Until the operation of the Varvakeios Market in 1886, a bustling crowd flooded the wooden stalls at the Upper Bazaar daily, where food retailing of the time took place.

While "dirty" and "lumpy" grocery stores dominated Athens, the "brilliant" delicatessen opened in 1877 on Aiolou Street by Panagiotis Thanopoulos, from mountainous Arcadia, was destined to become the starting point for a series of unimaginable innovations for the time, on the challenging path toward the Europeanization of food retailing.

The revolution in the sector began in Greece in the 1960s. Until then, self-service stores, which had already crossed the Atlantic in the post-war years, were gradually flooding Western Europe. However, they were still unknown in Greece. The press attempted to explain the new practice, emphasizing that in self-service grocery stores "men shop rolling carts like the ones for babies, and there is no credit"!

It was at the Thanopoulos store in Chavteia that the self-service system was first implemented in 1961, sparking the creation and spread of supermarket chains. The transition from "food-colonial" to modern supermarkets and the transformations of food retailing are outlined through the business activities of the Thanopoulos family, which has now been active in this field for 140 continuous years.

The book does not limit itself to merely presenting data regarding the enduring evolution of a business but adheres to a comprehensive understanding of the social history of Athens and outlines pieces of its material culture history.