# Advice on selling food on beaches. What do I need in terms of permits etc.?



## shesaweapon

Me and my partner want to move from England to Spain.
What we ideally want to do is find a beach on which we can sell hot and cold snacks.
We're only in the first steps of thinking about this at the moment so I apologise if it doesn't seem as though I've done much research
.
I thought I would ask if anyone has any advice on:
What we need to get (Permission wise)?
Is it a possible?
How do we apply for permits etc?
Realistically how much money will we need to get set up? We have £10k in the bank.
And any other advice anyone might have to offer?

The idea is to live in Spain and have this as our income. We're not really risking anything as we have no house, kids or anything here. We just want to change our lifestyle and we have both wanted to live abroad for a long time.


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## jojo

shesaweapon said:


> Me and my partner want to move from England to Spain.
> What we ideally want to do is find a beach on which we can sell hot and cold snacks.
> We're only in the first steps of thinking about this at the moment so I apologise if it doesn't seem as though I've done much research
> .
> I thought I would ask if anyone has any advice on:
> What we need to get (Permission wise)?
> Is it a possible?
> How do we apply for permits etc?
> Realistically how much money will we need to get set up? We have £10k in the bank.
> And any other advice anyone might have to offer?
> 
> The idea is to live in Spain and have this as our income. We're not really risking anything as we have no house, kids or anything here. We just want to change our lifestyle and we have both wanted to live abroad for a long time.


 You'd need to have a premises to prepare food thats been checked by Sanidad and has permissions. But I'm not sure that even then you'd be allowed to sell on the beach - someone with more knowledge on that will come along and confirm that??? I know that often there are sellers, selling fruit, but they're doing it illegally!!! and beach front bars may not be overly impressed lol - in fact I'd have thought they'd be doing it if it was financially viable!!!

If it is allowed, you would also need to become autonomo (self employed) and that costs 250€ a month each regardless of income.... and then, to be residents, you'd need to prove income and healthcare. So I dont think you'd make any money at all

Spain is very strict these days I'm afraid and they dont make things easy

Jo xxx


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## Lolito

Uhm, me being Spanish, I have to say I have seen pretty much 90% of the spanish beaches, and I have never seen anyone selling food on the beach. I have seen, however, the 'typical' people selling watches, sunglasses and things like that, but ilegally. 

Maybe there is something for that, I don't know, but you would have to concentrate in areas where there are lots of expats. I am hoping not to sound insulting, but Spanish people do not tend to buy food from places like that, we do eat pretty well at home and if we go to the beach, we do take our home made paellas, tortillas or things like that. Otherwise we do eat out at restaurants, etc. 

In my 22 years in the UK I've never eaten anything from street sellers, I remember coming out of clubs and seeing all those people eating hot dogs and burgers from a vendor on the street, I never saw the appeal.


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## Lolito

Rent a van and do Chocolate con Churros, that's good for everyone!


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## jojo

Lolito said:


> Rent a van and do Chocolate con Churros, that's good for everyone!


Oooh, yummy!!! I miss churros so much!!! Not sure how legal or profitable that would be tho ???!!!!


Jo xxx


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## Madliz

I believe that to do any business on a beach you need a licence from the local council. If caught without one you risk a fine. To get a licence I imagine you would need a residency permit or NIE and to get that you need to show that you have private healthcare and around €6000 in the bank so that you will not be a drain on the Spanish state. It's not as easy as it once was - if it was easy, maybe the 5 million unemployed here would do it!


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## kalohi

You'd also need a food handler's license, which requires doing a short course.


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## Pesky Wesky

Lolito said:


> Rent a van and do Chocolate con Churros, that's good for everyone!


Not normal beach fare, even for you Spaniards though,is it?!


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## Pesky Wesky

shesaweapon said:


> Me and my partner want to move from England to Spain.
> What we ideally want to do is find a beach on which we can sell hot and cold snacks.
> We're only in the first steps of thinking about this at the moment so I apologise if it doesn't seem as though I've done much research
> .
> I thought I would ask if anyone has any advice on:
> What we need to get (Permission wise)?
> Is it a possible?
> How do we apply for permits etc?
> Realistically how much money will we need to get set up? We have £10k in the bank.
> And any other advice anyone might have to offer?
> 
> The idea is to live in Spain and have this as our income. We're not really risking anything as we have no house, kids or anything here. We just want to change our lifestyle and we have both wanted to live abroad for a long time.


As people have said you rarely see anything other than people with ice boxes full of cans etc selling on the beach. That's obviously illegal and I imagine is usually done by people wanting to survive rather than than live, or make a few extra bob. Near the beach you usually have ice cream kiosks and bars/ cafés. They will be highly sought after spots and highly regulated.
What would you need to do? I doubt that anyone on the forum can really inform you as each local district is different and may change pretty frequently according to who's in power currently. The only place who will know for sure (well in theory) is the local town hall so you'd need to target a few specific places and contact them directly. Here's the Benidorm page, more or less in English (be aware that in Benidorm they speak not only Spanish, but also Valenciano) http://portal.benidorm.org/nuevociudadano/en


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## David1979

jojo said:


> Oooh, yummy!!! I miss churros so much!!! Not sure how legal or profitable that would be tho ???!!!!
> 
> 
> Jo xxx


Personally, I'd end up eating all my profit and stock!


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## Lolito

I buy the churros from Mercadona or Consum, they can be done on the toaster now! In 3 minutes! Then you heat up a bit of 'chocolate a la taza' and voila! 

Although the ones from the Churrería are much better... I remember when I was very little, on Sundays my father will bring them home for breakfast!


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## Aron

shesaweapon said:


> Me and my partner want to move from England to Spain.
> What we ideally want to do is find a beach on which we can sell hot and cold snacks.
> We're only in the first steps of thinking about this at the moment so I apologise if it doesn't seem as though I've done much research
> .
> I thought I would ask if anyone has any advice on:
> What we need to get (Permission wise)?
> Is it a possible?
> How do we apply for permits etc?
> Realistically how much money will we need to get set up? We have £10k in the bank.
> And any other advice anyone might have to offer?
> 
> The idea is to live in Spain and have this as our income. We're not really risking anything as we have no house, kids or anything here. We just want to change our lifestyle and we have both wanted to live abroad for a long time.


Not easy these days with all the health and safety laws. You will need a licence and that would not be easy if you were Spanish. There are certain areas in Spain where cafés on the beach are now considered illegal. There are a lot of restrictions what you can and can't do on a beach. You would need legal advice from an Abogado on this one.


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## Calas felices

I would have said that you stand less than no chance. All the vested interests, the relationships that exist and the commercial considerations would ensure that as a non Spaniard this is a non goer.


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## whitenoiz

I have to agree with Calas... with most of the popular beach areas lined with restaurants, cafes, fast food outlets and chiringuitos, beach sellers stand little or no chance.

As a small scale operator you would have to pitch your prices competitively and frankly you have no chance of doing so against the established businesses who are engaged permanenetly in price wars with each other, all chasing a diminishing market. It was once said that in order to clear ones overheads in the catering business you had to charge around 7 x the raw materials costs. So realistically the cheapest you coud sell a bocadillo or sandwich would have to be at least 5 to 6 Euros... and you'd have to sell an awful lot of them to make any kind of headway. 
There is also the question of wandering up and down a beach for 8 hours a day in temperatures nudging 90 degrees lugging a couple of heavy coolboxes? Not only will you suffer from heat exhaustion and dehydration but food goes off very quickly... and what do you do in the winter when the beaches are deserted?
On the subject.. think about this scenario... as a resident of Chester, you are on the beach at Prestatyn or Rhyl or Llandudno... would you buy 5 quid sandwich or some such from a wandering beach seller who knew not a word of English or Welsh and was clearly an immigrant? Not knowing a thing about how and where the food is produced? It's the same thing!
The Spanish have just much respect for their health as the Brits and any other European nationals, possibly moreso in fact. The Mediterranean diet is a whole lot healthier than the average Brit diet...


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## scottiescott

You would be taking your life in your hands.
The local gypsy community will have it stitched up and won't take too kindly to a foreign intruder on their patch.


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## extranjero

Whitenoiz- it's a bit of a myth about the Mediterranean diet. These days there are a lot of obese Spanish kids about, probably due to the burger and pizza places.have you seen their cakes- sickly, marshmallow with artificial cream, solid looking pastries topped with sugar.most of the cereals are chocolate based.there are loads of sugar filled fizzy drinks and very few low calorie ones.it used to be the case that salads and fresh fruit dominated the diet in Spain, but now it's the same as anywhere else in Europe.


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## Pesky Wesky

extranjero said:


> Whitenoiz- it's a bit of a myth about the Mediterranean diet. These days there are a lot of obese Spanish kids about, probably due to the burger and pizza places.have you seen their cakes- sickly, marshmallow with artificial cream, solid looking pastries topped with sugar.most of the cereals are chocolate based.there are loads of sugar filled fizzy drinks and very few low calorie ones.it used to be the case that salads and fresh fruit dominated the diet in Spain, but now it's the same as anywhere else in Europe.


Yes, I do agree that the Med diet is changing rapidly amongst the young although the 25's++ I would say still prefer home prepared Spanish fare.
I liked Whitenoise's post 'cos of the bit about the immigrant lugging his cool box up and down the beach!


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## whitenoiz

*extranjero...* what you say may be true in the cities where Fast Food outlets exist in large numbers but out here in the sticks where our nearest Maccy-D's is 45kms away the usual diet of fresh meat fish, veg, and fruit is the norm and the residents hereabouts especially in the 20-35 age group are for the most part 'as nature intended.' The animal rescue groups that I am associated with operate out of Granada City and the surrounding area and they, male and female alike are definitely not overweight! 
I standby the rest of my original post however. But.. I think we've scared off the OP with all of the negativity and the 'Dont even think about it' posts!


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## Pesky Wesky

whitenoiz said:


> *extranjero...* what you say may be true in the cities where Fast Food outlets exist in large numbers but out here in the sticks where our nearest Maccy-D's is 45kms away the usual diet of fresh meat fish, veg, and fruit is the norm and the residents hereabouts especially in the 20-35 age group are for the most part 'as nature intended.' The animal rescue groups that I am associated with operate out of Granada City and the surrounding area and they, male and female alike are definitely not overweight!
> I standby the rest of my original post however. But.. I think we've scared off the OP with all of the negativity and the 'Dont even think about it' posts!


I live in a sizeable town that has no Mac anything, nor Burgerking, but it does have a Telepizza and a Chinese, and that's where my 19 year old and friends choose to go if they meet up for lunch or an evening do. She, and they, are Spanish. I've no doubt that in the sticks more trad food is eaten, but why is that? Through choice or necessity?
PS My daughter weighs in at @ 46 kilos and a size 36, like her mother and best friend... None of them are overweight


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## whitenoiz

As in so many parts of Spain these days, many of this age group are unemployed and live at home because they have little other option. They cant afford the fast foods... There is a bar in the next town that does have an extensive takeaway and home delivery service to the outlying villages, but the menu is based on traditional Spanish / Andalucian foods. 
Going into Granada for the evening from our village requires a car since the last bus from the village into town leaves at 15.45 and the last bus back from Granada leaves at 20.00; again not many of the age group can afford the luxury of a car and if they do manage to borrow their parents care they are hard pushed to afford the fuel _and_ a night out. 
The bar in our village is very well thought of and well frequented at the weekend, but the youngsters tend to make a couple of beers and tapas last all evening. Compared with the way things were back in 2006 when we moved here, the bar is now almost dead midweek. Used to be it stayed open until two or three in the morning. Now he tends to close after about ten thirty midweek. 
Incidentally...Solwriter my OH, weighs in at around 53 / 54kilos on a 5'4"frame uk size 10. 
Me... I am one of those annoying people who never put on weight, 6' tall and 66 kilos 30" waist... so we are two very slim people.
The most I have ever weighed was when I was eating four cooked meals a day as a singly in the RAF I managed to make 11 stone... then promptly lost it all by taking up basketball and squash.
Anyway Ive just seen the time! What the h*ll am I still doing up... be time to take the hounds out very soon...!


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