Laiki agora
Encyclopedia
Street market
A street market is an outdoor market such as traditionally held in a market square or in a market town, and often held only on particular days of the week...
s that operate all over Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
, selling foodstuffs and gardening or household equipment, as well as children toys and various "do it yourself
Do it yourself
Do it yourself is a term used to describe building, modifying, or repairing of something without the aid of experts or professionals...
" tools.
It is considered an important social custom and tradition
Tradition
A tradition is a ritual, belief or object passed down within a society, still maintained in the present, with origins in the past. Common examples include holidays or impractical but socially meaningful clothes , but the idea has also been applied to social norms such as greetings...
in Greece.
History
People's markets were founded by Greek political leader Eleutherios Venizelos. Part of the motivation was to help local agricultural producers sell their fresh produce to the local population in nearby towns without the need of middlepersons, thus cutting down prices, and from this perspective the introduction of people's markets in Greece can be considered as an application of the commercial practice of disintermediationDisintermediation
In economics, disintermediation is the removal of intermediaries in a supply chain: "cutting out the middleman". Instead of going through traditional distribution channels, which had some type of intermediate , companies may now deal with every customer directly, for example via the Internet...
(or "cutting out the middleperson").
Sellers
There are two kind of sellers in Greek people's markets: the "producers" (paragogoi, παραγωγοί) and the "professionals" (epaggelmaties, επαγγελματίες).The "producers" are farmer
Farmer
A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including livestock husbandry and growing crops, such as produce and grain...
s or beekeeper
Beekeeper
A beekeeper is a person who keeps honey bees for the purposes of securing commodities such as honey, beeswax, pollen, royal jelly; pollinating fruits and vegetables; raising queens and bees for sale to other farmers; and/or for purposes satisfying natural scientific curiosity...
s from nearby towns or villages who maintain their own agricultural farm
Farm
A farm is an area of land, or, for aquaculture, lake, river or sea, including various structures, devoted primarily to the practice of producing and managing food , fibres and, increasingly, fuel. It is the basic production facility in food production. Farms may be owned and operated by a single...
s or beehive
Beehive
A beehive is a structure in which bees live and raise their young.Beehive may also refer to:Buildings and locations:* Bee Hive, Alabama, a neighborhood in Alabama* Beehive , a wing of the New Zealand Parliament Buildings...
s and produce their own foodstuffs, such as fruits, vegetables, and honey.
The "professionals" purchase foodstuffs from various sources and sell it in the people's markets, but they are not necessarily the original producers of the foodstuffs they sell.
All sellers in people's markets have to display a card with their name in a place where consumers can see it easily, and on the same card they have to include what kind of seller they are: the producers can be identified by the words "παραγωγός" (paragogos, producer) or "αγρότης" (agrotis, farmer) alongside their name, while the "professionals" can be identified by the word "επαγγελματίας" (epaggelmatias) near their name on their cards.
Sellers who sell foodstuffs and gardening
Gardening
Gardening is the practice of growing and cultivating plants. Ornamental plants are normally grown for their flowers, foliage, or overall appearance; useful plants are grown for consumption , for their dyes, or for medicinal or cosmetic use...
equipment can be either "producers" or "professionals", while those who sell household equipment or various children toys and "do it yourself
Do it yourself
Do it yourself is a term used to describe building, modifying, or repairing of something without the aid of experts or professionals...
" tools are usually "professionals".
Permits
All sellers must receive a special permit by the government in order to be able to sell produce in a people's market. There are also strict professional and social requirements.There are two kind of permits: the "producer's permit" for the "producers", and the "professional's permit" for the "professionals". Permits, by law, are not given to "producers" over 65 years old or "professionals" over 55 years old.
"Producers" must prove that they are the owners and farmers of a "family farm" (defined as a farm held by a farmer and the other people working on the farm are their husband or wive, children, or close relatives).
Both "producers" and "professionals" need to have completed their obligatory military service, and before a permit is granted the military's office must equip the prospective seller's with a document proving (known as "type A" in Greece) that they have served the military or legally granted an exemption.
Before a permit is granted, the prospective seller's application is examined by a committee of experts who decide whether the applicant can be allowed to sell products in laikes agores in accordance with the local laws.
"Professionals" are barred from undertaking any other profession
Profession
A profession is a vocation founded upon specialized educational training, the purpose of which is to supply disinterested counsel and service to others, for a direct and definite compensation, wholly apart from expectation of other business gain....
, trade, or commercial activity after they are granted a permit to sell products in a people's market. They have to accept selling in the market as their sole income-generating trade, or vioporistikon epaggelma (life-earning profession) as it is known in the country.
Products
Mediterranean diet
The Mediterranean diet is a modern nutritional recommendation inspired by the traditional dietary patterns of southern Italy, Crete and much of the rest of Greece in the 1960s....
, known for its health-improvement capacity, and are key ingredients in the cuisine of Greece
Cuisine of Greece
Greek cuisine is a Mediterranean cuisine, sharing characteristics with the cuisines of Italy, the Balkans, Turkey, and the Levant. Contemporary Greek cookery makes wide use of olive oil, vegetables and herbs, grains and bread, wine, fish, and various meats, including poultry, rabbit and pork. Also...
. They are mainly local food
Local food
Local food or the local food movement is a "collaborative effort to build more locally based, self-reliant food economies - one in which sustainable food production, processing, distribution, and consumption is integrated to enhance the economic, environmental and social health of a particular...
, known as ntopia (ντόπια) in Greek, such as fresh fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
s (including, depending on the season
Season
A season is a division of the year, marked by changes in weather, ecology, and hours of daylight.Seasons result from the yearly revolution of the Earth around the Sun and the tilt of the Earth's axis relative to the plane of revolution...
, orange
Orange (fruit)
An orange—specifically, the sweet orange—is the citrus Citrus × sinensis and its fruit. It is the most commonly grown tree fruit in the world....
s, apple
Apple
The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree, species Malus domestica in the rose family . It is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits, and the most widely known of the many members of genus Malus that are used by humans. Apple grow on small, deciduous trees that blossom in the spring...
s, watermelon
Watermelon
Watermelon is a vine-like flowering plant originally from southern Africa. Its fruit, which is also called watermelon, is a special kind referred to by botanists as a pepo, a berry which has a thick rind and fleshy center...
s, melon
Melon
thumb|200px|Various types of melonsThis list of melons includes members of the plant family Cucurbitaceae with edible, fleshy fruit e.g. gourds or cucurbits. The word "melon" can refer to either the plant or specifically to the fruit...
s, strawberries
Strawberry
Fragaria is a genus of flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae, commonly known as strawberries for their edible fruits. Although it is commonly thought that strawberries get their name from straw being used as a mulch in cultivating the plants, the etymology of the word is uncertain. There...
, and others), vegetable
Vegetable
The noun vegetable usually means an edible plant or part of a plant other than a sweet fruit or seed. This typically means the leaf, stem, or root of a plant....
s (like cucumber
Cucumber
The cucumber is a widely cultivated plant in the gourd family Cucurbitaceae, which includes squash, and in the same genus as the muskmelon. The plant is a creeping vine which bears cylindrical edible fruit when ripe. There are three main varieties of cucumber: "slicing", "pickling", and...
s, tomato
Tomato
The word "tomato" may refer to the plant or the edible, typically red, fruit which it bears. Originating in South America, the tomato was spread around the world following the Spanish colonization of the Americas, and its many varieties are now widely grown, often in greenhouses in cooler...
es, onion
Onion
The onion , also known as the bulb onion, common onion and garden onion, is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Allium. The genus Allium also contains a number of other species variously referred to as onions and cultivated for food, such as the Japanese bunching onion The onion...
s, potatoes, brocolli, carrot
Carrot
The carrot is a root vegetable, usually orange in colour, though purple, red, white, and yellow varieties exist. It has a crisp texture when fresh...
s, and others), leaf vegetable
Leaf vegetable
Leaf vegetables, also called potherbs, green vegetables, greens, leafy greens or salad greens, are plant leaves eaten as a vegetable, sometimes accompanied by tender petioles and shoots...
s (e.g. lettuce
Lettuce
Lettuce is a temperate annual or biennial plant of the daisy family Asteraceae. It is most often grown as a leaf vegetable. It is eaten either raw, notably in salads, sandwiches, hamburgers, tacos, and many other dishes, or cooked, as in Chinese cuisine in which the stem becomes just as important...
or antrakla), chicken eggs from suburban farms, and fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
(for example sardine
Sardine
Sardines, or pilchards, are several types of small, oily fish related to herrings, family Clupeidae. Sardines are named after the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, around which they were once abundant....
s, European seabass
European seabass
The European seabass, Dicentrarchus labrax, also known as Morone labrax, is a primarily ocean-going fish that sometimes enters brackish and fresh waters. It is also known as the sea dace...
, red mullet
Red mullet
The red mullets or surmullets are two species of goatfish, Mullus barbatus and Mullus surmuletus, found in the Mediterranean Sea, east North Atlantic Ocean, and the Black Sea. Both "red mullet" and "surmullet" can also refer to the Mullidae in general.Though they can easily be distinguished—M...
s) recently catch from nearby seas (often caught the same day sold). Usually local food sold in people's markets is produced by family farms within the same geographical region as the market they are sold, and the "producers" who sell the local foodstuffs in the people's markets are usually the farmers themselves who travel from market to market in nearby towns to sell their produce directly to consumers.
Some fish sold in laikes agores is imported from overseas, such as Norwegian salmon
Salmon
Salmon is the common name for several species of fish in the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the same family are called trout; the difference is often said to be that salmon migrate and trout are resident, but this distinction does not strictly hold true...
. All foods, including fish, usually state their place of origin on a card that is displayed together with the product.
The "professionals" sell both local food and food imported from overseas, including avocado
Avocado
The avocado is a tree native to Central Mexico, classified in the flowering plant family Lauraceae along with cinnamon, camphor and bay laurel...
s, mango
Mango
The mango is a fleshy stone fruit belonging to the genus Mangifera, consisting of numerous tropical fruiting trees in the flowering plant family Anacardiaceae. The mango is native to India from where it spread all over the world. It is also the most cultivated fruit of the tropical world. While...
s, yellow watermelons, cherry tomatoes, and other exotic fruits often bought from the tropicals.
Gardening
Gardening
Gardening is the practice of growing and cultivating plants. Ornamental plants are normally grown for their flowers, foliage, or overall appearance; useful plants are grown for consumption , for their dyes, or for medicinal or cosmetic use...
products, including flower
Flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...
s, ornament plants, nutrient-rich soil
Soil
Soil is a natural body consisting of layers of mineral constituents of variable thicknesses, which differ from the parent materials in their morphological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics...
, and fertiliser are also sold in laikes agores.
A few people's markets, usually in high-population neighbourhoods, also sell refrigerated seafood
Seafood
Seafood is any form of marine life regarded as food by humans. Seafoods include fish, molluscs , crustaceans , echinoderms . Edible sea plants, such as some seaweeds and microalgae, are also seafood, and are widely eaten around the world, especially in Asia...
, cheese
Cheese
Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....
, salami
Salami
Salami is cured sausage, fermented and air-dried meat, originating from one of a variety of animals. Historically, salami has been popular among Southern European peasants because it can be stored at room temperature for periods of up to 10 years, supplementing a possibly meager or inconsistent...
s, and other produce which is preservated in refrigerator
Refrigerator
A refrigerator is a common household appliance that consists of a thermally insulated compartment and a heat pump that transfers heat from the inside of the fridge to its external environment so that the inside of the fridge is cooled to a temperature below the ambient temperature of the room...
s set up in the streets and supplied with electricity by diesel generator
Diesel generator
A diesel generator is the combination of a diesel engine with an electrical generator to generate electrical energy....
s. Some laikes also attract cantenes, which also use electricity produced by diesel generators, and prepare and sell souvlaki
Souvlaki
Souvlaki or souvlakia is a popular Greek fast food consisting of small pieces of meat and sometimes vegetables grilled on a skewer. It may be served on the skewer for eating out of hand, in a pita sandwich with garnishes and sauces, or on a dinner plate, often with fried potatoes...
a, sausages-on-a-stick (souvlaki loukaniko), long-burgers
Burgers
-People:* Johannes Martinus Burgers, Dutch physicist, namesake of Burgers' equation and brother of W. G. Burgers* W. G. Burgers, Dutch crystallographer and brother of J. M...
-on-a-stick (souvlaki bifteki), soft drink
Soft drink
A soft drink is a non-alcoholic beverage that typically contains water , a sweetener, and a flavoring agent...
s, et cetera.
Most people's markets also sell traditional home-made/farmer-made olive oil
Olive oil
Olive oil is an oil obtained from the olive , a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin. It is commonly used in cooking, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and soaps and as a fuel for traditional oil lamps...
, white wine, red wine, and other products, typically sold in 1.5 litre
Litre
pic|200px|right|thumb|One litre is equivalent to this cubeEach side is 10 cm1 litre water = 1 kilogram water The litre is a metric system unit of volume equal to 1 cubic decimetre , to 1,000 cubic centimetres , and to 1/1,000 cubic metre...
containers.
Prevalence
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, where there are 44 laikes agores, as well as other major cities such as Chania
Chania
Chaniá , , also transliterated Chania, Hania, and Xania, older form Chanea and Venetian Canea, Ottoman Turkish خانيه Hanya) is the second largest city of Crete and the capital of the Chania peripheral unit...
or Patras
Patras
Patras , ) is Greece's third largest urban area and the regional capital of West Greece, located in northern Peloponnese, 215 kilometers west of Athens...
. They are organised once a week, the same weekday for each particular neighbourhood.
Conveniences
The sellers in the people's markets spend considerable amounts of time selling their produce to consumers, and as a result, at least in the area of AthensAthens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
and Piraeus
Piraeus
Piraeus is a city in the region of Attica, Greece. Piraeus is located within the Athens Urban Area, 12 km southwest from its city center , and lies along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf....
, the organisation responsible for organising the markets sets up mobile toilets (usually chemical toilet
Chemical toilet
A chemical toilet is a toilet which uses chemicals to deodorize the waste instead of simply storing it in a hole, or piping it away to a sewage treatment plant. Common types include aircraft lavatory, some passenger train toilets and the portable toilets used on construction sites and at large...
s) for their convenience whenever a laiki agora is organised in a neighbourhood (typically once a week).
Marketing aspects
Personal marketing is important for the success of a seller in a people's market. Often, consumers buy from the sellers they know best, thus basing their purchase decisions on a trust basis. ChattingConversation
Conversation is a form of interactive, spontaneous communication between two or more people who are following rules of etiquette.Conversation analysis is a branch of sociology which studies the structure and organization of human interaction, with a more specific focus on conversational...
and frequent social interaction between sellers and consumers is very common, and is cited as one of the reasons many consumers prefer to buy from people's markets instead of supermarket
Supermarket
A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...
s where the purchasing experience is often less personal.
Consumers are able to choose each individual fruit, fish, or other product from the seller's pagos (a wooden installation where the products are put), putting their chosen produce in a paper bag
Paper bag
A paper bag or paper sack is a preformed container made of paper, usually with an opening on one side. It can be one layer of paper or multiple layers of paper and other flexible materials. A bag is used for packaging and/or carrying items....
or thin bag (plastic) which is then given to the seller for weight measurement. The local social custom is to choose the fruits or other fresh produce quickly without touching too hard, especially for sensitive vegetables such as tomatoes.
Payment is almost universally done with cash in Euro
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
, but a very small number of "professionals", usually those selling household equipment in high-income neighbourhoods of Athens, accept credit card
Credit card
A credit card is a small plastic card issued to users as a system of payment. It allows its holder to buy goods and services based on the holder's promise to pay for these goods and services...
payments (Visa or MasterCard
MasterCard
Mastercard Incorporated or MasterCard Worldwide is an American multinational financial services corporation with its headquarters in the MasterCard International Global Headquarters, Purchase, Harrison, New York, United States...
) with terminals communicating with the bank through GPRS.
Pricing
PricingPricing
Pricing is the process of determining what a company will receive in exchange for its products. Pricing factors are manufacturing cost, market place, competition, market condition, and quality of product. Pricing is also a key variable in microeconomic price allocation theory. Pricing is a...
is often by the kilogram
Kilogram
The kilogram or kilogramme , also known as the kilo, is the base unit of mass in the International System of Units and is defined as being equal to the mass of the International Prototype Kilogram , which is almost exactly equal to the mass of one liter of water...
, but per-item pricing is also common.
Many sellers use the same price by the kilo for all their produce or across many different kinds of products within the same category (e.g. all apples having the same price, no matter whether they are red, green, yellow, or pink apples, although usually these varieties carry different prices in the general market) because in this way the consumer can place various products in the same paper bag and weighting is simplified a lot, thus achieving higher sales. This is common in apples and pear
Pear
The pear is any of several tree species of genus Pyrus and also the name of the pomaceous fruit of these trees. Several species of pear are valued by humans for their edible fruit, but the fruit of other species is small, hard, and astringent....
s.
Prices are always listed on a paper card displayed along with the produce.
Dynamic pricing
Sellers change their prices frequently within the same day, especially for sensitive products such as fish.The price is usually high early in the morning (8-9h00) and is lowered as the time passes, especially if the product does not sell well that particular day. The new price is advertised on paper cards and orally. The lowest possible prices can be found after the midday (particularly by 13-14h00), often less than half the original starting price.
After 13h30 or on 14h00 the sellers can make significant discounts where large quantities of fresh fruit or unsold fish can be sold en-masse for extremely low prices. Sometimes parts of the produce can be given for free if the buyer has cultivated a personal relation with a particular farmer or other seller.
Consumer demographics
The demographicsDemographics
Demographics are the most recent statistical characteristics of a population. These types of data are used widely in sociology , public policy, and marketing. Commonly examined demographics include gender, race, age, disabilities, mobility, home ownership, employment status, and even location...
of the consumers visiting the people's markets are varied. According to the Municipality of Athens people of all ages and incomes visit the laikes agores, at least in the area of the municipality which includes the downtown of Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
(Kentro in Greek).
Social aspects
Laikes agores serve other needs of the lives of the GreeksGreeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
apart from their consuming needs: they serve the need to communicate with fellow citizens.
People's market are usually organised within a small area, typically a straight street
Street
A street is a paved public thoroughfare in a built environment. It is a public parcel of land adjoining buildings in an urban context, on which people may freely assemble, interact, and move about. A street can be as simple as a level patch of dirt, but is more often paved with a hard, durable...
, and the density of people buying foodstuffs can be quite high as the market is organised within a limited and strict timeframe (8h00-14h00). This, together with the varied demographics of the buyers as typically the whole town's or neighbourhood's inhabitants leave their homes concurrently to visit the same market, cause friends and acquittances to spot each other while they make their purchases.
As friends find their fellow friends on the market they often stop to exchange news, tell joke
Joke
A joke is a phrase or a paragraph with a humorous twist. It can be in many different forms, such as a question or short story. To achieve this end, jokes may employ irony, sarcasm, word play and other devices...
s, or to participate in general socialisation. This social contact
Social contact
Social contact can refer to:*in the sociological hierarchy leading up to social relations, an incidental social interaction between individuals....
is particularly useful in cities, as it helps urban dwellers to stay in contact and maintain long friendships with their neighbours. In this sense, the laikes agores can be thought as being a modern version of the agora
Agora
The Agora was an open "place of assembly" in ancient Greek city-states. Early in Greek history , free-born male land-owners who were citizens would gather in the Agora for military duty or to hear statements of the ruling king or council. Later, the Agora also served as a marketplace where...
of Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
.
Buyers also engage in social contact with the sellers, which often results in friendship and stable, loyal, multi-year buyer-seller relationships.
Organisational and legal aspects
Laikes agores are supported by the government's tax income and their managementManagement
Management in all business and organizational activities is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively...
is undertaken by various organisations that have a strict geographical scope.
The Organisation of people's markets of Athens-Piraeus (Organismos Laikon Agoron Athinon-Pireos, Οργανισμός Λαϊκών Αγορών Αθηνών-Πειραιώς) is responsible for the people's markets of Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
and Piraeus
Piraeus
Piraeus is a city in the region of Attica, Greece. Piraeus is located within the Athens Urban Area, 12 km southwest from its city center , and lies along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf....
.
The government is responsible for drafting law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
s that enable a smooth, efficient operation of people's markets within Greece. The laws that control and facilitate the organisation and management of people's markets in Athens and Piraeus that are under the jurisdiction of the Organisation of people's markets of Athens-Piraeus are the 6th article of 3190/2003 (published in FEK 249 A of the Greek Government Gazzette or Ephimeris tis Kiverniseos, the official publication of the Greek government), the Presidential decree A2-2502/2001 (published in FEK 1434/22-10-2001 tv'), and the presidential decrees A2-1147/2004, A2-1148-2004, A2-1149/2004, A2-1150/2004, and presidential decree A2-1151/2004 as published in FEK 873 tv'.
See also
- Dimotiki agora (demotic market), a different style of traditional market, which is enclosed (a covered market), in Greece which is not a street market.
- Varvakios Agora, the largest non-covered market in Athens on the Odos Athinas.
External links
- Weekly programme of people's markets in downtown Athens from the Municipality of Athens
- Weekly programme of people's markets in Athens and Piraeus (includes suburbs)
- Practical advice