Irini Maroulidou: ‘Market bride’
On the nook of the market, there’s a grocery retailer with its vegetables and fruit so impeccably organized that the crates nearly appear to be they’ve been pulled out of a cartoon. Irini Maroulidou sits on a stool among the many recent produce, peeling a pomegranate and inserting the seeds in a clear container, able to be eaten.
Earlier, she had additionally chopped and washed some greens {that a} common buyer and good friend of her daughter had come to purchase “able to prepare dinner,” in order that she may put together them earlier than she goes to the workplace. That is what Irini does daily, whereas her daughter Julia sells their produce. “We don’t let our mother deal with any expertise, as a result of each time now we have finished so, she’s finished one thing loopy,” her daughter says with amusing. On one event, Irini by chance entered 400,000 euros into the money register as a substitute of 40 euros.
Irini has been on the Kallithea market since 1966. At the moment, she got here to Athens from Messinia within the Peloponnese to get married. “She is named the market bride,” says her daughter Julia. She married her Pontian husband, who was the second technology to take over the grocery retailer – his mother and father have been among the many first Pontians to ascertain the market.
Since then, and with the third technology now in cost, Irini continues to come back daily to verify the produce is correctly organized. “Sunday is the one day I don’t come,” she says. “Nicely, you must relaxation too,” I inform her. “No, we simply have plenty of cooking to do to feed the kids, the grandchildren,” she replies, confirming that it’s as if the older technology of Greek girls can by no means actually sit down.
And whereas all of the old-timers know Irini, and the regulars at the moment are like associates of the shop homeowners – they arrive, store, share their information, possibly even sit down for a espresso – Julia admits that “the world of the market has modified lots. One thing needs to be finished to revive the market. It has remained because it was constructed.” Nonetheless, she has discovered a option to appeal to youthful prospects who might not know precisely the place her retailer is positioned: She has put it on the supply service apps. So whilst we communicate, she’s sneaking a peek at her pill to see if a brand new order has arrived.
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