Greeks struggle with daily grind as foreigners head to beach

http://www.ekathimerini.com/198727/article/ekathimerini/community/greeks-struggle-with-daily-grind-as-foreigners-head-to-beach



Stall owner Kleanthis Tsironis poses at Varvakeios Market in Athens on Tuesday.

Greeks struggle with daily grind as foreigners head to beach
GREGORY KATZ
30.06.2015

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Outside of Kleanthis Tsironis' stand, a worker tries to interest shoppers in small, fresh chickens from the town of Ioannina. The bustle hides growing anxiety: Tsironis says he doesn't know how much longer he can keep his 27 employees now that the embattled Greek government has closed the banks, blocked credit card use and issued capital controls that limit cash machine withdrawals.

"I have no cash to pay for meat supplies for next week because of the capital controls," says Tsironis, who started the business 51 years ago when he was a teen. "Sooner or later, probably in this month, Ill have to let 10 people go. The people are buying with cash, not credit cards, and the problem is the customers don't have cash."

On the streets of the Greek capital, resplendent in the early days of summer, there's still a veneer of normalcy — at least for foreigners. Sun-seeking tourists arrive by the planeload, airport currency changers hum along, and the big ferries pull out nightly from the nearby port of Piraeus bound for pleasure spots like Crete, Rhodes, and the quintessential party island, Myconos.

But for locals, the miserly 60 euros ($67) per day cash limit at ATMs means it will soon be a massive strain just to run a small business or keep a family going. And the drama is unfolding without a script, no safety net in sight. Beyond Greece, the fate of the vaunted, decades-old European project is in doubt with the approach of Sunday's referendum on the latest international bailout proposal — a de facto vote on whether or not to remain in the euro.