Retailers

Customers will re-order online and collect their items outside the stores

Unlike Greek courier companies, which are struggling with an overload of orders, local supermarkets have successfully responded to the challenge of home deliveries and increased their clientele by expanding their services this year.

The Greek champion said it was time a Harrods store opened in Greece

Seasonal stores will open from next Monday

The new consumer habits the pandemic has created are here to stay, at least for most of the consumers who are picking them up during lockdown.

Some of the habits originally expected to be adopted within three years by a large part of the population, such as buying groceries online, were in fact adopted within a few days and now are considered routine for many Greeks.

Coronavirus deaths topped 400,000 on Nov. 28 in Europe, the world's second worst-hit region, as parts of the continent began to reopen shops for the holiday season.

Popular Swedish furniture and houseware retailer IKEA is set to open an "urban concept store" in downtown Piraeus, following the success two years ago of a pop-up store opened in the Greek port city.

The commercial property market is bracing for recessionary phenomena in the coming months that will be reminiscent of the 2012-13 slump, as chains and stores are struggling to stay afloat.

All of the 75 baby food kitchens in Sofia are to open on 18 May, Sofia Mayor Yordanka Fandakova announced.

"All premises where the food is prepared have been disinfected following all health and sanitary requirements. The kitchen staff has been tested for Covid-19," Mayor Fandakova said.

Online commerce recorded an even higher growth rate in April than in March, as consumers continued to shop from e-stores - and not just for food and pharmaceuticals - as almost all conventional retail stores were shuttered by government order.