In Greece, two new “baskets” of products at controlled prices come into force for the Easter holidays

Starting today in Greece, the “Godparents’ Basket”, which mainly contains children’s toys, which godparents traditionally give to their godchildren for Easter, comes into effect, reports the Greek state television ERT.

From Wednesday, the main “Easter basket” will be implemented, which will include lamb and goat meat, couscous and Easter chocolate eggs.

In Greece, the so-called “Household basket”, under which large supermarket chains are obliged to select one specific product from each category and offer it for a certain period at the lowest price, without changing it. This is part of the measures taken by the Greek government in the fight against rising prices. To this basket before various holidays are added themed “baskets” with products that are traditionally sought after in the respective period.

The “Godfather’s Basket” includes toy candles and chocolate eggs, as well as all the categories of toys that were included in the “New Year’s Basket” such as board games, puzzles, dolls, baby toys, strollers and more.

The aim of the “Easter basket” is to keep the price of lamb and goat meat at last year’s levels of around 10 euros per kilogram. However, the television commented that there are large deviations in neighborhood stores. “In local butchers, if we take last year’s data, when (lamb and kid) was sold at 14-15 euros, this year it will reach 16-17. It is not fair that the breeder sells at 6 and the butcher goes to 16 euros,” says the chairman of the agricultural cooperatives on the island of Naxos, Dimitris Kapunis.

From April 25, the holiday working hours of the shops come into effect. This means they will be open from 9am to 9pm, with the exception of Good Friday, when they will be open from 1pm to 7pm, and Holy Saturday, when they will again have reduced hours from 9 to 3 p.m. On Palm Sunday, April 28, the shops will be open between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m.

On Easter Sunday, as well as on the Monday and Tuesday after, shops in Greece will be closed. Tuesday is also a day off for them due to the shift of the holiday to May 1, which this year falls during Holy Week.