The shops of Nikaia

Bodegas and barber shops run by migrants, cafés and cell phone shops co-exist with a shuttered photo store, a shuttered distillery and long abandoned, empty shops around the Agios Nikolaos Square.

Regardless of whether they are still in operation, these shops reflect the changes in the local population, but not necessarily in the commercial activities that take place at the centre of the refugee settlement. Next to the shops, the empty, almost abandoned, market of the original settlement, the small migrant shops popping up all along the streets Tsaldari and Kondyli, and the small, almost makeshift, manufacturing units that crop up behind the newspaper-covered windows of shuttered shops highlight the transformations, but also the needs of both the new and the old residents that live in the small refugee houses of Nikaia.

Almost 100 years ago, a journalist with the newspaper Patris was disappointed by the settlement’s residential development, the bad condition of the houses, the ubiquitous overcrowding and the lack of sanitation and water supply infrastructure. However, at the same time, he was impressed with the growth in trade and commercial traffic in the newly established neighbourhood.

‘The market looks positively Ottoman. Shops, smaller shops, holes-in-the-wall, hovels […]. Butcher shops, ouzo taverns, cookware, fabrics, cafés with various names: ‘The Burned Smyrna’, ‘Neo Kordelio’, ‘Kirkintzes’, ‘Myrovolos’, ‘Koukloutzas’, ‘Kirkagats’ [all areas in Asia Minor], etc. etc. […] There are also plenty of signs announcing cinema listings. Are there really that many cinemas? Alabra, Ilios, Krystal, Éclair, Phoenix. Helen of Troy and the shooting of the Tsar feature prominently in the listings. Two different eras, so many acts and the entrance fee for both is five drachmas. So much competition! There is also a theatre, the Mertika theatre. […]’.

(Patris, January 6, 1929. Investigative report by Ant. Ch-Ap/lou)

Nowadays, the retail market in the refugee neighbourhoods of Nikaia is directly associated with the area’s building stock. Small commercial spaces with tiny surface areas do not allow for the type of commercial development that usually takes place in city centres, consisting mainly of large shops and brand name department stores. At the same time, the city’s new residents are fighting for their survival by opening their own small shops.