Recently returned home from the trip around Greece, I have something to say.
Women who worked in reception in the hotel we were forced to stay for several nights was very kind and we had some nice conversations. The most interesting part for me was her story about how the shopping habits of greek have change during this time. She originally comes from Poland, but she is living in Greece already for 20 years, so it means that she has the ability to be part of the society here while coming from other nation with other view of things. She told be, that before some time, definately these 20 years ago, greeks used to buy everything in bulk - if they were buying oranges, they bought 5 kilograms instead of 1 kilogram that they actually needed and so on. At the beginning she was very surprised about that, because, of course, such purchases did not lasted for long - at least half of those oranges after some days went bad and they had to throw them away - in my opinion, wasting of money and time as well. But, as she told, now this habit has changed - now the greeks are more thinking about if they really need that particular product and if they need it so much of it. For me it seems reasonable. Of course, this is only opinion of one person, but it shows how economical situation influences people.
We also visited Santorini - one of the most popular tourit destination in Greece. It was clearly seen that the active tourism season was over - most of the souvenirs shops were closed, as well as clubs and some bars. Meanwhile, the local inhabitants whose life is depending on tourists are getting ready for the next season - reparing what is broken, painting fences and other things - in other words - dressing up their properties for the next active, promising and hopefully profitable period of time. So everything in going on in this field, I also think that tourism will maintain as one of the strogest parts of Greece economy.
Women who worked in reception in the hotel we were forced to stay for several nights was very kind and we had some nice conversations. The most interesting part for me was her story about how the shopping habits of greek have change during this time. She originally comes from Poland, but she is living in Greece already for 20 years, so it means that she has the ability to be part of the society here while coming from other nation with other view of things. She told be, that before some time, definately these 20 years ago, greeks used to buy everything in bulk - if they were buying oranges, they bought 5 kilograms instead of 1 kilogram that they actually needed and so on. At the beginning she was very surprised about that, because, of course, such purchases did not lasted for long - at least half of those oranges after some days went bad and they had to throw them away - in my opinion, wasting of money and time as well. But, as she told, now this habit has changed - now the greeks are more thinking about if they really need that particular product and if they need it so much of it. For me it seems reasonable. Of course, this is only opinion of one person, but it shows how economical situation influences people.
We also visited Santorini - one of the most popular tourit destination in Greece. It was clearly seen that the active tourism season was over - most of the souvenirs shops were closed, as well as clubs and some bars. Meanwhile, the local inhabitants whose life is depending on tourists are getting ready for the next season - reparing what is broken, painting fences and other things - in other words - dressing up their properties for the next active, promising and hopefully profitable period of time. So everything in going on in this field, I also think that tourism will maintain as one of the strogest parts of Greece economy.
I guess, news always is describing everything so much worse than it is in reality. Or it might be that you haven't been in the right time in the right place to see the impact of this crisis, as you said before, those were the most common tourism places. I assume places which are not so popular for tourists could have suffered more.
ReplyDeleteAnd about buying everything in bulk, maybe this is one of the good aspects of crisis, as people will realize that they are wasting their money and also food. And when the good times come, they will be used to reasonable use of products and could spend that money in some other ways, more valuable than before.
I could agree with you that they will learn more about the value of money through this crisis, but I do not know if this knowledge will be enough sustainable, does not seems like a characteristic things of this nation.
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