23/005 Life in Northern Greece Το Περίπτερο

The “periptero” is a fixture of Greek life which might slowly be disappearing as more convenience stores like 4all and Today are muscling in on it. Although similar in concept to the French kiosque, the περίπτερο defied translation.

Long ago when I was working in an English-speaking environment in Thessaloniki, it wasn’t uncommon to hear someone shout out, “I’m going down to the periptero to get some cigarettes. Does anybody need anything?” And in tobacco the roots of this wonderful institution can be found. Like many institutions in Greece, it was a closed shop, but not a closed shop in the sense of taxi drivers beating (literally) Uber out of Greece. The periptero (kiosk) began its existence with a dual purpose: 1) as a means of collecting taxes on tobacco and 2) a way of helping the casualties of war and their families by providing them with a source of income.

Τhe photos above and below illustrate the importance of cigarettes.

So, what is a periptero? First of all, it is not “open plan” like the French ‘kiosque’; it is a small square structure inside which the owners sit and sell their wares. Only their upper torsos and heads are visible to their customers.

ETYMOLOGY

In classical Greece, the columns surrounding a temple’s statue were called a περίπτερος. As the statue was in the innermost part of the temple, the σηκός, I suppose ο περίπτερος was the equivalent of the Christian tabernacle; but instead of the communion host, the periptero housed everything from cigarettes, lighters, playing cards, condoms, gum, newspapers and magazines. As refrigeration became more common, soft drinks, ice cream and alcohol were added. And since fridges could not be housed inside the cramped periptero, the pavement area to the periptero’s left and right became part of the overall licensed area.

THE 1980s

In the 80s it was still very hard to get a telephone in certain areas of Thessaloniki, so to make a call your only choice was to go to the periptero where the “περιπτεράς” had a metered phone. As the article states:

Κάποτε, ο περιπτεράς ήταν ο μοναδικός κάτοχος τηλεφώνου. Όποιος ήθελε να τηλεφωνεί ή να δεχτεί τηλεφώνημα, πήγαινε στο περίπτερο. Ο περιπτεράς ήξερε με αυτό τον τρόπο τα μυστικά όλης της γειτονιάς.

“In the past the periptero franchisee was the only person with a phone. Whoever wanted to make or receive a call had to go to the periptero. Therefore, in this way, the periptero owner knew everyone’s business.”

Once, while calling my mother in Scotland, the περιπτεράς panicked at the whirring of the meter and cut me off. I had already told the fucker I was going to make an international call! From that point on, I had to cycle into the OTE building in the town centre whenever I wanted to call home.

DESIGN & SIZE

The first periptero as we know it was erected in Panepistimiou Street in Athens in 1911. It survived into this century but was swallowed up when the pavement collapsed during the construction of the Athens Metro. The size and design were standardised in 1914: κίτρινου χρώματος, 0,70 × 0,70 μέτρα, ξύλινα, με μια τέντα γύρω από την κατασκευή για σκιά. So, yellow, 70cm x 70cm, made of wood with an awning surrounding the structure for shade. The average weight and height of humans have increased over the last century, so it was inevitable that 70 x 70 would increase. A law of 1969 decreed that the new length and width of a periptero should not exceed 1.70m x 1.50m. It further stated that its height should not exceed 2.60m.

TAXATION & CHARITABLE ORIGINS

How did the institution begin? Taxation. One of the urgent tasks of any new state is to raise revenue from its citizens through taxation. The new Irish Free State, despite its objections to the northeast remaining under UK control, was quick to set up customs posts at various points along the hated border. In newly independent Greece tobacco was sold by peddlers, who could not be tracked easily. The answer was fixed sales outlets for tobacco. Even from the earliest years of the Greek state, some semi-permanent tobacconists existed:

Από τα πιο γνωστά ιστορικά παραδείγματα είναι η περίπτωση του Μακρυγιάννη ο οποίος λίγο μετά το 1821, δάνεισε 500-5.500 γρόσια σε φίλο του «δια να ανοίξη τουτούντζικο, χωρίς διάφορο, με το κέρδος να μοιράζεται εξ ημισίας». Apparently, Makrygiannis “lent between 500 and 5,500 piastres to a friend, without interest, so that he could open a tobacco outlet with the profits to be split down the middle.” As the drachma didn’t become Greece’s currency until 1832, this episode must date from the earliest days of the newly emerging Greek state. I also love the ridiculous mix of katharevousa with the long-forgotten loan word τουτούντζικο.

The institution began to take on its modern form following Greece’s defeat to Turkey in the war of 1897 (Black 97). Not only did Greece lose territory, but it also had to pay war reparations to the Ottomans. Tobacco taxation was one way of generating income, and licensing the περίπτερα to the war wounded and to the families of the dead was a way of providing welfare in a bankrupt country.

This form welfare assistance with few amendments continued right up to 2012. It’s not surprising given what Greece endured from 1897 to 1974: the war of 1897, the Balkan Wars 1912 – 13; WWI; the Asia Minor catastrophe of 1921 – 23 with its exchange of populations; WWII when the country was occupied by the Germans, Italians and Bulgarians; the civil war from 1946 to 1951; and, finally, the dictatorship from 1967 to 1974. A turbulent century with no shortage of war dead and wounded.

Τον Σεπτέμβριο του 1922 το Υπουργείο Περιθάλψεως καταθέτει νομοσχέδια σύμφωνα με τα οποία οι νόμοι 254 και 1960 που αναφέρονται στα ήδη αναγερθέντα περίπτερα αλλά και στα περίπτερα που πρόκειται να ανεγερθούν κατά το επόμενο διάστημα θα παραχωρούνται προς αποκλειστική χρήση στην «Πανελλήνιον ‘Ένωσιν Τραυματιών Πολέμου 1912-1921». To summarise, in 1922 the Ministry of Welfare decreed that existing and forthcoming περίπτερα licences should be granted exclusively to the Panhellenic Union of 1912 – 1921 War Casualties i.e. the fallen of the Balkan Wars, the disastrous Asia Minor campaign, and their surviving families. It should not be forgotten that partisans who died fighting the Germans in WWII never benefited from the scheme. In fact, many of them ended up in barred “periptera” made of concrete and metal rather than wood. And with nothing to sell.

With the institution’s close connection to the military, responsibility for licencing περίπτερα fell under the joint control of the Ministries of Defence and Welfare until 2012. From then onwards most periptera fell under the control of municipalities, but the killer blow came later: “A new law in 2015 demands that once a periptero license terminates, it cannot be renewed … and cannot be passed on to the descendants.” The end of the hereditary closed shop and the start of a managed decline.

TODAY

The photo below is one I took of what appears to be an upmarket periptero in Thessaloniki town centre.

If the subject grabs your attention, the links below are worth looking at. Some of the pictures remind me of the black and white films of the 50s and 60s. Some of the photos, however, leave you in no doubt as to why periptera are reaching the end of the road. Who buys newspapers, magazines or postcards? Who needs to make phone calls? My 87-year-old mother-in-law has two mobiles, for God’s sake! The figures below are not current so I would bet that the number of abandoned periptera is even higher.

“In Athens, out of the 1,080 kiosks, nearly half have closed down and around 300 have been abandoned. Some have been removed by municipalities and pretty soon, they will be a memory of a not-so-distant past.”

And in Thessaloniki, according to this extract, two thirds of the city’s periptera have gone: “Κάπως έτσι συνεχίζεται η συρρίκνωση της συγκεκριμένης επαγγελματικής δραστηριότητας, καθώς τα τελευταία 15 χρόνια ο αριθμός των περιπτέρων στη Θεσσαλονίκη μειώθηκε από 480 σε 160.”

To conclude, changes in habits, tastes and technology as well as the emergence of convenience stores are putting the periptera under stress. The 2015 law has put an end to the ‘hereditary principle’, so they might all be gone by the end of the decade. Finally, I wonder if some periptera can be repurposed. For example, some of the UK’s red telephone boxes have been fitted with defibrillators (απινιδωτές). It is worth thinking about.

Most of my information came from the sources below:

In Greek: