El Corte Ingles

El Corte Inglés is Spain's largest chain of department stores, two of which are in Palma de Mallorca. The Alexandre Rosselló store is the larger of the two and offers 9 shopping floors and three underground parking floors. This is the ultimate department store, on the lines of Debenhams or Selfridges, and it's hard to think of anything not stocked here.

The basement floor (Soterrani) houses a supermarket offering a wide range of food and household requisites, a cake and pastry shop, a florist, key-cutting and shoe repairs, plus automatic tellers for that all-important cash! The ground floor (Planta Baja) has perfumes and cosmetics, accessories, jewellery and watches, costume jewellery, books, music and video discs, stationery, photographic and optical, a mini-pharmacy, an information and ticket sales desk.

Fashion begins on the first floor; ladies, mothers-to-be, international and house brands, lingerie and corsetry and a ladies hairdresser are all catered for. Moving to the second floor we find men's clothing and a gentleman's hairdresser, the El Corté Ingles Gourmet Club and the Inglés Bar. A security centre, travel agency, car sales, and a real estate consultancy complete the offerings on this floor.

The third floor is all about children and babies, from shoes and clothing, through baby carriages to games, while the fourth floor focuses on older children and youth fashion. Floor 5 is the first of the household goods floor - white goods, bathroom fittings and accessories, hardware, hi-fi and television, computing and other electronics. Furniture, linen, curtains, material and haberdashery can be found on the sixth floor.

The top shopping floor, known as Planta A, houses the restaurant and cafeteria, a post office and a dry cleaners. This floor is also used for special seasonal displays - in December, it is given over to a spectacular range of festive lights, decorations and table settings, as well as a very large nativity scene, which always attracts a host of visitors.

Normal opening hours at El Corté Ingles are 09:30 - 21:30; in summer, this is changed slightly to 10:00 - 22:00. The store is also open on certain Spanish bank holidays.