tagged: Athens, austerity measures, christmas sales, consumers, consumption, Economy, facts, grecce, Nightmare before Christmas, public transport, residents, retailers, strikes, tradesmen

Athens Residents’ and Tradesmen’s Nightmare Before Christmas

Posted by keeptalkinggreece in Economy, Society

While the rest of the world looks with great delight forward Christmas, residents and tradesmen in Athens experience a real life Nightmare Before Christmas. The reason? Lack of  cash and lack of  transportation. The strikes of public transport workers entered today the second week, creating traffic jams and long queues of people waiting for a rare bus or a taxi.

Misses Georgia is upset

Misses Georgia, 66,  came to visit me exhausted and furious. She had to go downtown this morning to fix an issue at a Ministry. “I was at 9 o clock at the bus stop and the bus came 45 minutes later”, she says almost shouting with an angry voice. She complains she had to wait for another 45 minutes while she was trying to get back home and that at the end she got pressed into a bus like a sardine in a can.

“That’s an unbelievable situation! Right in the middle of Christmas! Right at the end of the year, when we have to fix things.” The words come from Georgia’s lips  like bullets shot by an automatic gun. She tries to settle on my couch but her adrenaline is still too high. She jumps up and walks nervously around. ”What are we? Uganda? Eh? What are we? Uganda?”

I try to calm her down offering her a slice of homemade cake and a cup of coffee. ” I think, I ‘d need something stronger…” she says a bit in shyness. The cognac and the younger cat that makes herself comfortable on Georgia’s lap manage to take the stress out of my nervous and tired neighbor.

Georgia’s Xmas Nightmare

No presents for grandchildren

She tells me that after she fixed her things at the Ministry, she walked a bit around for window shopping. This year’s presents for her four grandchildren will be meagre.  This year she will give cash money:  just 10 euros to each of the youngest and 20 euros  to each of the teenagers. That makes total 60 euros for Christmas presents. She is the maximum she can afford spending on presents. Her two sons and their wives will get nothing. 

Georgia saw her pension Christmas bonus decline by 200 euros. As home utilities are still due, the grandchildren will have to get along with less.

It hearts the older lady right in the heart but there is nothing she can do. One of her sons lost his job last September. The family with the two teenagers boys is in need. But Georgia is not able to help. “Main thing is we have our health” she whispers with a broken voice….

Retailers in despair

“Good health” wish is a weak comfort for thousands of shop owners who saw this year’s Christmas shoppers remaining fixed at the windows but not entering for shopping. Even though shops were open yesterday Sunday and the streets in Athens downtown  were full of people retailers spent their day yawning inside empty halls.

News Portal Zougla.gr reports of  some 11,000 retailer shops that are about to close down. In recent weeks the consumption showed a sharp drop and remained at historical low levels.

National Confederation of Greek Trade has calculated that more than 3 billion euros will be missing from this year’s Christmas market.

 HoHoHo

1,5 billion euros will be missed due to the cuts in Christmas bonuses for civil servants and pensioners and due to the increase of unemployment  (172,000 new jobless in 2010). The remaining 1.5 billion euros will be missed due to  tax increases,  special contributions to the state and the two VAT hikes that have shrunk consumers’ spending budget.

The cuts concerning the pensioners’ “13th salary “(Christmas bonus) in the public and private sector will reduce the available income of these categories by approximately 240 million euros .

Pensioners under 60 years old will not receive any Christmas bonus at all. This could be an average of 700 – 1,500+  euros. Pensioners over 60 see their bonus being reduced by 200+ euros.

When the Christmas and New Year shopping period is over shop owners will see themselves forced either to lay off or closed down. Lay offs and closings will deprive the state from taxes and social security contributions. Is that what we want?

Meanwhile the General Confederation of Professional Craftsmen and Tradesmen (GSVEE) has appealed to public transport workers to cancel their strikes and stoppages.