In St. Petersburg you can still find shops that operate in good old Soviet fashion.
Think about a shop that comprises of one big room with walls covered in groceries. In front of the groceries is a counter that circles the whole room. Operating this counter are several sellers in white lab coats. With one glance you can see verything you can buy. The counter is divided into sections such as bread, meat, dairy etc. For each section there is a separate queue and a shared cashier. If for example you want to buy bread, cheese and ham, this is how it goes.
You go to the bread queue and wait for your turn. When you get to the counter you tell the seller what kind of bread you want. The seller then tells you the total price of your purchase. After this you go to the joint cashier line and pay for the bread there. The cashier gives you a receipt which you have to take back to the bread seller to get your bread.
Next you move on to the dairy section and repeat the procedure. And then you do the same in the meat section. Fun, huh?
Luckily in the city where I live, things are much more simple. The shops there look a lot like the shops in St. Petersburg, but operate so that you can select and pay your purchase at the same time. The first time, though, I had some trouble understanding the protocol. I did not know the importance of sectioning. I was shopping for bread and also asked for a bottle of water. The cooler was about half a meter from the bread shelf and the cashier didn't look too happy when she handed me the water. I started to suspect that I had done something wrong.
The next day I went back to the same shop and tried to buy the same groceries. This time the cashier would not sell me the water. I was dumbfounded, and asked her why she couldn't sell it. Luckily she was kind enough to educate the simple foreigner in the fine art of grocery shopping. She took a step towards the cooler and clearly draw a line between it and the bread shelf. The bread section ended there, and along with it, her jurisdiction. Thankful for the lesson, I paid for the bread, took half a step to the right and started to wait for a cashier.
Yet another Russian shopping speciality
They don't have exchange of money! So, please keep exchanges in your pocket all the time.
Pic. Kuznechnij rinok - covered market place
This market place existed during the blockade 8.9.1941 - 18.1.1944. During this period, hundrets of thousands of people died of starvation. This market place was famous for beeing a place where it was possible to find something to eat while at the same time on the streets people were dying of starvation.
Pic. An old shop in Tikhvin
Think about a shop that comprises of one big room with walls covered in groceries. In front of the groceries is a counter that circles the whole room. Operating this counter are several sellers in white lab coats. With one glance you can see verything you can buy. The counter is divided into sections such as bread, meat, dairy etc. For each section there is a separate queue and a shared cashier. If for example you want to buy bread, cheese and ham, this is how it goes.
You go to the bread queue and wait for your turn. When you get to the counter you tell the seller what kind of bread you want. The seller then tells you the total price of your purchase. After this you go to the joint cashier line and pay for the bread there. The cashier gives you a receipt which you have to take back to the bread seller to get your bread.
Next you move on to the dairy section and repeat the procedure. And then you do the same in the meat section. Fun, huh?
Luckily in the city where I live, things are much more simple. The shops there look a lot like the shops in St. Petersburg, but operate so that you can select and pay your purchase at the same time. The first time, though, I had some trouble understanding the protocol. I did not know the importance of sectioning. I was shopping for bread and also asked for a bottle of water. The cooler was about half a meter from the bread shelf and the cashier didn't look too happy when she handed me the water. I started to suspect that I had done something wrong.
The next day I went back to the same shop and tried to buy the same groceries. This time the cashier would not sell me the water. I was dumbfounded, and asked her why she couldn't sell it. Luckily she was kind enough to educate the simple foreigner in the fine art of grocery shopping. She took a step towards the cooler and clearly draw a line between it and the bread shelf. The bread section ended there, and along with it, her jurisdiction. Thankful for the lesson, I paid for the bread, took half a step to the right and started to wait for a cashier.
Yet another Russian shopping speciality
They don't have exchange of money! So, please keep exchanges in your pocket all the time.
Pic. Kuznechnij rinok - covered market place
This market place existed during the blockade 8.9.1941 - 18.1.1944. During this period, hundrets of thousands of people died of starvation. This market place was famous for beeing a place where it was possible to find something to eat while at the same time on the streets people were dying of starvation.
Pic. An old shop in Tikhvin
Pic. A modern shopping center in St.Petersburg.
