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“We are hardly surviving,” this was the conclusion of the owner of an Italian shoe shop with 25 years of history on the central Athens street Pindaru. You can hear these words from every small shop and commercial establishment in Greece this summer. Economic recession, increased taxes and the uncertainty of the future turned the behavior of Greek consumers. Until three years ago, the season of summer discounts was manna for traders as well as for citizens and tourists in the country. Crowds of people with branded bags in their hands, pleased with their new purchases could be seen from morning till night along the shopping streets in Athens. Today the situation is completely different – the windows in the city are in large bright signs REDUCTIONS -40%, -50%, -70%, even -80%, but there is no one inside except the saleswoman exhausted by anticipation.
  
The owner of the shoe store told for the readers of GRReporter, that this is the worst year in the whole existence of the shop. Each month is worse than the previous since the beginning of 2009 and the store is operating at a loss almost six consecutive months. VAT was increased by three percent from April to July and the shops had to cut prices in order to retain their customers, the woman complained. The end result, unfortunately, is lack of consumer demand increase, while turnover fell swiftly. “They increase direct and indirect taxes, and then blame the traders for not reducing the prices. We lowered the prices but with no effect, because no one buys anything,” explained the woman. The inscription on the window of the luxury store reads all of the shoes cost 65 euros - models of pure leather, elegant shape and vibrant colours. The starting price of most Italian shoes was about 140-180 euros. Neither reductions, nor quality, nor tradition affect people any more, they just stopped buying, she says, adding: “You will see that many of the stores will not stand and close from September on.” She smiled bitterly and said that the turnover has completely dropped. It is not unlikely to put an end of her longtime business in the summer of 2011, if thing don’t go better.
 
The situation of the other commercial sites in the country is the same. Residents of Thessaloniki say that one of the most popular shopping streets in the town is “flooded” with deserted shops of plaintively readings “For rent”. But there is no hope that someone will hire them to develop new business.