The support of small businesses continues to be, in most cases, the families behind them. Businesses that pass from parents to children, from grandparents to grandchildren or that, in the absence of generational change, are taken over by other families with different names and … surnames. Something similar is what has happened in Calahorra with the premises of the emblematic and now defunct Escobés bookstore, which closed to the public in August 2022, after Damián Escobés’ grandfather opened a first store on Doctor Fleming Street in 1956. .
Ten months after the definitive closure of this bookstore, which moved to General Gallarza Street in the 90s, Idoia Martínez Varea has put all her enthusiasm and effort into giving this location a second chance with the opening of a new store. books and stationery. “The opportunity arose and I said: I’m going for it,” she said Monday afternoon at the inauguration of the establishment, surrounded by family, friends and councilors Iván Jiménez and Isabel Sáenz.
The business was full of people and flowers, arriving from the area of Idoia, who until recently worked as a saleswoman in another business in the area. During this time she had seen how other bookstores in Calahorra had been closing and soon the idea arose of starting out on her own and opening a business of this type. “We saw that this place was empty and I immediately started to see how to set up my own store here,” she commented.
Due to the 66 years that the Escobés family had been a reference in the Calahorra book sales sector, both in this space and in that of Doctor Fleming Street, traditionally known as ‘la Cuesta del Río’, Idoia wanted to “recover a traditional bookstore”, but “with a fresh air”, he remarked. “We wanted to rejuvenate it,” she said in the renovated premises.
The name of the store is “for our family.” “Two plus Three are us” (marriage and three children)
«We saw that this place was empty and I immediately started to see how to set up my own store here»
The renovation has also been possible with the support of her husband Raúl Fernández, who has been involved in renovating the floors, installing shelves and wallpapering the walls. One more example of how local commerce persists thanks to the commitment and will of the members of many households. And in this case even the name of the store “is because of our family,” Idoia explained.
“We are”
The bookstore has changed the last name Escobés from the entrance sign to Two plus Three, in reference to the couple and their three children Javier, Mario and Iker. “The name is us,” Idoia clarified. As in all beginnings, this new business owner recognizes that starting a business for the first time has not been easy, although she is satisfied with the help she has received from the Business, Self-Employed and Young Entrepreneur Service Office (OAE) of the Calahorra City Council, located on the ground floor of the municipal youth center. “They have explained to me all the procedures that she had to do and all the permits that she had to request, which has helped me a lot to be able to start from scratch,” she valued.
So with the store already set up and inaugurated, Idoia Martínez brings a new establishment to Calagurritan commerce, where the public can find “stationery, textbooks, reading books, magazines…”, as well as children’s games and didactic. Also, in the bookstore an important space is reserved for comics, which “here, in Calahorra, are really not found in many places,” Idoia concluded.
