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We talked to Nagore Pérez, who works at the communication and marketing department at Koopera Store, a charity shop from the Basque Country that works with Caritas, an organization that groups 165 national organizations of social service. We wanted to know how has the pandemic affected the small businesses and the consumers behavior.

 

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Do you think that Koopera as a brand have accomplish to attract clients making them interested in sustainability? Do you think there are people demanding this type of fashion?

 

- Yes. Of course, in comparison, in other European countries second-hand consumption is much more rooted, but those habits are being adopted by people here in Spain as well. We have noticed, due to youth movements, the profile of our clients is changing. Our clients are getting younger and younger and we can already see that it is not just a matter of price but it’s also related to environmental and social awareness.

 

How do you manage to compete against big big fast-fashion multinationals that sell you t-shirts for 5 euros, speacially during this crisis?

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- We try to raise awareness especially about our social project, that is our added value.  We promote the protection of the environment, and we have a very competitive price, but unfortunately, we do not have an online shopping website, which is our weak point. We don’t have clothing collections. The Koopera project, like I said, focuses a lot on the social insertion issue. So we prioritize our budgets to maintain these projects in order to open more stores, and generate more jobs. We don’t make nearly as much as Inditex, but we also have different goals.

 

Do you think people will be able to realize after this crisis that we need to start reducing our consumption? Or do you see it getting worse?

 

- We understand that people are going to be more aware and this could be a turning point in the way we treat our resources and our people. At first it may be because of the fear of what might come after this pandemic. But we also believe that raising awareness is the most important thing to do right now, and we need to let people understand that you can make a huge different depending on whether you choose to buy at one store or another.

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You said you were supporting a social cause, have you had enough support from the government or from other entities to promote a store that seeks a more ecological and also affordable development?:

 

- Yes, in Koopera we receive annual subsidies from said entities, but it is not our biggest source of income. It makes up for around 15% of our revenue, we do not survive thanks to it.