The economic crisis didn’t hit pizza and art

This year, Garanti Bank from Turkey has won the "Best Local Bank" award. When the bank wanted to share this joy with me, I found myself in London.

The "Euromoney" award ceremony was held in the Christ Church located in the Spitalfields district. An interesting experience it was to see bankers from various countries together.

In the sector hit by the crisis very seriously, employees forgot about the disappointment and pessimism for a couple hours.

Or else it may not be possible to hear the cheers of joy and applauds for the winners in the hall of the Christ Church.

All right then. How is London hosting the Euromoney awards being affected by the global economic crisis?

The economy news is on top of the agenda.

As soon as I woke up the other day at the hotel, I began to watch the BBC and saw a striking sentence, "Every British citizen, men, women and children indebted 3,300 Pounds."

I wouldn’t know if such a sentence in the morning will affect the day of the Brits but I saw figures of the economic crisis everywhere.

Unemployment jumped up to 6.3 percent from 6.1 in a month. Economy experts say the number of the unemployed in Britain will rise to three million this year. It is said the "white collars" will be affect the most by the crisis this time, to the contrary of the 1980 and 1990 economic crises.

In many sectors work hours were lowered with the adoption of less salary pay.

Even the Financial Times is said to have adopted the method.

A British friend of mine said six bars and restaurants are closed down a day.

I read in the Guardian daily that 72,000 outlet stores will be shut down by the end of 2009.

Therefore, the number of the stores closed due to the crisis will amount to 135,000 in Britain. Now the Brits are planning to have art activities in the areas that will be evacuated by the outlet stores, so I heard.

This is good news at least.

Speaking of art, I saw one of the most beautiful paintings by Marc Chagall at the "Opera Gallery" on New Bond Street and went in. With the curiosity of a journalist I asked the manager how the business is. "We are of course affected but not much," I was told.

Pizza sales boom

The Chagall painting was priced at $4.2 million. On the same street, another gallery owner selling the pieces of the world famous actor Anthony Quinn’s sculptor son Leonardo Quinn didn’t seem so pessimistic.

By the way, the prices of Leonardo Quinn’s pieces start at 50,000 pounds.

Another example of optimistic news is from the "fast-food" world.

Domino’s Pizza in Britain increased its sales 15 percent in the last six weeks and is said to be preparing to hire 1,500 workers.

As restaurants and bars are being shut down, the Brits remaining home due to the crisis are ordering pizza anytime of the day. So the sales in Domino’s Pizza are booming.

Orders on the Internet jumped up 25 percent, it was told. Another fast-food brand Kentucky Fried Chicken is on growth trend and will create new jobs. The summary of the three-day London visit could roughly be: The economic crisis didn’t hit pizza and art.