Crisis hits Russian retailers

Big foreign retailers such as Finland’s Stockmann seem determined to ride out the crisis although their sales have suffered like everyone else’s.

"I knew things were getting tough when people started asking the prices of things…New Russians never worried about price tags before," said a clerk in a Moscow shop belonging to the fashion group Hugo Boss. She said she hadn’t rung up a sale in nearly two weeks.

"Before people would come in, point to what they wanted and hand over a credit card barely saying a word. Now they’re peeking through the window or asking what’s on sale." For poorer Russians, who have born the brunt of seven years ofeconomic reforms, the difference is even more dramatic.

After recently making the rounds of her local stores, one Moscow pensioner said she had forgone buying what were now "luxury items" — socks and oranges.

"That’s a sure sign of how bad things have become," said one Western observer.