Shopping at Conselheiro Mafra: Florianópolis street where you can find everything

Shopping at Conselheiro Mafra: Florianópolis street where you can find everything

Variety of products and services offered by local businesses makes the street one of the most sought after in the city

It is an almost impossible task to point out how many items are offered by the group of commercial establishments, spread over 983 meters of Rua Conselheiro Mafra, in downtown Florianópolis. Some stores have more than 5,000 items on their shelves. In the same route, it is possible to find the strainer, the coffee powder or even the ready-to-drink beverage. While one place sells buttons, the other offers car tires. While the fair displays cheese and vegetables, other doors exhibit cages and even birds. The variety is almost as great as the number of customers, who have traditionally frequented the same spots for decades.

Rua Conselheiro Mafra is one of the places with the greatest variety of products and services
Daniel Queiroz/ND

Whoever accesses Rua Conselheiro Mafra, coming from Praça 15 de Novembro, soon comes across a bank, a bakery, a pharmacy and the Casa do Povo, a fabric store that has maintained a loyal clientele for 35 years, originating from the most diverse cities in the city. Greater Florianópolis. Among the establishment’s audience is the seamstress Lucy de Oliveira, 67 years old. On the last visit, she looked for a knit to reform a pair of pants. “I bought a lot of fabric here to make sheets, curtains and pieces of clothing”, says the resident of Ponta das Canas, in the North of the Island. The retiree does not hesitate when listing the stores where she buys accessories, gifts for her grandson, shoes and items for bed, table and bath. “When I come to pay a bill, I end up buying other little things”, he details, referring to the few establishments where he buys with payment meat, a modality almost abolished in the current trade.

Countless times, Lucy was attended by Solange da Rosa, who is 43 years old and has been cutting cotton, cambric, silk, tulle and other fabrics for 23 years at Conselheiro Mafra’s most traditional fabric store. “I realized that 2016 is the year of repairs. This is due to the leather clothes that are easily spoiled. People are fixing these parts,” he noted. At the establishment, 14 salespeople take turns serving more than 350 customers who seek the place each day. At the end of the year, the sales volume increases, due to the festive period.

If it’s possible to buy fabric, it’s even easier to find ready-made clothes for all ages and tastes on the busiest street in the Center. And, in addition to new pieces, second-hand clothes can also be found at Conselheiro Mafra’s thrift stores. The artisan Neide Campos, 63, is well acquainted with the mix offered on the route. The Estreito resident was looking at a box to dry salami and meats in the fishery shop, in the North wing of the Public Market facing Conselheiro Mafra, yesterday in the morning. “It’s amazing how many things I find here, for both my personal and professional use. And just walk calmly to discover the possibilities of this space”, he assures.

Greater than the variety of products and services on the route is the number of people who pass through it, whether on their way to school, work or looking for something to buy. Pedestrian traffic through the place surprised merchant Douglas Guimarães, who for two years has been opening the doors of his fishing goods store to one of the entrances to the ARS shopping center. “Before, our store, which started as a fishmonger 20 years ago, was located in the central span of the Public Market. It’s much better here, a lot more people circulate”, celebrates among the more than 3,000 items ranging from reels, cast nets and backpacks.

While Paulo Lopes’ farmer, Nilda Corrêa, 65, looked at the shoes in a shoe store, other customers climbed the stairs that lead to the shoemaker. “It’s just like that, here you buy the new one or fix the old one, everything as your pocket allows”, he observed. And when it comes to repairing baby carriages and other appliances, customers turn to Casa or Hospital do Fogão, establishments with more than 20 years of experience and always recommended by the most traditional residents of the island, such as seamstress Nair dos Santos, 75. She comes from Rio Vermelho at least three times a week to shop at Conselheiro Mafra. And this week he took home a new sewing machine. The acquisition was necessary after the old co-worker retired from active duty. “I have four pregnant women in the family. I need to finish the clothes for the children who will arrive”, says the regular customer at Casa das Máquinas, a store that opened its doors in Conselheiro Mafra five decades ago

Close to the sewing machine trade is the city’s best-known trim store: Vera Cruz, with its 54 years of existence. More than 5,000 items are available at the site, ranging from fabric to all kinds of threads, buttons, elastics and accessories for crafts and sewing. Due to its variety, the store -which left the Public Market ten years ago- attracts more than 500 people a day. Another nearby point of reference is Ilha Gás, a house that has been selling pans and accessories for residential and industrial kitchens for over 30 years. The attendant David Pereira, 18, has been working at the site for 60 days. He is one of the last newcomers to Conselheiro and already assures us: “I just didn’t find a car to sell here, because the rest can be found”, he joked.

Many establishments have a wide variety of sweets, but Josiane de Souza’s store, 36, breaks the record. There are more than 2,000 items, most are products that become other sweets. The competitive price of chocolate bars makes the establishment one of the most popular in the region. The public is mostly made up of pastry and pastry makers, but it is on commemorative dates such as Children’s Day, Easter and June parties that the aisles are constricted. “We’ve been here for ten years. I am very satisfied. I thought about going to Felipe Schmidt, but the rent on the street next door is prohibitive”, compares the shopkeeper.