Shops of Thessaloniki
A rainy walk through the streets of Agia Triada
Welcome to Ta leme, a newsletter about life in Greece, and life in general.
Do you want to go shopping in Thessaloniki?
The city center is really the best place for this. There are the designer microstores where nobody ever buys anything, but which are sure nice to look at. There is the busy highstreet and multifloor retailers same as every city in the world. There is an open air market with cobble stones and a history of a thousand years. And about a million specialised shops.
Well, I don’t live in the city center. But we have shops, too! Here is what shopping in my neighbourhood of Agia Triada looks like:
As mentioned in a previous newsletter, chains are on the rise, but they are not as ubiquitous as in Western Europe (yet).
The most common type of shops around here is not supermarkets, gyms, or pet stores: it’s pharmacies. Which are never chains. That’s because, much like doctors’ offices in other countries, in Greece, a pharmacy can only be owned by a pharmacist.
The price of the supermarket (always a chain) is a recurring (and depressing) topic of discussion. I almost pay the same for my groceries here as I did in Switzerland, yet the median salary is vastly different. Does it make sense in a macro-economics way? Who knows. Does it wreak havoc in a home economics way? Abso-fucking-lutely.
Alpha chads (by which I mean the giagiades) don’t buy their produce at the supermarket, they shop at the laiki (the farmers’ market), a wonderful and terrifying place where personal space doesn’t exist, the vegetables are fresher and cheaper, everybody is yelling and the giagiades reign supreme.
Pro tip: if, for any reason, your agourakia (cucumbers) don’t come from the laiki, do yourself a favour and don’t let the giagiades in your life know about this.
Bakeries, butchers, fishmongers, delis & co. are plentiful, meaning you can get away with very little contact to the supermarket, if such is your ambition in life.
Speaking of delis, I often walk by this small shop which only sells tzoumagias (a super specific type of spicy sausage which I haven’t tried). They don’t cook it there, they just sell it in batches. I am intrigued. How much of a business model can raw sausage be?
At least the tzoumagias place has
sausagesa business model. We also have plenty of zombie shops. Some are just plain dead. Crisis. Changing retail economics. You name it. Others… whatever their true purpose may be, it’s not shopping. They generally come with an old guy sitting on a white plastic chair, staring out at the world. Sometimes, a second guy appears next to the first guy. He brings out a second plastic chair and drinks coffee next to his friend in silence.
It’s always, always a guy on the white plastic chair. His female equivalent is living her witchiest life buried under yarns and fabrics at the back of a sewing/crafts/crochet shop (which may or may not be colonised by a growing population of her handknitted creations).
Shops are still opening. And business ambition often translates into big insta-budget. Because of course, a designer logo, custom neon art and hashtag signs are essential to the success of your local pet shop.
At the other end of the insta-spectrum lies the underground shop in its most literal incarnation. You walk through a super narrow entrance, to be confronted straight on with a downward staircase. You head down and behold: what initially looked like a tiny bookshop turns out to be 200sqm space of premium book real estate. (I tried to make a video, but entering an underground shop is an experience that doesn’t translate easily for social media.)
Another common sight: “24/7” convenience stores. Are they actually open 24/7? I wouldn’t know. I have a baby, I’m in bed by 9:30. Officially they supply all kinds of snacks and essential items. In reality, they exist for one purpose, and one purpose only: fuel this nation’s addiction for coffee in non-recyclable paper cups.
Despite not living dead-center, there is an significant variety of shops within walking distance. They are less on-trend than the city center ones (with some notable exceptions), but they have their character, I can find anything, and not having to drive, or even take a bus, is the true luxury of the modern era.
On this note, here is one of my favourite random stores:
