[Oatka]

Back in the ‘90s I worked with a gal just over from Russia (striking blonde). She told of the following:
1) Home deliveries of milk were uncertain - it depended upon whther the milkman/company paid off the mafia to allow them to deliver.
2) When you bought broccoli, half of it was dirt - no squeaky clean stuff like you see here.
3) Stand alone drink dispensers of sweet tea had a tin cup on a chain. You used part of your drink to rinse out the cup before you drank - no cups dispensed, only the tea.
4) Her mom came with her. The first time they entered a supermarket, her mom started screaming. Manager, et al came over to see what was the matter. Mom was overwhelmed at all the food available and freaked out..

How long before we are there?

[LuciaMia]

Reminds me of the movie, ‘Moscow On The Hudson.” Robin Williams’ character goes into the supermarket, asks the manager where’s the line for coffee. Manager says, ‘no line, coffee’s in aisle three.” Williams, in disbelief, starts reading off all the coffee brands, finally collapsing on the floor in an anxiety attack.

[boop]

I still don't "get" how the Soviet Union was supposed to work. The government owns everything. People worked and drew an incredibly meager salary that would barely let them buy a very limited amount of sub-par goods, that they had to stand in a line for.

Why did even the hardest-core liberal in America think that was a system that "worked"?

Yes most leftists that believe this crap were from middle and upper clases, but didn't they SEE how the average Soviet lived?

Even during our great depression you didn't see people like this. And this was the Soviet Union "heyday". Not like things looked any different in 1971 or 1951.

[headstamp 2]

“Her mom came with her. The first time they entered a supermarket, her mom started screaming. Manager, et al came over to see what was the matter. Mom was overwhelmed at all the food available and freaked out..”

I saw this same thing with two Polish guys the first time they entered a supermarket over here in the mid 80’s. They stood in shock at the front door and had to compose themselves before entering. One started to weep. Then they were like two kids in a candy store.

[bubbacluck]

I visited in August of '89. Toilet paper was difficult to locate, and like someone else mentioned, there were water dispenser vending machines with a community cup on a chain.

The people were cool. The government not so cool.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***4) Her mom came with her. The first time they entered a supermarket, her mom started screaming. Manager, et al came over to see what was the matter. Mom was overwhelmed at all the food available and freaked out..***

Same thing almost happened here when a Russian exchange student first visited Walmart.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

One thing we were taught 60 years ago in school on the high plains was how to make a cup out of a sheet of paper.

I’ve never forgot.

[bgill]

I was there in the 70s and it was the same. Nothing changes there. The deal with their stores vs. ours is that they sell one or two items in each store. One store might sell sewing machines and cabbage. Another shoes and radios. Nothing else. The items usually had no connection. It made no sense. They always had lines. Even the street vendors had lines. They had the tea dispensers but even in the 70s, it'd give you your own dixie cup - no tin cup on a chain. No coke machines with bottles or cans but sometimes you could get Pepsi at a restaraunt. Also, the government had a list of products that needed to be produced but if something was accidently left off the list, too bad, it wasn't made that year. IIRC, that year it was something like toothpaste. They had toothbrushes but no toothpaste. The women had just discovered hair dye but it was that awful orange/red from the '50s. Just like the weather, everything and everyone looked gray and gloomy.

I'm thinking the culture has a lot to do with the lines. With just a couple items sold in each store, you spend all your time going from one store to the next. They shop daily for food whereas I may go to the grocery store once or twice a month so I'm in only a couple lines a month rather than several lines every day. Your co-worker's mom wasn't freaking over the abundance of food but that it was all in one place.