Around the year 1870, a young Pere Cortès moved from Palma to Inca and established a fabric and haberdashery shop at the beginning of Sant Bartomeu Street, today Plaza España. He married and had three sons and a daughter: Jaume, Antoni, Maria and Pere, who died at a very young age. The two eldest sons inherited the business, which later passed to Pere and Joaquim, Jaume’s sons, who decided to separate the haberdashery from the fabrics. Joaquim moved the haberdashery to an adjoining building. It was on 14th April 1949 and was run by Joaquim Cortès and Joana Maria Forteza. This young married couple had five children: Francesca Joana, Santiago, Maria Antònia, Inmaculada and Rafel Pau. When they retired, the two youngest children began to run the haberdashery until Inmaculada retired, leaving Rafel Pau in charge of the shop.
This is a brief account of the history of this emblematic shop, which this year, 2024, is 75 years old since it began its journey away from textiles.
The building
The building where the haberdashery is located is a construction built at the beginning of the 20th century on top of an older one. It is worth mentioning that in the basement there is a room with a barrel vault. The shop windows are in the modernist style. Many people, especially foreigners, come to photograph them and often go in to enjoy the view of the antique wooden furniture.
The clientele
Most of Florida’s customers are from Inca and the surrounding municipalities, although it is not unusual to find them from any other Mallorcan town, from Pollença to Santanyí or from Artà to Andratx and even from the other islands of the Balearic Archipelago. And all this thanks to the fact that they offer a wide variety of quality and moderately priced articles, and to all this we must add a human and pleasant treatment. In addition, anyone who asks for it gets advice on the product they are most interested in, as well as the best way to use it.
Joaquim used to say that haberdashery does not make you rich, since the margins are very small, but it is enough to feed the family.
The items for sale
Many and varied are the articles on offer: from the emblematic buttons, lace, ribbons, stockings, socks, underwear, needles, sewing and embroidery threads, to tools for dressmakers and embroiderers. It is also worth mentioning that we are, if not the only ones, then one of the few haberdasheries that still cover buttons, an activity that we started together with that of covering buckles some 70 years ago.
On this year’s 75th anniversary, the writer Joan Guasp Vidal has dedicated an elegy to the haberdashery ‘La Florida’. The Town Council of Inca has given him a ceramic by Francesca Truyol representing the counter and shelves of a haberdashery, and the Partido Popular (Popular Party) presented him with a siurell. Previously the haberdashery had also been distinguished with a silver plaque in the Night of Commerce, and the City Council of Inca awarded it the Dijous Bo prize, which Inmaculada and Rafel Pau wanted to share with all the customers.
Future of the haberdashery
At this point it is difficult to predict what will happen in the future, as the new generations are increasingly moving away from this type of business, and young people are looking for professions derived from higher education. However, it must be said that this type of establishment is essential in the fight against dehumanizing globalization. These shops are the ones that make the village and, at the same time, make it richer, since the profits remain largely in the village. We shall see what happens. For the time being, La Florida continues to serve the people of Inca and the whole of Mallorca with enthusiasm.
Santiago Cortés Forteza is the son of the founder of La Florida.