And the most popular Greek restaurant of the summer is...the local supermarket
No more need to ask for the check, because increasingly, there isn't one
Forget the Tiktok “grocery store tourism” trend, because this is about something else, up until now covered mainly in the Italian and Greek media. Across Italy and the gamut of Greek islands this summer the scene has repeated itself: largely empty restaurant terraces and very busy supermarkets.
No, grocery stores are not the new nightclubs. But they are where the action is.
Restaurant prices haven been rising at the same time that consumer spending is falling. So despite the fact that more people are traveling, they are spending less. The young people traveling around southern Europe who didn’t have much to spend to begin with are now spending even less.
That is understandable, to a certain extent. There is no reason why a plate of pasta and a salad at decent but by no means luxurious restaurant on the island of Ios should set you back nearly $30, but that is what is happening. And it goes a long way to explaining why from Mykonos to Positano so many restaurants were virtually empty this summer. It doesn’t take a degree in economics to see where this is going (hint: south).
So tourists are making beelines to the nearest grocery store, stocking up on mostly cheap provisions and eating in their hotel rooms to save money — not that food prices anywhere are a bargain these days.
This is great for the grocery stores but also a tragically anti-social activity. If you’re going to spend a chunk of each day standing in line to buy a canister of Pringles and a six-pack of Diet Coke and then slink rat-like back to your hotel room with your globally homogenized carbo haul, why not then do your carbon-footprint leaving self a favor and just stay the F home?
(Ok, that’s enough, this is supposed to be a travel blog. Ed.)
