Lookie Lookie men

Amatista,

Why? Do you want to be a lookie-lookie man?

lol

Sorry!

It's just that when I read your post, that's the first thing that sprang to my mind.

Seriously though, the Andalucian Governament is really cracking down on lookie-lookie men and will be imposing huge fines if they are caught!

It's quite a bone of contention with these lookie-lookie men, as some of the things they sell aren't  fake copies of goods, such as cheap hand bags or rugs! The same things are for sale at markets, openly, and the police don't do anything!

Ha ha, interesting point Techno. The way my earnings are going, I might apply to be a lookie lookie man soon. I have been asked to write an article about them, and just wondered if anyone had any info about where their goods come from, where the are stored, and where the guys live etc.,

The Lookie Lookie men live in apartments in around the resorts. I know a few quite well. One has been in Benalmadena a few years with his wife who does hairbrading. They have two lovely children who I've watched grow up (and he asks after my family who are now adults). He has a little car and lives the same lives as the rest of us. If you go on the train or bus to Malaga you'll see lots of the guys getting on/off in the Guadalhorce Industrial Estate area well re-stocked with whatever their individual speciality is. Quite a few return to Senegal each winter (one of them I know is a taxi driver in Senegal in winter and a Lookie Lookie man on the CDS insummer).

The guys are really having a hard time now hit by the recession and the internet and plenty of illegal copying done in the UK and sold at boot sales etc so they keep on trying to diversify and earn some sort of living.

Thanks Chris. So if they work part of the time in Senegal and part of the time on the CDS, they must be legally working here? Or the wouldn´t be able to get back in would they?

Why on earth do you call them Lookie Lookie men I have seen them around the beaches and bars for years but have never heard them called this?

Rod

I have lived here 17 years, and as far as I know they have always been referred to as ´Lookie Lookie´ Men, as they say: ´lookie lookie´ when showing their goods (or they used to).

Amatista

Most of them that approach us say CD nice Price

We never gave them a name after all these years

I now will refer to them as the Lookie Lookie guys

Lookie here ive got no dinero

They are Ok and have never bothereed us I will say one thing I wouldnt want to be walking up and down the beach in the blazing summer sun with 50 louis vuiton bags around my neck,200 cds and more sunglasses for sale than Specsavers

A beer and Hello magazine for me.

Cheers Rod

" Thanks Chris. So if they work part of the time in Senegal and part of the time on the CDS, they must be legally working here? Or the wouldn´t be able to get back in would they?"

That's a question that's always puzzled me! However, many regularly go back home to see relatives, work etc and I've seen one guy I know well getting off a plane at the airport so they clearly have no visa/passport problems in entering Spain. Beyond that, who knows? Clearly, what they do in selling conterfeit goods is illegal so it suggests that, de facto, they are working illegally. Talking to Spanish police officers when they win their entertaining cat and mouse on the Paseo Maritimo, they seem to seize goods, issue a fine and then the guys are back at work the next day fully re-stocked from their Guadalhorce sources. If they were illegally in the country then maybe the police would do something more about that aspect (although they don't seem to do in the UK according to TV programmes I see so it may be a futile exercise the Spain?).

Overall, the Lookie Lookie men are nice guys, can be a bit of a nuisance where there are too many concntrated in one place but, like many of us, are just trying to earn/scratch a living.

 You will find these lookie lookie men all round the Med, not just in Spain.  Portugal and Italy have their fair share, as well.  Outside the Uffizi gallery in Florence, they laid out all their stuff (exactly the same as the stuff you get in Spain, by the way) on blankets.  As soon as one of the lookouts spotted the carabinieri coming, up came the blankets and they sprinted off at a great rate of knots.  Police gone, back came the blankets.  Due to length of queues (and Italians pushing in) we were there for quite some time and many of the queue started acting as lookouts due to the great entertainment value.

"Lubbly Jubbly" seemed another phrase they liked a little while back whilst, in Turkey, anyone trying to sell you a fez will automatically stick there hands out and go "Just like that".  

I also seem to remember an article in one of the trade mazazines (Thomson's, I think) mentioning a complaint from a Brit tourist that they'd bought a pair of Rayban sunglasses for €5 and they turned out to be fake!  That Rolex I bought on a market in Majorca had better be real otherwise I've been ripped off for ten quid!

Edited: Just looked it up and it was Thomas Cook, not Thomsons.  Along with "the beach was too sandy" and  "There are too many Spanish people. The receptionist speaks Spanish. The food is Spanish. Too many foreigners."  were my particular favourites.

I know a Lookie, Lookie man, well actually I know quite a few by name, but this particular one is a boss, he has been coming here for many years and imports container loads of the carved figures from Senagal. He showed me pictures of his family and other people from his village actually making the figures. So they don't all just sell imitations. He is working here legally and employs others. They can earn quite a lot of money, although nowadays I would think it would be more difficult as there is so much competition. It must be worth their while though, in Senagal they earn very little.