Vyacheslav Chernov, entrepreneur, civil activist
Yesterday was shopping. It turned out that relatively recently I built a small turnkey pavilion to order for the same money for which today in a small room I have to lay the floors and clad the ceiling.
Over the past years, I have made many shoe dryers and all attachments cost 15 thousand. Yesterday I had to pay 100 for a set. The pump, which cost about 4 thousand, costs 30 and these are the last ones, then only Russian and Chinese.
I took the previously ordered four mats for outdoor sofas (2 seats, 2 backs). Ordinary foam rubber in some kind of canvas case. 42 thousand. Previously, for this money, a very good sofa could be bought.
On the showcase in the shopping center - frank fakes under the brand name of famous brands.
I went to M-video: without exaggeration - empty shelves. For goods smeared with a thin layer - absolutely wild prices. The only thing that has not risen in price significantly - TVs. However, the number of branded ones has sharply decreased and many with difficult-to-pronounce names have appeared.
There are many signs that the goods presented in the window have been sold. This was done simply so that the counters would not be completely empty.
In the eyes of the sellers, there is hope for "parallel imports", in other words, for turning into a sort of big blackmailer under the guise of officials and cops.
I bought a laptop, they ask: do you need an office? Of course you have to. I come to pick up - here's an office for you, it's good, everything opens, honestly, honestly, a wonderful analogue! Do you mean analogue? Well, Microsoft left, but we can still supply you with a branded one - it will cost 10 thousand, they took all the keys, but ours somehow managed to get a few keys, and they still exist.
In general, such entertaining conversations in the largest electronics store. Like in the market in the rain with a man in a raincoat 30 years ago.
With my mind, I understood that all day I should have been glad that people would freeze in Europe in winter, but treacherous doubts on this score pierced my soul, and the feeling of happiness was given with great effort.
Recently we were asked, asked: do you want to be like in the 90s? Everyone answered in unison: we don't want to!
But it turned out that “we can repeat”...