The Bonus Consum initiative has been a complete success. The Barcelona City Council launched it in mid-October to incentivize local commerce through discount vouchers that can be used to shop in establishments in the city, as well as to consume in its bars and restaurants. The vouchers, which can be downloaded through the BCN Market platform, have a value of 20 euros: the user who acquires them pays 10 and the council puts up the rest.
In a first batch, a total of 280,000 Bonus Consum were made available to Barcelona residents, which sold out within a few weeks. The council decided to extend the initiative with 100,000 more, which were launched last Tuesday. Of the total of 380,000 vouchers created, 322,425 have already been exchanged in participating stores, while 56,678 have been reserved on the platform for use in Christmas shopping, according to data from this Wednesday.
Those who still want to get one of these vouchers will have to enter the BCN Market website at 12 midnight, waiting for vouchers that expire without being used to be released. The voucher expires if, once downloaded, the purchase is not made within the following 15 days. It should be remembered that the Bonus Consum can be used until December 31.
Currently, more than 1,900 establishments have joined this initiative. In this list, there is a bit of everything: bakeries, restaurants, greengrocers, pharmacies, bookstores, stationery stores, dry cleaners, florists, perfumeries, beauty centers, clothing and accessories stores, shoe stores, appliance stores, household product stores… Chains such as Cal Fruitós, Culinarium, Kimod, Boboli, Luxpiel, Casas, Fnac, Abacus, Re-Read, Intersport, Miró, Calbet, La Mallorquina or San Remo also participate.
The City Council has invested a total of 4.04 million euros in this initiative, a figure that represents a direct injection of 3.8 million euros into Barcelona's commercial fabric. Likewise, the Bonus Consum have a clear multiplier effect on the city's establishments, since 10 euros of investment by the council generate, at least, 10 more euros of spending by citizens, raising their impact to 7.6 million. The initiative is promoted jointly with Barcelona Comerç, Barcelona Oberta, Comertia, Pimec, Foment del Treball, the Gremi de Restauració, the Agrupament de Botiguers i Comerciants de Catalunya, and the Gremi d'Hotels.