The touristification that is taking over the center of Madrid will make one of the best-known corners of any comic book lover disappear. The Elektra store will abandon its rental premises on San Bernardo and Estrella streets next spring, pushed by an inaccessible offer from an investment fund, which wishes to transform this space into tourist apartments.
The announcement of the transfer was made this week by those responsible for the company itself, with a publication on social networks in which they warned that “soon we will have to start seeing ourselves elsewhere.” Although they already knew its future since last May, when some architects entered the premises under the pretext of taking some measures for the technical control of the building. In reality, they were calculating how many beds there would be inside: “A few days later, the property called us to say they had an offer from an investment fund for the premises and that if we didn’t respond, they were going to give it to them,” explains Alberto Simón, founder of the company.
“We couldn’t compete with that,” he recalls. The offer doubled the amount they currently pay for rent, so they had no alternative but exile. A transfer that they have kept secret until now, when they decided to make it public to explain certain supply shortages in their abundant catalog. “We’re going to a smaller place and we have to fit in,” he explains, adding that his destination is still uncertain and that they are considering leaving Malasaña, the neighborhood that housed his store since the beginning (they have first opened in rue Pozas then in Pez, before joining your current store). The goal is to find a location that fits your needs “within M-30.”
While recounting his situation, Alberto recounts how this district of central Madrid gave way to tourism and franchises before his eyes. He witnessed it for the first time in the office building where Elektra still operates, at number 20 Calle San Bernardo, a stone’s throw from Gran Vía: “They started opening tourist apartments before the pandemic, but I didn’t think they would go as far as we did. “, he remembers. He also confirmed it with the establishments that disappear around him until there are almost none left and he cites those that were lost in Calle Pez, such as the centenary La Moda or the Beringola, dedicated to photos for university borders.
“Retail has changed a lot, I compare it to the arrival of shopping centers in Madrid. “My father was a shopkeeper in a grocery store, next to Retiro, and he was shocked when large stores appeared with uninterrupted hours and open on Sundays. » Now the change is coming from the Internet and Amazon, “which are sweeping retail and are going to sweep it completely away, because you can’t compete with that,” he says pessimistically, acknowledging that the delivery model of a free product the next day at your home is something that cannot be compensated by the dedication and professionalism of traditional commerce. “All the small stores will eventually disappear because the father who runs them, who is older, retires. And their children won’t want it, because they like something else. And then there comes a time when you want to buy shoelaces and you don’t know where. And you have to get them on the Internet.
The last veterans of comics in Madrid
Elektra’s story begins at Christmas 1989, with friends coming together to dedicate themselves to selling the comics they love. When Alberto Simón started his business, the defunct Madrid Comics was already operating in Los Sótanos de la Gran Vía and Crisis (also closed at the beginning of the year) had just opened on Calle Luna. And soon after, Metropolis did, another veteran holdout on the same path.
Elektra started with a small business on nearby Pozas Street, then moved to a very large store on the corner of Pez, where there is now a burger restaurant. But the rent was too high and fewer people passed through there than through San Bernardo. This is how they arrived at their current location in the early 1990s. It was a time when comics weren’t as well known and there were fewer stores. The sector was practically non-existent outside of Madrid or Barcelona. The type of sales was also different, Elektra specialized in importing American comics: “We sold more by mail order than in our physical store,” Alberto remembers.
Today, there are days when more tourists than Spaniards enter the store, attracted by its striking and well-kept window display. But they hardly carry any purchases. “There are a lot of customers who were regular customers who, since the pandemic, no longer come back to the store, even though they continue to call and buy, because that romance of going to a store to see what ‘They have already been lost. Everything is now accessible on the Internet.
Luckily, some good memories from the past are coming back this week. After the move was announced, many customers called and wrote remembering stories associated with the store. Like the stories of signings with then little-known authors and today comics legends like Carlos Pacheco. Or like when they organized a viewing of a new series about the X-Men, the pilot episode of which had just been released in the United States and, thanks to a supplier, they obtained the VHS for the store. The place was packed to enjoy the episode. “The store was packed,” he remembers with a smile.
