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Victoria Mindova

Retailers and consumers are rubbing their hands on the first day of the official discounts. All look forward to 15^th January, when some will try to increase the volume of their sales by placing a variety of promotions, while others will have the chance to get clothes, shoes, furniture and all kinds of goods craved for a long at lower prices. GRReporter toured several Athenian store to feel the pulse of the market before the winter discounts.

In small and large commercial sites are going on feverish preparations. In some stores from as early as Friday night (January 14^th) at the door you are already welcomed with "Come in, we have discounts!" Sales assistants with tags in their hands are running up between the fluttering about clients and the stands, trying at the same time to serve people and put the new lower prices of the goods. "There is no reason to wait until Saturday to run the discounts", said the smiling girl in a shop for youth clothing on Patision boulevard in the capital. Everything offered in the store is currently reduced in price by 30 percent, but after two weeks these discounts will reach 50 percent. At the shop windows, on the walls and around cash registers are hanging different badges, stickers and posters with large numbers that show the value of the discounts.

One block further down the street strikes us another clothing store. On its window there is no discount announced, nor do the goods inside have any labels with lower prices. It mainly offers clothing and accessories for mass marketing of popular brand names such as Calvin Klein, D & G and others. The price tag of a male cotton shirt CK showed 130 euros, but the salesman said that at present all the goods in his store had a 50 percent discount. Discounts in his store, however, seems to depend mostly on how nice is a customer because on no other good there was a label with either lower prices or rates of discount.

In the shoe store all those goods have their original prices written in black and next to those in red were the discounts. Directorate General "Consumption" of the Ministry of Regional Development and Competition sent a list of recommendations to the citizens which should help them avoid various commercial traps. The Directorate warned that consumers should not be deceived by promises of big discounts of 70% and 80%. In these cases it comes to discounts on the prices of old goods from previous seasons, and winter discounts are between 10% and 40% and only apply to goods from the last season. Traders are required to write on the label the initial and discounted price as well as the percentage by which the price of the product is reduced.

In the advices of the ministry this year are also included recommendations such as: "Before you go shopping you should plan your purchases - no matter how cheap something is, it makes no sense to buy it unless you have a specific need for it" or "Buy seasonal goods - only they have actually reduced prices". Similar concerns on the part of the public authorities in a period of discounts occurs for the first time, and the main reason apparently lies in the new economic conditions after the height of the crisis.

"There is crises, but life goes on," concluded the owner of a small shop near Ano Patisia. He said he expects a revival of the market with the winter discounts. According to him the Christmas period was very difficult and such a low turnover he has never had, since he is dealing with trade. Nevertheless he said that there is no use from pessimism. The same opinion also shared a young girl who was at the same time trying on a white bolero, which she can combine with her wedding dress. She shared that the wedding is in two weeks. "Times are tough and there is a crisis, but Greece has seen rainier days. Everything requires patience and perseverance", she wisely concluded with a smile.

For the first time since the outbreak of the financial crisis in Greece, which brought along a storm of public and social unrest, I see a dose of realism and even optimism in ordinary Greeks. Although the time is far away when the strikes and protests of the hot Mediterraneans will calm down, it is already clear to everyone that reforms are necessary and inevitable. And if in previous years during the winter discounts people went home with six or seven bags, this year they accepted that it is not the end of the world if you get home with or without a bag.