Italian shop showcases 'pizzo'-free products

Customers shop yesterday in a pizzo-free store, the first shop in Palermo, Italy, showcasing goods from businesses who refuse to pay Mafia extortion fees. PHOTO: AFP

If it succeeds in its lofty aims, the first shop in Palermo showcasing goods from businesses who refuse to pay Mafia extortion fees will eventually be forced out of business.

"If everyone was like him [a neighboring baker who broke the omerta code of silence and spoke out in court against the Mafia], I'd be out of business," co-owner Fabio Messina said at the store opening on Saturday night.

That would mean "everyone [refusing] to pay the pizzo."

But that is the symbolic value behind the appearance of this unusual store on one of the Sicilian capital's main streets.

It comes four years after a grassroots revolt when mysterious stickers appeared on walls throughout the city, reading simply: "People who pay racketeers are people without dignity."

The movement started by enterprising students later spawned "Addiopizzo," a Sicilian trade grouping of companies who refuse to pay protection money, of which Messina and girlfriend partner Valeria Di Leo, 28, are members.

"Even the tiniest purchase, no matter how inexpensive, is enough to send out a signal so that things can change," Di Leo said.

Curious can browse offerings such as oil, honey, pasta, wine or handicrafts and jewelry, produced by some 30 distinct businesses, in the 55m2 store.

"We haven't received any political backing, and in any case, I never expected we would get that," Messina said.

The baker, Vincenzo Conticello, operates just a few hundred meters from the shop inevitably dubbed "Pizzo-free" by locals.

And Messina believes that forcing consumers to address the issue in such a provocative fashion is the best way to trigger a change in attitudes to the Cosa Nostra.

According to one study published in January, nearly 1 billion euros (US$1.5 billion) finds its way into the hands of the Mafia each year, 1.3 percent of Sicily's GDP.

Figures Palermo University, show the pizzo averages 457 euros a month for retail traders and 578 euros for hotels and restaurants, but construction companies are asked to pay more than 2,000 euros per month according to economic daily figures in the Il Sole-24 Ore.

"The idea of such a shop is as delicious as it is simple," said Enrico Colaianni, president of another association of entrepreneurs and business figures fighting the racketeers' demands.

"All you need to do is introduce consumers to producers, neither of whom want to pay the pizzo, and bring about a common bond, a more ethical consumption and a client loyalty which is absolutely guaranteed," he said.

His organization, Libero Futuro, is named after one such entrepreneur, Libero Grassi, assassinated in 1991 for having dared to speak out publicly against Mafia extortion.