Stelios K. Garitsis’ Grocery Store

Before Konstantinos Garitsis and his wife Maritsa, née Ioannou, arrived in Nea Ionia on their own boat in 1922, they had been living in Galata, Constantinople. Konstantinos hailed from either Prusa or the village of Chouchlia on the island of Aloni (Paşalimanı) in Marmara, while Maritsa was from Prigkipos (Büyükada). Konstantinos Garitsis was a sailor and when he resettled in Volos, he took up the occupation again, dealing in fruit and vegetables in Pelion and nearby islands. After several consecutive accidents at sea, he decided to sell his boat and use the merchandise he had in stock to open a greengrocery on Prousis Street.

The couple had eleven children, but only one survived, Stelios, born in 1920. He followed in his father’s footsteps as a travelling greengrocer, selling fruit and vegetables which he carried on a donkey and later on a cart. At the age of 16, active and eager for change, Stelios asked his father to buy him a boat. In the end, instead of a boat he got a grocery store, which he opened on the corner of Sangariou Street and Thrakis Street. During the German occupation, Stelios closed down the store, bought an olive grove in Melissiatika and went into olive oil production. In 1945, he returned to work in his father’s greengrocery and converted it into a grocery store. The store’s large sign set it apart and read: ‘Grocery store – Stelios K. Garitsis’. At the same time, Stelios was helping his father open another greengrocery on Sinopis Street (today Dimokratias Street) under the name ‘Eilikrineia’. The greengrocery then became a coffee shop and finally closed down in 1954. During that same year, an earthquake destroyed Stelios Garitsis’ store, but after several moves and repeated efforts, Stelios managed to build a combined house and store on Nea Ionia’s main street, known as ‘Fardys’, at 72 Eirinis Avenue.

Stelios’ wife Athanasia, née Moraiti, was born in 1928 in Nea Ionia but hailed from Sevdikioi (Gaziemir) of Smyrna. The couple had two daughters, Maritsa and Konstantina. Stelios and Athanasia worked really hard to make their store successful at a time when there was fierce competition in the area since there was a total of ten grocery stores on ‘Fardys’. Athanasia pickled the vegetables and cured the fish sold in the store herself, while the couple tried to attract customers by keeping their prices low. The store remained profitable for years. In 1995, the family withdrew from the store and its ownership was transferred to another businessman who gave it up a few years later. That was when one of Stelios’ daughters, Maritsa, decided to continue her family’s business tradition and turn the grocery store into a wholesale store for poultry and eggs.

The Garitsis family, a family of shrewd and active businesspeople, put down roots in Nea Ionia. Their case is by no means unique. Many 1922 refugees who were lucky enough to make it to Greece with even a fraction of their wealth engaged in small-scale retail trade. For a large number of them, this type of trade proved profitable and became their family business, allowing them to secure a livelihood for themselves, their descendants and their families.