Yet another newsstand closing. The owner: “Our world is over”
The newsstand crisis continues to claim victims. Among the latest, the kiosk of Alfonso D’Addante, 65 years old, origins from Puglia but from Varese since 1974, the owner of the newsstand in via Manin. A place renovated in 2017 thanks to an expensive investment by D’Addante who, now, together with his wife, sells the last things left before the closure of the business.
The owner: “Every day we opened at 5.45 until 19, except Saturday and Sunday when we only did the morning”
The owner tells Varesenoi: “Every day we opened at 5.45 until 19, except Saturday and Sunday when we only did the morning. The clientele has changed over time, at the beginning even some kids from nearby schools, Vidoletti, the art and science high schools, bought the newspaper, then they stopped and only came for cell phone top-ups and cigarette papers”.
D’Addante: “Someone still comes by, despite the closure, begging us to send a fax or have photocopies of the documents”
News is no longer read on paper, it runs and runs on smartphones. So to buy paper newspapers – explains D’Addante – “are only the elderly”. To make up for the non-sale of newspapers, as in many other cases in Italy, the newsstand has opened up to other services: “They asked me for them and so I got cpostcards, cups, lighters and bells with the image of Santa Maria del Monte, I sold them a bit, especially in the summer with the Alpine party. We have always guaranteed other services, such as fax, photocopies and small stationery. Someone still passes, despite the closure, begging us to send a fax or have photocopies of documents. Unfortunately, with nearby bars, selling newspapers has become even more difficult, because people go to get coffee and read them there. We also kept going because we sold bus tickets and cell phone top-ups, now there will be no one in the area for these services”, says Alfonso again from the pages of Varesenoi.
The advice: “Never open a newsstand, the times are no longer. It’s a life in the balance”
Hence the enormous disappointment of the owner: “A tip? Never open a newsstand, the times are no longer. Life is in the balance, for example, we had to buy the bus tickets and pay for them, it was not possible to take them into account sale and there is almost no profit margin on top-ups. As long as the newspapers were sold, we kept going, but with the crisis our world is over”.
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