Moscow - Москва - Moskau / Russia

Moscow - Москва - Moskau / Russia

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  • Chris Helmbrecht
    Chris Helmbrecht    Premium Member   Group moderator   Ambassador
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    Moscow: Shopping @ AWAH
    I knew it wasn’t a good idea to go shopping on Sunday, but we have nothing else to do so we decide to drive to the outskirts of Moscow and visit one of the large commercial centers. I believe, there are 3 around Moscow and usually it’s a combination of IKEA, MEGA mall (also owned by IKEA), OBI, Awan (Achuan France) and a few other large outlets. There is one of these shopping centers about a 10-15 minute drive outbound of Moscow just near our closest main street (Profsayusnaya) and we decided to go buy a stock of groceries at Awan, because it’s supposed to be cheaper there.

    Anyways, I knew it was a bad idea. I have heard of 2 hour waiting lines at IKEA and Awan on weekends and when we enter the store I get shocked. It’s a stampede of (mainly) Russian lower and lower middle class families shopping. The staff doesn’t even try to empty the boxes with the goods into shelf’s, instead they just offered the boxes itself for takeout. Many shelf’s are empty and the staff has a hard time navigating their staplers within the masses of people to fill up the empty spots. Last time I have seen something like this; was the supermarket across the street of our office in NYC on September 11th 2001. When almost everything was gone, especially water and conserves.

    The mass of people, combined with the usual rough Russians bumping into me with their shopping carts or blocking my way, is purely nerve wrecking. Then I see the line to the cashier. It it’s a very long line and I just want to leave my shopping cart and run away, but my girlfriend convinces me with the words: “Come on. Now we are here and it’s so much cheaper here than elsewhere”. Well, it takes us half an hour to get our vegetables and fruits weighed and packed. Another half to get through the meat section. At this point I am really running close to a nervous breakdown and we enter the larger middle way again. What I see, reminds me very much of a Moscow boulevard in rush hour. It’s packed, blocked and people are pushing their carts left and right and against the flow, just like the are driving. Purely crazy! I am close to kill someone.

    Passing the fish section and making it slowly to the cosmetics. There, I spotted a shorter checkout line in a solo scouting mission before, while my girl was still deciding which yoghurt to choose. When I came back from my solo-run I found her almost crying, because she has thought she lost me. No baby! This Awan is just like Al Campo in Tenerife. Same layout, just a few thousand more people. I know my way around from the past. And in any case, what do we have cell-phones for: “Hey, where are you? Ah, near the cheese. OK wait. I come. I am at the frozen goods. Comin’ over!”. That is modern day life. I just can’t think of hungry mouths in Africa or elsewhere, while I am in this cheap consume temple. But hunger is very close, because I am in Russia.

    While standing in line, I am calming down. There is still the usual bumping from the back and sneaking in from the side, but I have an aim in front of me and that is the cashier about 10 overloaded shopping carts in front of me. Just close the gap to the guy in front (like in Moscow traffic) and no one will sneak in, I think. Alright, its time for people watch. There are two women in the line near me drinking their little apple juices already. 2 carts in front of them two guys are opening their Miller beer bottles and start their own private shopping party. I have to laugh. One if them looks like an old communist working class hero in his old black leather jacket, but he has a blue tooth headset hanging on his ear. Wonder if he is expecting some important business calls. Smile. I think identical blue tooth imitations out of plastic for $3 each would be a top seller.

    Finally, another half hour later and a total of 3 hours after we entered the store we are standing at the cashier. I calculate our items in the shopping cart and ask my girlfriend how much cash she has with her. It turns out we both don’t have enough. Wonder id they accept credit cards in here? Yes, of course I think, they do most of the large supermarkets in the city and Al Campo (also Achuan) in Spain does as well. Well, being a German I want security and my girlfriend asks the cashier while we put our stuff on the black gummy band. She earns a simple NO from the Cashier and I can see panic in my girlfriends eyes. There are 15 angry families with full carts behind us waiting to check out. The problem is solved quick. I spot an ATM just across and pull the money, while she is still putting the stuff on the band. Another 5 minutes later we are the happy owner of a full grocery cart. The amount of shopping would have cost us double in the markets close to our house, but I’d have done it in an hour instead of 3. Well, we will try again. Some weekday morning or late at night. Maybe its better than.

    I took all photos with my cell phone. Sorry for the bad quality. Didn’t have my digicam with me.

    ( THIS ARTICLE WAS TAKEN FROM MY BLOG> YOU'll FIND THE PHOTOS THERE: http://www.cyber-generation.net/blog/ )
    This post was modified on 09 Mar 2005 at 09:18 am.
    • 09 Mar 2005, 09:13 am
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