Two rare advertising matchboxes from the 70s. Both matchboxes in their representations advertise supermarkets operating at the time. They are relatively rare because they were released in a small print run and one of the two, which advertises the AB Vassilopoulos supermarket, belongs to the Greek monopoly. At that time, the Greek Match Monopoly began to release many matchboxes advertising banks, hotels and various businesses. The other advertises Pi-Mi, the first Greek supermarket.
Pi-Mi are the initials of the words Prizounik Marinopoulos. The word Prizounik is made up of the two French words “prix’ and “unique”, meaning unique price. For the sake of brevity, Prizounik Marinopoulos quickly became Pi-Mi. In 1962, the first supermarkets were created in Greece, whose main feature was self-service and for this they had the title “Self Service Marinopoulos”. The following year, they sign cooperation contracts with the French company Le Printemps and the stores are renamed Prisunic Marinopoulos. This collaboration stopped in 1991. This period went down in history with the mascot called Pi-Mi and became famous with the slogans “Pi-Mi with the Drachma”, “prices that don’t go any further” and “if you love your Drachma “.
Pi-Mi’s typical ad:
The history of AB Vassilopoulos begins in 1939 from a small grocery store on Voulis Street. In 1950, they created the food store “Delicatessen”, on Stadiou Street. This historic store will become the favorite destination of Athenians, who find high quality European products. In 1967, in the self-service store located in Paleo Faliro, the slogan “and the bird’s milk” will be used for the first time, which indicates an abundance and variety of goods and will become synonymous to the brand.
This expression, “and the bird’s milk”, has very old roots. Its “age” is 2,300 years old! It was written by Menandros, the comic poet of the 3rd BC century, referring to Samos of that time: “and the island brings hen’s milk” that is, the island that had everything!