Life in Russia Under Sanctions: Half-Empty Malls, Food Prices in St. Petersburg
This video I'm going to show you Russian malls and grocery shopping 6 weeks after sanctions. I'm visiting the biggest mall in St. Petersburg just to compare life before and after sanctions in Russia.
Keep doing my little thing of sharing my life with you. Hope you learned something new after watching this video!
For people complaining about him not talking about Ukraine, don't forget he could literally lose his future by going to jail for talking in opposition to the "sPecIal mIliTaRy oPerRatIoN" so just let Niki show us whats going on in Russia during these events and help support him in anyway you can. Im sure he feels the same way we all do about Ukraine but its not safe for him to comment on it.
I was surprised by the prices for bread. The ones you showed are very similar to what is in my local grocery store. We have the factory bakeries that make presliced loaves and are either cheap or medium quality. Then there is the grocery store bakery that makes loaves at the store and they're fresh. Where I live a cheap loaf is $1.50, medium quality is $3-4, high quality is $6-8 or more!
I understand that life has become hard for many people, here in my hometown in Scotland the 54% price increase in home electric and gas is harD enough but also the lack of choice and the prices of food have become a problem for me who is single. But i feel for familie's with young children because in contrast to popular opinion there are many hundreds of thousands of families that are loosing their homes or have no way to feed themselves after feeding the children so from what i have seen on the several Russian YT channels i watch you guys do seem to be doing better than us.
Niki, we almost always follow the specials in the West, and Asia as well! I will tell you one thing though. There is nothing about that mall that is any different in concept and variety (should it be operating normally) than any mall in any other Western or modern Asian country. I think once certain imported foods start to dry up though, weeks or months down the line, you might feel it a little harder to adapt. 6 weeks may not even be enough to see the end of the changes. That said, I do understand Russians are resilient and stoic, something Western sanctions may underestimate, but as you concluded, it would be good everyone was thriving rather than surviving. It all boils down to teh actions of one man, unfortunately.
I live in the US around DC. We don't have sanctions, but still high inflation (supply chain/labor shortages/Covid,etc) especially for food and gasoline (petrol) for cars
I noticed the host walking around his St Petersburg super market very similar to walking around US super markets. A lot of the same foods - but not so much on dumplings here.
I have a really good pension (I'm retired), so I'm not so impacted by inflation. German discount super market chain has really taken off, and I get a lot of stuff there, since I grew up in a poor family and I'm still rather cost-conscious. Not extravagant at all.
I'm also fortunate financially, so I donate a lot of money to charities, since I know a lot of people are worse off them me
