Shops closing down by thousands in Greek crisis
Generations of merchants set up successful businesses in the commercial triangle of Athens, a stones throw from the central Syntagma Square, the flash point of bloody anti-austerity protests that erupted just over two months ago but in better times a popular tourist site.
Now, the mood among shopkeepers in the once-vibrant area, enclosed by the capitals three main squares, is somber.
Tens of thousands of small businesses, which make up a big chunk of the Greek economy, have closed since the government secured a bailout package worth about $150 billion from international lenders in exchange for promises of painful austerity measures.
There is no helping hand (from the government), Lizardos said. There is only one hand, the one that presses on our heads and pushes us further to the ground.
The walls of his shop are full of photographs from a time when staff worked into the night to keep up with demand for gold jewelry from Greeks, who have treasured it as part of their culture for centuries.
A gracious thank-you note accompanies one of worldwide Orthodox Church leader Patriarch Bartholomew, an intricate gold pendant around his neck.
Today, the workshop is run by four people, including Lizardos cousin and uncle, who together with his father opened the business five decades ago. Since then the shop has been the familys only source of income, and the prospect of having to shut it down due to fallout from the Greek debt crisis keeps Lizardos awake at night.
Its business, its family
Rising gold prices and high taxes have made it too expensive to run the workshop, and he cannot afford to buy stock to keep the business running.
If I close down my businesses, what will I do now at 44? said Lizardos, echoing the plight of many small-business owners throughout Greece.
His wife is half-American, and the family is considering moving to the United States, where he believes his teenage daughters would have a better future.
When I got married, I stayed for this reason, not to abandon what my father worked for all those years, he said.
Our customers are not strangers; they are people you see in the market every day: the civil servant, the grocer, the electrician. Some of them are priests, but even they have stopped buying. They dont want to provoke people by appearing to be extravagant.
Violent street protests against tax increases and salary cuts have driven many Athenians from the city center. A police bus is permanently on standby on the corner of Lizardos street.
The austerity measures and the protests have cast a shadow over small businesses in the city, with demonstrations alone costing them about four working hours a day, trade bodies said.
In the Athens area, more than 20 percent of shops have closed since 2010, according to the ESEE retail federation.
Closures likely to continue
Closing down or declaring bankruptcy is not easy, so many businesses simply pull down their shutters, and debts start to pile up, according to ESEE.