Job Discussion Forums

[PaulE]

Just a couple of things that seem odd to me about living in Moscow so far - maybe more experienced people have got to the bottom of these conundrums:

1. When you buy something in a shop, why do they tear the receipt?

2. Milk, yoghurt etc - why aren't they put in the fridge sections of shops / supermarkets instead of stacked in the isle?

Cheers

[George1983]

1. This is a hang-up from Soviet days. It was illegal to be unemployed in the Soviet Union, so lots of jobs were created essentially to make employment, rather than seeking the most efficient way of carrying out a task. Therefore it became usual in shops to choose something to buy. You would then go to a seperate counter to pay for the good, and be issued with a receipt. You then take your proof of purchase back to the person who still has the item you want to buy. They rip the receipt when they hand over the object to show the receipt is no longer valid to buy an item, though it can be used to return it.
It's just one of those quirks that occurred and seems to be left over.

2. I'm not sure if this is still the case, but it used to be nearly impossible to get fresh dairy proucts in much of Russia. They embraced UHT to preserve milk because lots of it had to travel such vast distances (while the Politburo had their dairy flown in from Riga). Fresh milk would often be 'off' by the time it reached its destination. UHT, however, does not need to be stored cool, so they got used to putting it on ordinary shelves. This is probably just another hang-up from the past, likely to change as shopping becomes more Westernised.

George

[mdk]

You have to remember that it usually is not that warm.

In Tomsk it was possible to see a "water buffalo" type trailer selling raw milk on the street in the Spring and Fall. Similar trailers would be selling Kvass (Although I always bought the bottled stuff). Certainly if you go into a Rinok (similar to a covered market in France or Spain) you will see a lot of unpackaged food. In Tomsk you could find freshly caught Pike, etc. on sale.

I used to happily eat the creme filled "Troubochka" pastries I would see on sale in the shops. Then I bought one the day after the snow was off the ground (May 1st in Tomsk) and it turned me every which way but loose. So in order to evaluate your question properly, I would have to enquire into the weather. If it is, like, 0 degrees Centigrade you can buy lots of stuff I wouldn't touch at 10 degrees.

As to all that stuff with tearing up receipts - go over to Gorbushkin Dvor (next to the Bagrationskaya market) where I used to buy my music CD's (like an *.MP3 with all of Stachmo's recordings for $4) and you won't see anything like that. The Russians are too busy carrying off the plasma screen TV's