Alley cats

This morning our beautiful accountant, Maria, informed me that in any given month, if you have used your Greek bank card to make an electronic purchase, you are automatically entered into a national draw. The prize money is 1,000€.

The purpose of this is to encourage the Greek population to make more use of traceable banking transactions and less use of cash under the mattress, because obviously, traceable banking transactions can be taxed and cash transactions cannot. 

I probably need to remind you at this point that holders of Greek bank accounts have been limited to 60€/day in cash withdrawals since June 2015, though at least it is no longer necessary to withdraw each day's allowance each day. We are now permitted to visit the bank or ATM once a fortnight and leave with 840€ in cash.

It may seem very strange to anybody outside Greece, but in small island communities, most shopkeepers run ledger books. Customers can leave the shop carrying whatever they require and the shopkeeper will make a note of it. Every so often the customer will enter the shop to pay off their tab. In some cases this is once every two years, when the produce of their olive harvest has been sold for cash. Not everyone has a bank account.