Athens--It has already been dubbed "Black Monday" -- jittery housewives, shoppers and business owners queued in vain at cash machines in Athens, where the country awoke to capital controls and shuttered banks.
"I have a baby to feed, what am I supposed to do?" secretary Zoe Kallis, 32, told AFP after failing to get money out of the third ATM she had tried in the wealthy Kolonaki district.
For a country used to dealing largely in cash rather than credit cards, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras's decision to close banks for seven days and limit withdrawals has unnerved Greeks.
The measure is expected to hurt: cash in hand is more likely to be stashed under mattresses rather than splashed on new clothes, restaurants or the wages of those working in the vast black economy.
Cafe tables were laid out in the sun all over the city, but owner Nikos Gyallitsis said he expected a 50-percent drop in customers, with people keeping their money for essentials like food and petrol.
"To shop you have to be happy, be confident, and now you don't know what will happen the next day," he said.
Nearby, clothes shop owner Panayotis Vergetis said he was slashing 30 percent off his wares this week in a bid to lure people in.
Tuesday could not only see Athens default -- the government's coffers are bare even though it must make a 1.6-billion-euro ($1.77 billion) payment to the International Monetary Fund -- but it is also supposed to be pay-day for many.
AFP
