Aina Teco

In 1953, Pedro Santandreu, Teco, and his wife, Bel Servera, Santa, opened Can Teco, a grocery shop in the Sa Torre neighbourhood of Manacor, which in those days was on the outskirts of the town. The shop specialised in selling Menorcan cheese, olives and wine wholesale, botifarrons (black pudding), oil and other products.

Years later, they transferred the business, but the new owners decided to close it after a few months. It was at that time that the couple’s daughter, Aina Teco, at the age of 21, decided to take it back in 1968. It specialised in the sale of all kinds of household products, such as paint, drugstore products, decorative items, crockery, etc. Nowadays we can also find handmade articles, such as tins made in Porreres, greixoneres made in Pòrtol and moulds for senyorets, panades (pasties), etc.

It sold such a wide variety of items that, when Twelfth Night was near, a space was set aside in the shop for toys. Afterwards, Aina and her husband would hand out the presents to the neighbours dressed up as king and queen, causing a lot of agitation. They say that one year they handed out more than 600 presents.

Today, the shop is owned by Pere Caldentey Santandreu, Aina Teco’s son, who decided to join the family business in 2005 after studying and working as a biologist.

The establishment maintains the structure of the old house and conserves the hydraulic tiles and some pieces of furniture. It is well known throughout the Levante region.