Laiki Agora - Social Aspects

Social Aspects

Laikes agores serve other needs of the lives of the Greeks apart from their consuming needs: they serve the need to communicate with fellow citizens.

People's market are usually organised within a small area, typically a straight street, and the density of people buying foodstuffs can be quite high as the market is organised within a limited and strict timeframe (8h00-14h00). This, together with the varied demographics of the buyers as typically the whole town's or neighbourhood's inhabitants leave their homes concurrently to visit the same market, cause friends and acquittances to spot each other while they make their purchases.

As friends find their fellow friends on the market they often stop to exchange news, tell jokes, or to participate in general socialisation. This social contact is particularly useful in cities, as it helps urban dwellers to stay in contact and maintain long friendships with their neighbours. In this sense, the laikes agores can be thought as being a modern version of the agora of Ancient Greece.

Buyers also engage in social contact with the sellers, which often results in friendship and stable, loyal, multi-year buyer-seller relationships.