* The author is part of the community of readers of La Vanguardia
The SEPU (Sociedad Española de Precios Únicos) stores were owned by Henry Reisembach and Edouard Worms, two Swiss subjects of Jewish origin who founded them in 1934.
Due to the redevelopment of the Rambla de los Estudios area, the owners of the Palau Moja sold the land belonging to the garden, located on the old Rambla de los Estudios, and the Swiss businessmen made their purchase.
Subsequently, they built the now-defunct SEPU stores on said land and, despite the discrepancies regarding the date of its inauguration, I can assure you that it took place on Tuesday, March 26, 1935 at three in the afternoon.
It was a modest building with only a ground floor and one floor that were closed off at the opposite end to the Palau Moja with an elegant loggia with two large Corinthian columns, the work of Antoni Rovira. The surface of about 2,500 square meters made it possible to house one of the most popular stores in the history of La Rambla.
On March 24, La Vanguardia, in its Sunday edition, published a total of 18 different advertisements on 18 of its pages in which it commented on its upcoming inauguration. Subsequently, the Madrid branch was inaugurated a month later and, a year later, the Zaragoza branch.
In its initial years the strategy consisted of offering many products at the same price. This policy soon caused a threat to small businesses, since their advertising was on everyone's lips. It was tiresome and sounded on all radio stations with this motto: "Who calculates, buys in SEPU".
During the Civil War, the façade was used for propaganda purposes by the Republican side, which earned it, once the war ended, a persecution by forces related to the regime of General Franco.
SEPU suffered a smear campaign by the leadership of the Falange and the newspaper related to that formation, the newspaper Arriba. These, due to their sympathies towards the Hitler government, did not see the Jewish businessmen with good eyes and accused the company of mistreatment and exploitation of its employees. In the newspaper it was published:
"These SEPU Jews give reasons to take care of them on a daily basis. Due to their relations with the employees they exploit, their mere presence is enough to produce indignation, if even the outrages that their staff commit is enough to revolt the calmest. We ask : Does SEPU enjoy a letter of marque? Who protects SEPU? Is the Director of Labor aware of SEPU cases?"
With the disappearance of El Siglo after a fire, SEPU gradually consolidated itself as the preferred stores in the most discreet economies, devoting its sales to clothing, perfumery and household items.
In the 1940s, the situation of the company run by the Swiss Goetschel family, heir to the founders, normalized, reaching up to six establishments between Madrid, Barcelona and Zaragoza.
Its trade was aimed at the middle class and in its establishments there was a range of products with popular prices that could withstand the pressure of El Corte Inglés and Galerías Preciados.
Starting in the 1970s, the company suffered a deterioration in its sales, which caused it to have to seek bank loans to make payments.
From the 955 workers it had in 1973, it went to 521 in 1982. In 1983 there was a new reduction of another 100 jobs.
The oil crisis and the drop in quality of its articles caused the constant expansion of credits and the constant increase in interest that caused indebtedness with suppliers and with Social Security, which caused the suspension of payments in 1984.
In 1994, due to the decline in sales, it also suffered from the increase in the cost of loans. After the debt restructuring plan failed, this led the Goetschel family to close the store on La Rambla in 2000 and focus on saving the stores in Madrid and Zaragoza.
In 2000, SEPU stores disappeared from Barcelona commerce, as did other pioneers of the Barcelona department store trade: El Siglo, El Águila, Capitolio, Vilardell or El Barato. With them a guy from the city disappeared.
The harassment received by banks and suppliers led to the fact that in 2001, the Goetschels transferred SEPU to the Anglo-Australian group Partridge
However, the situation could not be overcome and, in October 2002, they announced the closure of their three remaining stores, the last of which was the one on Madrid's Gran Vía, with a debt of 13 million euros to Social Security.
