"The oasis of the caganer". This is how the Alòs brothers define the new caganers shop they have opened in Barcelona's Gòtic neighborhood, the first in the world. The numbers speak for themselves. A total of 6,000 units fill a 20-square-meter premises on Banys Nous street, very close to Sant Jaume square.
Caganer.com is the project of the Alòs family, who since 1992 have been handcrafting one of the most popular figures in Catalan culture. After years of selling at Christmas fairs, in about thirty shops in the Catalan capital and on their website, this company from Torroella de Montgrí has decided to bet on direct sales.
In the new shop, there is the traditional caganer, that is, the peasant with a barretina placed in the nativity scene, but there are also caganers with different professions and of famous people, the most popular in recent years, which have brought this humble figure beyond our borders. Carles Puigdemont, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Leo Messi and the traditional peasant with a barretina are the best sellers in the history of this company from Girona, but new celebrities like Rosalía, Fernando Simón and the protagonists of La Casa de Papel are increasingly winning the hearts of caganer consumers.
But this doesn't end here. The Alòs family company has also created caganers of Star Wars characters ---all the classics: Darth Vader, Chewbacca, Han Solo, Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker, R2-D2, Yoda and C-3PO---, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, Mr. Bean, Chaplin, Dracula, The Pink Panther, The Simpsons, Asterix, Captain Haddock... Local and international politicians could not be missing either, who coincide in harmony on the shelves and form strange pairs that would not last long in real life, like Donald Trump and Fidel Castro. Even La Grossa is there.
Marc and Sergi Alòs, the second generation of Caganer.com, assure that in the almost 30 years they have been making caganers, no one has complained about being seen in such a human, but also very intimate, position. In fact, not having your caganer can be a sign of political weakness, as happened to the former mayor of Barcelona, Jordi Hereu, at the beginning of his mandate, when his predecessor, Pasqual Maragall, already had one and he didn't, a fact that alerted the press, according to the Alòs brothers.
Daring to open in the midst of a crisis
For a long time, the Alòs brothers wanted to open a caganers store in Barcelona, with the aim of desesonalizing sales beyond Christmas and reaching new audiences, such as tourists, who could see in this figure a good souvenir of their travels. When they were in full expansion, in 2016, they did a study to see if they could afford it. Exorbitant prices for both transfers and rents of premises in the center of Barcelona advised against it.
Now, with the crisis affecting the city center, the company has been able to find a suitable space for its needs and at a reasonable price, disbursing an initial investment of 30,000 euros. "We see this crisis as an opportunity to enter the market," explain Marc and Sergi. "Now is the time to bet on Barcelona," they add. They are aware that the first year will not be easy, but they are confident that, when everything improves, they will already be at full capacity to offer their caganers to all those who want them, either to inhabit their nativity scenes or to decorate their homes.
More than a store
With an eye on the tourist public, Marc and Sergi have decided to set up a small space in the store where the production of caganers is explained, in addition to decorating the walls with photographs of the entire artisanal process. To begin, there are the molds used to make them, the first step to start designing them. Next, there are the unpainted figures, both of the caganer and its inseparable companion. Finally, the brushes and paint pots, having to paint the light colors first and then the dark ones (flesh color, the white shirt, the red barretina, the black pants...), an order that allows errors to be corrected more easily.