“It’s been crazy today,” said the attendant reaching for the dispenser nozzle, as yet another car pulled into the forecourt of the little petrol station in the backstreets of northern Athens. “We haven’t stopped working. It’s been worse even than on Saturday.”
Her problem on Monday may have been too many customers. But for Giorgos Chronopoulos, owner of the Eiyo sushi bar in well-off Erythrea, it was just the opposite. “So far today, my profits are down 30%,” he said. “On Sunday, they were 50% down and on Saturday 40%.”
As thousands of Athenians prepared to join a rally in the city centre in support of a no in next Sunday’s referendum, the effects of the capital controls imposed at the weekend were swiftly becoming apparent.
The capital’s ATMs sprang back to life halfway through the day. But, unable to withdraw more than €60 from their shuttered banks, Greeks were cutting back on non-essential expenditure and keeping cash purchases to a minimum.
Dimitris, a 34-year-old electrical engineer, said he had enough cash at home to last him and his wife “two to three weeks, in case the worst comes to the worst”. He was thinking seriously about trying to emigrate.
“Everyone is frankly scared now. Really worried. We just don’t know what is going to happen. We don’t have enough accurate information. No one has information. Ask 10 people right now what they think will happen, and you’ll get 10 different answers. It’s a mess.”
Meanwhile, an economy that has already shrunk by 25% since the start of the Greek debt crisis is taking another, jarring blow to the body.
“Normally on a Monday, I get a brisk passing trade,” said Giorgos Bardanis, the owner of the Day ‘n’ Night fast food takeaway on Amerikis Square, in one of the seedier corners of the capital. “People stop by to grab a coffee or a pie on their way in to work. Today, it was dead.”
Across the square, Marianthi Labrinou stood behind the counter of an empty bar. Outside, a couple of pensioners sat at the tables on the pavement, but neither had ordered a thing.
“We had fewer customers today than at the weekend and at the weekend, we had fewer than normal,” she said. “We’re expecting the problem to get worse as the days go by.”
The minnows of the Greek economy – the small shopkeepers, the bar and restaurant owners – face a double squeeze as the flow of cash dries up. Yannis Nikolorakis, an optician and the head of the retailers’ association in Marousi, further north, told the privately owned Mega television channel that wholesalers were asking for payment up front before they released goods.
But, for the moment at least, anyone selling essentials is doing a roaring trade. At a supermarket on Patission Street, an employee said staff had arrived to find about 50 people gathered outside waiting for the doors to open.
The supermarket is part of the AB Vassilopoulos chain. Dimitris Printzios, a spokesman for the company, said: “On Monday, we have seen an increase in customer visits of around 20 to 30% and an equivalent increase of [purchases].”
He said sales of milk, baby food, rice, pasta, flour, oil and meat had been particularly high. There had also been an increase in the use of cards in place of cash, “but nothing major yet”.
One side-effect of the clampdown ordered on Sunday night has been to halt remittances by foreign workers in Greece. Mohammed Ripon from Bangladesh, who runs a electronic equipment shop that also has a money transfer point, said: “We have been told that today we cannot transfer any money. Tomorrow, we don’t know. I’ve been given no information.”
Efi, behind the counter of a cafe on Voulis Street, said: “We can’t really believe it, any of us. It’s like a bad dream that you can’t wake up from. I don’t know what else to say. It’s awful.”
