Only about half of Greece’s periptera, the little kiosks selling beer, cigarettes and newspapers in town squares across the country, survived the economic crisis.
Now, those still standing face a fresh threat, from the COVID-19 pandemic — and adding masks and disinfectant gels to their inventory might not be enough to see them through.
A feature of the urban landscape and social life since 1911, many went out of business during the financial crisis that devastated the country from 2010 to 2018.
Photo: AFP
“During the financial crisis, out of 11,000 kiosks all over Greece, just 5,500 remained, 500 among them in Athens,” said Theodoros Mallios, the president of the kiosk owners’ union in Athens.
“These last months, I see more of them shutting down,” he said. “The lockdown and the restrictive measures taken afterward by the government might prove really difficult to overcome for our profession.”
Late last month, because of a spike in the number of coronavirus cases, mainly in big towns, the Greek government ordered the kiosks to close from midnight to 5am.
The idea was to discourage after-hours bar crowds from gathering at squares to buy liquor from the kiosks, most of which stay open into the small hours.
Panagiotis Karatsas, for one, kept his kiosk open around the clock at a spot near Athens’ central Syntagma Square in a corner of the National Garden.
The new, enforced midnight shutdown has hit him hard, he said.
“With that measure, I’ve lost around 20 percent of my turnover, after already having endured two months of shutdown during the lockdown,” he added.
With the average Greek having less money to spend these days, and periptero owners facing heavy taxes, 40-year-old Karatsas said he had thought about giving up.
“Many of my colleagues have shut down their kiosks in the center of Athens. I have endured, but for how long? The coronavirus is one more hardship for us,” he said.
A few meters away, fellow kiosk owner Spiros Karagiorgis faced a similar struggle.
“We are worried for our future,” he said.
“In the center of Athens, in Syntagma, the situation is worse than in other areas, because there are no residents,” he said.
“Normally, we have as clients those working in offices, but now many of those are teleworking — and tourists, who this year have not visited the Greek capital,” he added.
The number of foreign arrivals fell by more than 70 percent during the first half of this year, the Bank of Greece said.
Karagiorgis did not know where he would find the 1,500 euros (US$1,775) to renew his license with the city authorities, he added.
Mallios was not even sure the city authorities wanted to renew the licenses.
“The municipalities want to give more space to the pedestrians and they are annoyed by the kiosks that are sticking out on squares and pavements,” he said.
In the Petralona District, at the foot of the Acropolis, the cafes and restaurants in Merkouri Square were full to bursting.
Giorgos Siaplaouras, a kiosk owner there, was furious at the latest government measures.
“The measures are ridiculous and only promote the large supermarkets... Last night I closed at midnight, but the square was full of people carrying coolers full of beers and other alcoholic drinks that they had purchased earlier from the supermarket,” he said.
“Shutting down the kiosks earlier won’t stop young people partying,” he said.
Siaplaouras is a familiar face to the district’s residents.
Pensioner Dimitris Katsigiannis, 70, goes every morning to buy his newspaper at the kiosk, or just to chat with its owner.
“It’s a meeting point as much as the cafe,” he said.
“During the ’60s, when we didn’t have landlines in our homes, we came here to make our telephone calls... Also, we would come to buy our newspapers — and candies for the children on Sundays,” Katsigiannis said.
“And now at my age, living alone, coming to the periptero is my daily walk, a way to have a break from my loneliness,” he added.
He could not imagine his favorite place shutting down, Katsigiannis said.
“It would be dramatic. The whole neighborhood would lose its soul,” he added.
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