(Reuters) – It’s 10.30 on a chilly winter’s morning in central Madrid and retailer Emanuela Scena is opening up for business.
Her shop is one of several offering second-hand goods that have sprung up in Spain’s capital during the economic crisis and is packed to the rafters with clothes, books, CDs and electrical equipment.
But unlike the others, it doesn’t take cash. It’s part of a barter economy in goods and services that is gaining ground as the country tips into recession and already sky-high unemployment rates inch up.
Finding different ways of generating business has also inspired stores in two towns to start accepting the peseta again, encouraging customers more than a hour’s drive away to root through cupboards and drawers for a currency they thought they’d surrendered for good in 2002.