Monstrous prices in the shops of the Far North

The biggest impression for the first time falling to the North is the shock of prices in stores. It is one thing to hear something about high prices, another is to see price tags on store shelves and to understand that people really have to buy all this.

I propose a walk through the Chukchi shops and see what it is in the Far North.

There is only one supermarket in Chukotka, it is located in Anadyr. The remaining stores operate in the classic Soviet format with counters and sellers. Small shops, as a rule, are located on the first floors of residential buildings.

Large deliveries are made during the navigation period; in Pevek, navigation lasts from July 6 to October 25. Now awaiting the approach of ships with goods. All products of long-term storage are imported by sea, this is the cheapest method of delivery. In winter, an alternative appears, you can carry cars on a winter road. Perishable products are imported by plane.

Canned food: rice porridge - 100 rubles per can, buckwheat porridge with mushrooms - 95 rubles, ham - 150 rubles.

Beef stew - 230-350 rudders per can, horse meat - 300, lamb - 350.

Sausages 300 rubles per 350 gram pack, sausage - from 800 to 1550 rubles per kilogram. Red caviar is also not cheap: 2900 rubles per kilogram.

The meat is all frozen. The cheapest is venison.

Price tags for meat. Chicken from 430 rubles per kilogram.

The cheapest way to eat cereals and pasta. The long shelf life allows them to be imported for a whole year. Macaroni - 140 rubles / kg, buckwheat and rice - 150 rubles / kg. Eggs are expensive, instead of them, egg powder is 350 rubles / kg, milk powder costs the same.

There are problems with drinking water in Pevek. You can’t drink water from the tap, for a long time the reservoir was destroyed, water was obtained from the sea at desalination plants. Recently, the dam was restored, but due to the muck in the pipes, it still stinks.

A water carrier rides around the city, once a week you need to collect water supplies. If you do not have time, you will have to buy in stores. In municipal five-liter cars costs about 50 rubles, in commercial - 200.

Lemonade is also expensive.

Surprisingly, relatively cheap potatoes and cabbage. Of course, when compared with other products in Chukotka, and not with the mainland.

Tomatoes and cucumbers are very expensive. Therefore, in my Chukchi refrigerator lies a stock from the mainland. The benefit of "VIM-Avia" even at the "Economy" tariff allows you to carry 1 piece of baggage up to 23 kg + 1 piece of hand luggage up to 5 kg, not including a laptop and a camera. I always carry food to the maximum, once it was an epic food suitcase.

From store to store, prices and quality vary, there is a choice, but the overall price level is sky-high.

Carrots, onions, potatoes, garlic.

Do you like lemon tea? Lemons at 600 rubles per kilogram, pepper already at 690.

You can buy sauerkraut and salted tomatoes. A lot of vitamins in seaweed.

Now let's see the prices of fruits.

Fruits are most often imported by plane. Delivery of 1 kilogram of cargo costs more than 300 rubles, respectively, the prices are amazing.

About salaries. Some people think that high prices in the North are offset by high salaries. It used to be. During the Soviet era, prices in Chukotka differed from prices in Central Russia by about 10 percent, and salaries were three times or more. Now everything has changed.

Relatively high salaries of shift workers in mines: a motor grader driver receives 102 thousand rubles, a mine mechanic receives up to 160,000 rubles, but many residents have much lower wages. The seller has 40-60 thousand rubles, the teacher, taking into account all the coefficients, 60 thousand rubles, the municipal enterprise "Chaunskoye municipal utilities" is looking for a car driver for a salary of 48,000 rubles or more, another municipal enterprise "Chaunskoye Trading Company" offers a confectioner 39000 rubles.

Perhaps the champions in the difference in prices with the mainland are bananas. Compared to the store closest to me, the price difference is ten times.