A story of values and feelings
The shoemakers' cooperative
The year in which the Cooperativa San Crispín de Alaior was founded, the economic situation of our country was immersed in a very hard period, fully affected by the post-war period. In Menorca as a whole, the social, economic and labour situation was one of tremendous and persistent hardship. It was as a result of these facts that the leather guild decided to study the case of the trade in Alaior in order to combat the economic weakness of the shoe workers, which did not allow them to live in a dignified commercial and economic environment. For this reason, they set out to establish a cooperative seed that would allow them to cooperate and fraternise.
After several works started in the spring, the San Crispín Consumers' Cooperative was constituted on 13th June 1953 in a ceremony held at the Cine España. Antoni Cardona was its first president and became a driving force behind cooperativism not only in Menorca but also in the Balearic Islands and throughout the country. In 2018 he was named favourite son of Alaior.
The first years
Between 1953 and 1960, the Cooperative opened up to all consumers in general, opening shops in different municipalities. In fact, between 1961 and 1976 it had up to five establishments open in Menorca. Did you know that it was set up with a membership fee of 35 pesetas per member? A cooperative is simply a group of people who come together voluntarily to carry out an economic activity through a jointly owned and democratically managed company.
This was the road map that guided San Crispín from its beginnings and more and more people joined the organisation to make it stronger and more sustainable, becoming the only and largest consumer cooperative in Menorca and the Balearic Islands.
Value-based management
San Crispín's raison d'être throughout the years of its existence has always been to offer a different kind of shopping, based on values and a desire to have a direct impact on our community. For this reason, we have never prioritised economic benefits, but rather social ones, offering small local producers an open window to sell their products and thus contributing to the local economy.
But also by establishing agreements with non-profit organisations to be at their side, even if it means giving them products at zero cost so that they can carry out their projects.