Grocery Shopping, Soviet Style

Anyone who lived in Russia during the Soviet and immediate post-Soviet era will be familiar with “perhaps bags,” those handy string bags that could be balled up in a purse or pocket when not in use, but could expand to encompass three times their weight in groceries and other goods. The reason for perhaps bags was simple. One never knew where one might encounter a bargain or a rare good or food stuff. In an economy of scarcity, one was always on the look out for various staples.

When I lived in Russia, I, like most Russians, shopped nearly every day for groceries in the small outdoor markets and kiosks that surrounded various metro stops. There were (and are) modern grocery stores, of course, but they are small by Western standards, and tend to be stocked oddly. I learned that if I found a particular brand I liked, I should stock up because it was almost certain I would never find that brand again. (I found this annoyance to be particularly true of tomato-based products). I learned to keep my eyes open for things that weren’t widely available, like water-canned tuna, or brown sugar, or Heinz ketchup.

I took this photo and the two below at various Moscow markets in the fall of 2002.

The other reality of grocery shopping in such a setting is that you can only buy what you can conceivably carry home. So I never bought watermelons, and was careful about how much of my grocery load was liquid. I bought things in smaller quantities that I would have in America. Milk was by the quart instead of the gallon, and water and juice by the liter.

I used to think this way of shopping was peculiar to Russia and the former Soviet Union, but as I’ve lived on the East Coast a while, I realize it is more to do with the nature of urban shopping. There are almost no “big box” stores in the central part of the city, and the bigger name grocery stores are much smaller than what you might find in the suburbs. It is rare to do one-stop shopping. We have to rely not only on the smaller grocery stores, but on the myriad of Korean-run corner stores and produce stands, as well as an indoor farmer’s market in the heart of downtown Philly. We buy in smaller quantities than we would if we lived in the suburbs. We do try to eat locally and seasonally, but as our family has grown, it has gotten more logistically difficult for us to purchase our produce and dairy from the local farmer’s market (which is a 20 minute bus ride away), especially in the wintertime, and the neighborhood grocery isn’t particularly good about stocking local items in the off season.

We live about four city blocks from a Whole Foods and about 10 city blocks from a small Trader Joe’s (that runs through its entire inventory about every three days, which gives you an idea of how busy they are). In our neighborhood there are three pharmacies that also stock a few grocery items, a convenience store, as well as three Korean-run corner stores that sell groceries and deli sandwiches. All these little shops are within about three blocks of our house. Because we have chosen to drive as little as possible in the city, we do most of our grocery shopping on foot or by bike, only occasionally venturing out to a big box grocery store in the suburbs. My husband is enormously helpful in this regard as he bikes to work and has invested in some decent saddlebags, so he often stops at Trader Joe’s for me on his way home to pick up items that I can’t carry home myself.

What that means is that if I can’t carry it home, I can’t buy it. It means I must go to the store every 2-3 days, especially for fresh produce. The size of our kitchen prevents us from seriously stocking up on anything anyway, so it works out for the most part. It does mean that when winter storms hit, or the weather is yucky (as it tends to be much of the fall here), that we rely more heavily on the corner stores than on the Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s, but that is one of the hidden costs of living in the city. It also means that if I overestimate how much I can carry, I have to hail a taxi, which adds to the overall cost of the grocery run. A few years ago we did purchase one of those granny carts that are useful for grocery runs, but the particular model that we purchased is a large bulky one that is cumbersome to steer. I tend to rely more on the under basket of my stroller, or my own (not-so) brute strength to pack mule everything home. (I should add that the walk home is largely uphill). It means too that whenever I’m in a different part of the city, I tend to pop into whatever little grocery stores I come across on the off chance that they will carry something our neighborhood stores don’t. I have a terrible time finding baking cocoa, for example, and there is a particular brand of no-chicken bouillon that I like and Whole Foods no longer carries (that whole “don’t get attached to a brand because you’ll never find it again” thing…) And no matter where I am, I’ve learned it is best to shop with a basket instead of a cart because it is a better measure of what I can actually carry home. It is handy to have a backpack to carry heavier items, in addition to the reusable bags that are so ubiquitous now, but I usually have a baby in a carrier on my back, so that doesn’t always work out so well for me. The shopping lessons I learned while in Russia have served me well in the city.

We have started buying certain things in bulk online. Amazon is a great resource for these things, I’ve found. I’m quite certain we would have to drive a lot more if it weren’t for the Amazon Subscribe and Save and Amazon Mom programs. The first gives bulk rate discounts and the second gives free shipping on most things. The only thing I’m still trying to find in bulk is twin packs of Cheerios, which we have, up until now, purchased quarterly at a bulk buying club store. I confess to being a brand snob on this particular item. I just can’t find a generic brand of Cheerios that is as good as the original. I’d rather get the car out every 4 months and run up to the suburbs than purchase a generic in bulk online.

In the meantime, I build lots of time for grocery shopping into my schedule (it helps that my three year old thinks going to Whole Foods is the best thing next to going to church) and thank God that I have a good eye for spatial storage and strong arms.