THE EURO has arrived at our doorstep in all its glory. Some saw euro adoption as a chance to make a quick buck by imagining the Cyprus pound to be worth two euro.
Others either converted their prices to the exact cent or rounded down prices to give a whole figure. A visit to the weekly farmers’ market near Ochi roundabout in Nicosia yesterday confirmed that the sellers of fresh fruit and vegetables belonged to the latter group.
Producers and sellers of perishable goods probably operate on the smallest profit margins and yet at the market yesterday, all prices were converted to the exact euro cent or even rounded down to the nearest figure divisible by five. For example, one bag of apples came to 67 cents. The seller charged 65. All farmers interviewed said they refused to cheat customers out of even a few cents.
“I round down my prices always because I want to please my customers. In the farmers’ market, we won’t take 2, 3 or 4 cents off a poor old grandfather. Even with the euro now we will always give the correct change but we won’t always take the exact money. That’s what the farmers’ market is all about, feeling secure that you won’t be cheated,” said fruit seller Christina Serdaris.
Her husband, Michalis, noted that many people found prices to be inflated when given the figure in euros but that this would change once the first salaries were given in euros.
“Prices look a lot now, but when people get paid at the end of the month in euros, things will change, people will make more sense of it,” he said.
Ninety per cent of his customers paid in Cyprus pounds yesterday and probably would do until the end of the month, said Michalis.
“We can give change in Cyprus pounds or euros, whatever they want. It’s pretty easy because it’s a decimal system. Even the older generation is getting the hang of it. By
February everyone will know it,” he added.
In the stall next door, one man ordered a Cyprus coffee. When the lady brought the coffee she asked for 70 cents. The customer complained it was too much.
“I mean 70 euro cents, not Cyprus cents,” she clarified.
“Well, it’s still too much,” he replied, a little put out.
Costas Diomidous, 50, who goes by the name of ‘Omonia’, agreed that the euro often gave the wrong impression of inflated prices.
“I sold a bag of pears for £2.20 earlier. The customer asked me how much it was in euro. When I told him €3.75, he started complaining it was too much,” said Diomidous.
“The older farmers have a harder time with it but we are all using our calculators and getting by. It will take a while but we’ll figure it out soon enough. Today, I changed all my price tags to show the euro price on top of the old currency.”
The self-confessed Omonia supporter said one problem was the number of coins available. The new currency’s lowest bank note was €5, meaning any change had to be given using one and two euro coins.
“I’ve already confused a Turkish coin worth about 15 cents, thinking it was a one euro coin,” he said.
As he was talking, an older colleague from a nearby stall asked him to inspect a coin given by a foreign couple shopping in the market.
“No, no, give it back, this is a Romanian coin,” he said, before doubt got the better of him. He turned to another and asked: “Romania’s not in the euro is it?”
Michalis Kassinos, 50, from the Troodos area, said the bank in his village had run out of euro notes and so he didn’t have any to give his customers.
“Only two customers paid in euros today anyway. But don’t worry, I’ve got my calculator in my pocket for such occasions,” he said.
His father, Evagoras, 75, was less optimistic. “It’s difficult. Things are more complicated now. Before I knew a coffee was eight shillings [40 cents]. Now if I want to buy my friends a coffee, I won’t know how to calculate it.”
Michalis was adamant they would only round down prices to the benefit of the customer. “There is stiff competition. Anyway, here in the market, if something costs £5.20, we would never take the 20 cents. That’s just the way it is here. It’s not a supermarket.”
One elderly lady who was a little media-shy did not even have a calculator to figure out prices. “My children helped me last night fix the prices,” she said, pulling out a folded piece of paper from her apron with price conversions on it. Asked what she would do when someone wanted to buy products that needed to be weighed, she replied: “Don’t worry, we’ll find a way somehow.”
