Supermarket-style clothing stores
The market has changed repeatedly over the past 50 years. Ready-to-wear clothing has replaced dressmakers, then shoe shops arrived in the 1980s, markedly changing the street’s profile. «There were no bootmakers until Bournazos opened his first store on the corner of Voulis and Ermou streets. Then the others followed,» said Costas Kalyviotis, an employee on Ermou Street from 1950 to 1956, when he became the owner of a haberdashery at No 8. Today, no less than 20 shoe stores operate between Aeolou Street and Syntagma Square. The pedestrianization of the street in 1997 opened a new chapter in its history, attracting many Greek and foreign businesses. «They made Ermou into a pedestrian walkway but they don’t take care of it. Uncertainty reigns and this is sad, as it used to be different,» commented Kalyviotis. Chain stores dominate Ermou. They may operate in supermarket style but many shoppers prefer them. Buskers add their own touch to the hustle and bustle of the street. The sound of the song «Faliriotissa» being played on Nikos’s laterna or hand-organ is an integral part of the street’s life. Shoppers gaze at the performers and might stop for a coffee at 24 Ermou, the only cafe on the street itself. «Our clients are a small sample of the shoppers in Ermou, 90 percent of them women,» said the owner. «We opened shortly after the street was pedestrianized. No other permits for coffee shops were granted afterward. The image of the street has been degraded though. The tolerance of street hawkers has lowered the level. They should work too but not next to people who pay exorbitant rents and employee wages.» At No 45, on the fourth floor, Thanassis Lykotrafitis runs a stationery store which he will close as soon as he retires «as the good old days belong to the past.» In a rush The only sound that disturbs the lethargy of a lazy afternoon here is the cranking noise of the ancient elevator. In a basement in the Stoa Voyvoda at No 42, the engraver Nikos Nomikos has had his workshop for a number of years. «The noise of the street doesn’t bother us. Since the street has been pedestrianized, it has been a lot quieter. What has been lost is the sense of community, the neighborhood atmosphere. Now everyone is in a rush.» Thanassis Liolos, the well-known chestnut seller on the corner of Voulis and Ermou agrees. «We’ve had a permit for 50 years. First my father and then me. You know what has changed? The chain stores have made the street impersonal. You cannot remember who’s who anymore. I’d like just to be able to say, ‘Good morning, my friend,’ when I see a person I recognize again.»
