Customers stroll between the stalls without much conviction, someone asks the price and goes elsewhere. Among the traders, at the market in via Quirra in Cagliari , the air is bad. Partly because the trend has been the same for a while, partly because the expectations for the arrival of the Easter holidays were different. And instead there was no increase in sales: «In the past for Good Friday», explains a butcher, «there was a full house. Now everything is going slowly."
In fact, there is no atmosphere of assault: lamb remains the most popular item , but not everyone can afford it: many buy at the supermarket to save money. « The situation is dramatic », says Maurizio Angius, from his meat box. « Prices are increasing , and in order to work in this period we must have this proposal, with certain items. We are suffocated by large-scale distribution , people now buy there: for years we have been asking for an intervention by the Antitrust, but it has never been seen. We small traders suffer». Yes, large retailers. Ivo Floris also identifies the same problem: «It penalizes us, even with the timetables, and we are paying the consequences. Then the prices are high, because they are high wholesale: so people don't buy or buy where they can save a little bit . To be the week of Easter the influx is low.
The situation improves slightly in the fish area: even if the period is traditionally "for meat", there are more customers in the stalls. In any case, too few, even in comparison with past years: " People don't have money ," Antonio Burini points out. «Strangely last year, after the pandemic passed, we worked well. Then with the price increases, from petrol down, everything collapsed again ». And in fact there are many, among the buyers, who complain about the overpriced prices: «80%», says Mario Uras. «We have been working since three in the morning, but the results are few. The influx is quite normal, like any other week in April . Large-scale distribution breaks our legs: maybe they offer an item at a good price, customers go there to buy, and then they earn money with something else. We can't do it."
This is how the regular clientele flees: «It's the common people, the middle class, the poor. It's them», explains Stefano Melis, «who cook and eat at home. And they are the ones who have always fed us . If the middle class, the poor and the retired are sick, everyone is sick. In the 80s it was better: when Berlinguer was there it was different».