Welcome to my cat cafe, would you like anything?

Opening Hours

Sun: Closed

Shot on 16-17 July 2020

Sophia (not her real name) suffers from hypertension, a condition that has caused her to have light strokes in the past. She also suffers from an additional underlying health problem that requires surgery, which has been postponed due to the quarantine emergency laws. An Athenian in her mid-40s, she has been working almost half her life as a cashier in supermarkets and is currently employed at one of the biggest chains in Greece. Sophia is certainly one of the employees who could have taken leave during the quarantine period, as she belongs to the vulnerable groups due to her health conditions. She could have also taken advantage of the “special cause” leave that the Greek government institutionalized for parents with young children, as she is a mother of two. However, Sophia chose to take only four days off under the special causes leave and several sick leave days when her surgical condition made her suffer unbearable pain. “It is not in my character,” she explains. “I should feel like I am really going to die to abstain from work. Especially in this period, I didn’t want to leave my colleagues to take the burden. Yes, I guess I am taking a risk.” It is the sense of duty that keeps Sophia at the battlements. During this period of fear, the role of supermarket workers has shined fully for what it is: A crucial link in the food and basic goods supply chain, which keeps society from falling apart. “Just imagine the fear and the panic if people only suspected there would be basic commodities shortages! Not to mention the social explosion that closed supermarkets would cause,” says Dimitris Oikonomou, president of the Panhellenic Union of Sklavenitis supermarket chain employees. “It is the very nature of our job that brought us on the first line.” If wages were really defined according to the so much praised law of demand and supply, wouldn’t supermarket workers, especially this period, receive a high wage? Currently, the basic wages in supermarkets is ranging roughly from 400 (part-time) to 800 euros (full-time employees). These hardworking and underpaid people are overwhelmingly visible in exposing themselves to risk during this period, shouldering a disproportionate share of the burden. ...Reports converge that things are now slowly getting back to normal as to supermarkets’ footfall and the number of goods purchased. Things, however, are not going to be really normal anytime soon, as according to all prophecies financial disaster due to the lockdown is looming. As the future seems grim, we should at least try to hold on to the lessons this pandemic already taught us. One of them, being we kept afloat thanks to certain employees categories who were asked to hold up the celestial heavens, yet there were no Atlases. We ought to remember that the next time “market forces” would try to treat them with subserviency.

David Shrigley (UK 1968) Opening Hours (2015)