The Congress of Deputies has decided to take advantage of the Open House Days, which began this Friday and continue this Saturday, by setting up its souvenir shop in a visible space, where a reddish rubber lion has become the star item of this thirty-first edition.
Taking advantage of the intense flow of visitors that walks through the Palace these days, the Lower House has placed a small stall with official Congress products at the end of the itinerary, at the exit located on Cedaceros street.
In this display, all kinds of souvenirs can be found (cloth bags, keychains, pins...), but, as its sales assistants explain to Europa Press, a reddish rubber lion is being the most demanded item, followed by pencils and pens, as they are the most affordable items.
Among the Congress's projects is to enable direct access from the street to the shop in order to reinforce the visibility and attractiveness of the business, since currently to enter it is necessary to pass the security control and, moreover, the premises are quite hidden. An investment of 60,000 euros is planned for this change.
While that plan is being finalized and coinciding with a new edition of the Open House Days – organized to commemorate the anniversary of the first democratic elections of June 15, 1977 – the Congress has decided for the first time to take the shop out to the route that citizens take during their visit to the seat of national sovereignty.
A shop inspired by the European Parliament
The Congress shop was born on the initiative of the socialist Manuel María, taking the model of the European Parliament as a reference. It began operating in 2006 with a catalog of products ranging in price from 1 to 300 euros. Among the most common souvenirs are the most economical items: pins (1 euro), cloth bags (5 euros), pens (between 3 and 8 euros) or a keychain of the 1978 Constitution (3 euros).
However, due to its not very visible location and the lack of online sales, the clientele has been composed mainly of parliamentarians and internal staff of the institution. As a consequence, the business invoices an average of about 20,000 euros annually, with a very reduced volume of visitors, just over 11,000 in the last decade.