ATHENS – As the number of Greece’s traditional kiosks have dwindled in half, people who used to use them for everything from snacks to cigarettes through the night can now turn to expanding 24-hour 7-day delivery service from mini-markets.

The COVID-19 pandemic has also altered buying habits with more people relying on services to bring them what they want, for safety and convenience and is has caught on among a public liking it.

That coincides with the number of the kiosks, known as periptera, falling from 9,904 in 2010 to 4,985 in 2020, said data from Neilsen Q, reported Kathimerini about the shift in buying attitudes seeing more of them close.

The delivery service Wolt began 24/7 service in May to bring customers products from minmarkets as well as restaurants that stay open late and its own market stays open until midnight.

Efood has also recently extended the opening hours of its stores in some areas to work until 12:45 a.m. instead of stopping service at 10:30 p.m. as demand grows for delivery of food late into the night and early morning hours.

The paper noted that with acquisition of the companies of the Mouhalis group by Delivery Hero that hundreds of convenience stores and cooperating small retailers, including kiosks, will be added to the efood network.

The acquisition of the Kiosky’s chain of convenience stores as well as the network of cooperating minimarkets and kiosks adds to the efood market at least an additional 400 points of sale, efood said.