Clothes shops

Torre del Mar has ten fashion shops of its own, almost all of them small independent boutiques on the pedestrian streets of the centre, Calle del Mar and Calle Princesa, and along Avenida de Andalucía. The high street chains are not here: they are at the shopping centre on the road to Vélez-Málaga, outside the town.

The sales happen twice a year

Spanish shops have been free to set their own sale dates since 2012, but the trade still moves together: January and July are when the rebajas run. In a resort town the July round matters more, because it lands with the season.

Two habits worth knowing

• Independent shops still close at midday. Many shut between roughly two and five and open again into the evening. The chains do not, the boutiques here mostly do.
• Sizes are labelled the Spanish way. A women's 38 here is not the same number as in Germany or the United Kingdom, so try things on rather than trusting the tag.

Why the ratings look odd

Several of these boutiques hold a perfect or near perfect score on a handful of reviews, and a few have none at all. It is not a signal of quality either way. A shop with two customers a day simply does not accumulate public opinions, and in this trade that is normal.