick and owe these people an apology.

Re: Making A Living In Spain
 

True!

I think the suggestion palmera was trying to make was that the only way to make money was to con poor unsuspecting brits out of their hard earned cash.

How've you been, you out in spain now?

Re: Making A Living In Spain
 

If your Spanish is not perfect (I have spotted the mistake in 2 tostada enteras) I am sure you misunderstood, I know the economy is at a very low point, but I do not think they were out to con you. :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Re: Making A Living In Spain
 

Well I know for a fact that in this area holiday makers get charged a higher price than the locals in many bars. Locals being brits as well but still not fair on the holiday maker:(

Re: Making A Living In Spain
 

That really doesn't bother me - I think we (holiday makers) derserve to sub the locals, for all the bloody inconvienience we cause.

Re: Making A Living In Spain
 

I second that:thumbup: During the summer months we have been charged higher prices than in the winter months by waiters who don't know us, if we don't get charged extra we often get smaller drinks now that really does piss me off.

Re: Making A Living In Spain
 

But when one travels so far to visit friends I equally think they should pay for everything.

Re: Making A Living In Spain
 

Your staying in a hotel........not with me;)

Re: Making A Living In Spain
 

Yes, but I didn't want to disturb your loving.

Re: Making A Living In Spain
 

Talking of luvving, I have really sore knees and a bad back must ask Mal to give me a quick rub down with an oily rag before bedtime.

Re: Making A Living In Spain
 

Thats a proper combination, I'm sure he does better than an oily rag.

Re: Making A Living In Spain
 

Thankyou Crispy. It does happen frequently in this area now summer is approaching! It is a shame Lochy "got the wrong end of the stick" and implied I was wrong.


Lochy wrote : I think you've got the wrong end of the stick and owe these people an apology.

I think nor Lochy!!! Maybe you´re the one who owes me an apology!...and what part of "the husband could only apologise for his wife" did you not understand? Would he not have put me right if i had misheard:rofl:

In all, it is a shame that this happens each summer. I notice it more as we have moved here from an all spanish area, where prices never hardly rose!

Re: Making A Living In Spain
 

Here we go… more myth on the rumour mill. The owner probably didn’t have a clue what you were talking about and just wanted to diffuse the situation the easiest way he could see. Nothing in your post suggests that they were going to overcharge you for being a foreigner – maybe these were your own prejudices causing you to leap to conclusions.

Watch out those dishonest locals don’t overcharge you on your copy of the Daily Mail now.

Prices go up in summer in tourist areas? You don't say...

Re: Making A Living In Spain
 

Experience not from a bar but a small village supermarket butcher. A new british resident found he was paying about 1.5 times the price for costillas (damn good ones though) than the locals were paying. One day a local was with him and saw the overcharge and reprimanded the butcher, telling him that the brit was a new resident in the village and should pay the resident price not the tourist price. I made sure I went first time to get these good costillas with a known local and was immediately charged the local price. 10 euros for 3 whole racks of really good costillas was much cheaper than I can get in the big supermarkets but it is clear in that example that there is some double pricing for residents and tourists. In other places such as in Sevilla city, they dont up the price but they do cut down the size of tapas for tourists and sometimes a quick "oy, I am not a tourist here" gets a top up and a sly smile.

Re: Making A Living In Spain
 

If you don't want to be charged tourist prices don't go to tourist areas.

Here's an example: It's the law throughout Spain that all restaurants offer a menu, i.e. a main course (optionally 2 dishes), with a salad, desert, drink and coffee at a set price (based on the price of the main course). In Spanish areas/restaurants this is what many people order. If the sum parts were ordered separately the bill would be double or more. In Spanish areas the menu of the day is usual posted outside as most prominent element, but in tourist areas it is often not mentioned at all, which is ironic as it was introduced to promote tourism. By the way just because it is not mentioned doesn't mean it doesn't exist; it does; you just have to make a point to ask for it.

Personally I try to avoid eating in tourist areas (or any establishment where there are picture menus like at the beach), if at all possible, because generally the food is not as good, the service is poor, the prices are high, the furniture is designed for a picnic and normally everything is coated in a fine layer of sand.

Re: Making A Living In Spain
 

Im sure its a worldwide thing to rip off the tourists incl the London toursits !! just have to check your bills - its always better to get a print out from the till if poss

Re: Making A Living In Spain
 

There are as many con artists in Spain as anywhere else in the world ,if you believe any different you are deluded.

Rgds

Rotor

Re: Making A Living In Spain
 

Some appear to do it legally, like on the toll roads. ;-((

Re: Making A Living In Spain
 

Exactly!! Lochy must be deluded to think otherwise! I speak spanish well enough to know what is being said.



Locky wrote - Watch out those dishonest locals don’t overcharge you on your copy of the Daily Mail now.

heehee-your comment about me buying a Daily Mail here made me :rofl: .....it is impossible to buy it within my vicinity...or anything english for that matter..which is what we enjoy about here. :p

Re: Making A Living In Spain
 

I think it's very possible. A crippling factor though is borrowing money to get started. If you don't need to and you have good business ideas and sense there shouldn't be a problem.

Re: Making A Living In Spain
 

My comment was specific to the story, not generally. And i don't think you leapt to the wrong conclusion because your spanish was bad, but more likely because of the british rumour mill that exaggerateas all these things.

OK, ok. don't know where you live. You now read it on the net now then!!?? Or you've changed to el mundo. or ABC!!?? :ohmy::ohmy:

Re: Making A Living In Spain
 

I have no idea whatsoever about a "british rumourmill":confused:


If you had bothered to read my first post properly, you wouldn´t be jumping to so many wrong conclusions yourself...It started "I was at a café at the beach today, near Huelva..." - spot the clue?:rofl::rofl::rofl:

Re: Making A Living In Spain
 

I don't think that there are many people on this expat site that are so nieve to think that this sort of thing only goes on in Spain, and if there are peeps here that think that then you should get out more often.

I through my own choice live in a holiday area, not very popular with Brits but it is and has been a very up market place for Spanish and Germans to come and unwind through July and August. There are more privately owned holiday homes and 5 star hotels here then there are topless posers on the beach. I fully expect bars/cafes/restaurants to put up prices in the summer after all they have to earn as much as they can to sustain the long winter months. Unlike other costa's there really isn't a winter trade to be had here and many establishments close for the winter, I have noticed this spring there are a lot more places that are up for sale/transfer.

I do however feel very strongly about the way I am treated by some bars in the summer months, after supporting them through the winter months and building up a relationship with the staff often being their only customer on a chilly December day. I find that when the wealthy tourist arrives we are ignored completely by the very people that fall over themselves to serve us between November and March. Please don't think I am generalizing, I'm talking about a very small percentage of people who think a quick buck is better than the steady euro.

All through the year we have many people come over form the UK to stay with us and we eat out a lot, it has been blatant the difference in the service that we get comparing winter to summer. So much so we have now stopped using these places, I shouldn't think for one moment they have even noticed that we no longer go there. Like most locals we use the local venta and on the whole have no complaints about the service or price that we are charge, but there are local business's that do have a sliding scale for charges, not just bars but building merchants and such like. The local shop we buy our gas from can't even make up it's mind how much to charge us for a bottle of gas, we have bought gas there for 5 years paying one price when the owner serves us to three other prices when other members of the family serve us. Give and take, it's all swings and roundabouts but there are people that really take the piss out of others and yes I can hear you say it happens all over the world but because it does it doesn't make it right.

I sore I wasn't going to say this but you know what I am really quite an anal obsessive compulsive type of person and I can't let this go, it really niggles me the way Brits are treated compared to the way Germans are. I like nothing better than to sit in a bar and watch the world go by and I have become very observant to what goes on in life, sad I know but then that's me.

Only yesterday I was in a very popular tourist bar with about 30 people sitting around 8 or 9 tables all Germans except for 3 Brits most people were drinking beer and I know from using this bar a lot (we get special local price's when we use it) that if you order a beer you get free olives. Well yes you do if you are German but not if you are British, this was not a one off it happens all the time. I know, I know very petty of me and don't use the bar again if you're such a shallow person to get up set over it. The question I ask my self so often is why the difference in service after all it's only a bowl of bloody olives.

People who say these things don't happen or retort "it's the same in England" are really just a narrow minded as the people that complain about all and sundry, if we don' like something then we should vote with our feet but I also think it is up to each of us to say what we really think because until we stand up for what is right we will continue to receive crap service.

Re: Making A Living In Spain
 

Maybe the Germans eat the olives instead of turning up their noses.

Re: Making A Living In Spain
 

Get a life, I don't know many Brits that turn there nose up at free food.

Re: Making A Living In Spain
 

I understand that it’s frustrating when a place becomes your own, and then they turn their back on you. I don’t justify what these guys have done, bad service is bad service and you’re damn right you should complain.

But listen to yourself. The Germans get free olives and we don’t. They get it because we’re British and they’re German. Do you really think a waiter gives a toss if he’s giving you a plate of olives or not? To a bar that plate costs 0.0001 euros. It’s more likely an oversight, or because they give olives to people after the 2nd round, or when they order more than three beers…101 reasons. But honestly, they don’t give a damn, nor do they probably even notice if you’re british or german…

Re: Making A Living In Spain
 

Lot's of Brits have never even seen an olive let alone eaten one. Most think a salad is something rabbits eat and when they try to make one it consists of a radish, a spring onion and a couple of slices of cucumber.

Re: Making A Living In Spain
 

Lochy, listen to yourself, coals to Newcastle. Did I not say I was a sad, anal, obsesive complusive who neede to get a life. See this is what happens when you retire to early to much time on ones hands causing the mind to become paraniod. Oh another thing that has happened to me since retiring is when I am hanging out the washing I use different coloured pegs. Well now I have to use the same colour in a single piece of clothing, you know the sort of thing, one shirt, two pegs needed, but now both have to be red or blue can't use one red and one blue. This is driving the OH mad because he has to hang the washing out now because it was taking me ages to do it, after he has finished I go out and change all the pegs around so they match. He went out last week and bought me a whole new load of wooden pegs and threw the coloured plastic ones in the bin.

Re: Making A Living In Spain
 

We obviously don't mix in the same social circle.

Re: Making A Living In Spain
 

I can't imagine what would happen if they brought you a plate with green and black olives then. We may have world war 3 breaking out.