Periptero (greek kiosk)
Periptero is the name for the tobacco-newspapers kiosk in Greece, we find them absolutely everywhere, there are 18,000 Periptera, 5500 in Athens and 1500 in Thessaloníki. They are usually open all day long, from morning until late at night and on Sundays.
The legal size of a periptero is small, 1.3 meters x 1.5 meters for the central cabin, around there is an area of 1 m wide hosting newspapers, fridge, freezer, etc ...The whole thing is generally covered by a protective canvas. The central cabin usually has small windows on the three sides and a door at the rear, only the front window is generally used to shop, even if the others windows can be used they are more intended to allow seller to watch his shop. The seller is most of the time alone to manage his business, inside the cabin there is anyway no space for two, the space is overloaded with products of all kinds: -Cigarettes and smoking accessories, as they are sold almost exclusively in periptera. -Newspapers. -Sweets like chocolate, gum, Pasteli (sesame and honey bar). -Cold drinks (a refrigerator is generally at the disposal beside the periptero) -Battery, pens, postcards, envelopes, stickers, towels, razors, shampoo, etc. .. -Phone cards and prepaid cards for mobile phones, metro tickets and bus parking tickets. -Some periptera also have a telephone available for the client.
One peculiarity of the periptero is that you can be owner only if you are: a disabled veteran, war widow, unmarried daughters of war widow. This measure was taken after the Greek War of Independence, to provide work for disabled veterans. The authorization procedure is supervised by the Ministry of Defense. But do not expect to see disabled persons working in each periptero, most kiosks are run by people without disabilities, it means that either: -They are not the owners but simple employees. -They rent the periptero -They took over the license of a relative veteran. -They have paid a bribe ...