About haberdashery courtesy and Jacobin rudeness. Culturally trading in Cuba is an honorable work Honorable work

23.11.2019

Nowhere is Cuban socialism more evident than in trade. Here you go into a Cuban store - and how you got into childhood. When I was little, we were close to home grocery store was with beautiful name"Diet". By 1991, there were less and less products there, but the managers very skillfully disguised this - the goods were laid out on large counters and showcases in more and more artistic ways, the main thing was that the shelves did not look empty. But enough about the Moscow of my childhood. Today about trade in Havana.

The photo was provided by Makatun. Larger

Here's an expensive store for you. Here all prices are in . At first glance, there is a lot! But, if you look closely, you can see that most of the assortment is deodorants / shampoos as well as alcoholic drinks. Let's take a closer look at the grocery section:

The packages on the counter seem to be placed in such a way as to fill up more space (though not very successfully). And in the far corner are canned food and pasta. Here's a rich shop for you.

For the rich, there are shopping center. Shops and merchandise boutiques are located along the spiral gallery - it winds circles around the atrium in the center. The illuminated rectangle on the second floor is a huge TV, which shows football. People go to the mall not so much for shopping as for entertainment. There are eateries here - they all sell the same ice cream and sandwiches, but the prices are very high for the average Cuban. Personally, I remember GUM.

We went to an electronics store here and saw that 90% of the items are bulky stereo speakers, in the style of the early nineties.

But back to food. Here is another store for the rich. Soup bags are sold at dumping prices - from 65 cents to $1.20 (don't forget that these prices are in US dollars). Luxurious choice. These are not Nissin Cup Noodles for 79 cents! Again, you should notice how everything is laid out. Obviously, foreigners are ashamed of the poor choice (I think the locals cannot afford to spend a dollar on a bag of soup.)

We observe the same thing in the international terminal of the airport - boxes of cookies are strategically placed here. A departing tourist will not even suspect that there may be problems with food in the country - after all, the entire shelf is full!

But after all, a person is not fed up with soup and cookies alone. How about meat?

Here is the meat department of an expensive food store. The choice consists of some minced meats, hamburgers, and sausages. All this has some kind of unhealthy color, as if "the product does not exceed the level of toilet paper content established by the standard."

Once we met real meat - albeit chicken. These delicious legs are sold in the heart of old Havana, in a luxury grocery store right in front of the closed Capitol. The prices here are such that no one is in a hurry to disassemble this "poyo".

But there are real queues in the shops selling at "proletarian" prices. People stand at once with their families, communicate, listen to music. It looks like they came for a long time.

Developed street trading. For example, they sell some cakes. The quality of pastries in Cuba did not impress us, although there are a lot of bread products here (their abundance compensates for the lack of everything else).

Or here's a dude selling onions and peppers from an open truck. At such street outlets, you can buy better quality products, but as a rule, they are not encouraging with a wealth of choice.

Although sometimes you come across such enterprising dudes with vegetable carts. We sometimes sell fruit at crossroads, but in Cuba it’s The best way stock up on fresh vegetables. Prices are also very affordable, everything is calculated in national pesos. The main thing is to catch such a cart. They mostly ride in the morning.

That's what there are no problems in Cuba, so it's with alcohol. It was noticeable in the first photo. And here is what an expensive store looks like on the ground floor of the most expensive hotel:

Abundance pleases the eye. Although the prices here are "for tourists." Locals prefer to drink Havana Club national rum - a bottle can be bought at a kiosk for $2. This is in the center - probably if you look carefully, on the outskirts you can find it cheaper. Due to the fact that the trade is state-owned, prices in all stores should be the same. Those who do not want to invest in a whole bottle can drink at retail, in one of the many local bars.

The guys enjoy the weather and cheap rum. Do not look that one of them is so shy, we had a wonderful conversation with them, and even drank. The guy just doesn't want the extra fame.

And here is how the local catering workers pass the time. There are no customers, you can sleep a little.

Here is another very interesting institution - a mobile phone tuning shop. mobile connection appeared in Cuba a few years ago, but mobile internet so far very little. Yes, WiFi is expensive. Therefore, people carry their smartphones to such institutions so that they install new versions of applications. It's cheaper and faster than downloading the latest version of Facebook for Android, which weighs tens of megabytes.

V. Govorkov. "Cultural trading is an honorable work!" Poster. 1949

The other day I went to the Pyaterochka store on the eve of its closing (about 11 pm) to buy yogurt. And he became an unwitting witness to such a scene: the hall was already almost empty, there were no buyers at the cash desk, and, taking advantage of the pause, the worker sitting at the cash desk (an oriental-looking girl) dared to talk in her own way. mobile phone. It was then that she was caught by some lady from the management of the store, probably the director or deputy director. When I approached the cash register, the lady hissed furiously at the cashier:
- Last time I warn you! Once again I see - dismissal! Explanatory me on the table in the office, and the phone! If you want to communicate by cell phone, stay at home!..
The girl did not answer, only smiled guiltily, lowering her eyes.
And I somehow recalled with longing the Soviet times, when the shop workers did not fawn at the buyers, did not fawn, did not sparkle with white-toothed smiles, but behaved, perhaps even too rudely. What many did not like, and for this they were constantly denounced and "educated" in the press, almost from 1918 until 1991.

Shubina G.K. "Be a cultured seller: show the product with your face, pick up what suits your face... Honor to such a seller!" Card. 1958

Typical caricatures of Soviet-era trade workers

Catch phrases of the then Soviet saleswomen and cashiers: "There are many of you, but I am alone!", "There is no meat without bones!" (this is if the buyer in meat department complained that there were too many bones in a piece of meat), etc. Yes, the press tried to "educate" trade workers, but without much success. However, is the current syrupy politeness better? After all, behind many of today's exquisitely amiable phrases like "what interests you?" (this question is deliberately structured so that it cannot be answered in monosyllables, one had to enter into explanations) one feels fierce hatred for the buyer. In addition, if it comes to that, then there were also "oases" of haberdashery in the USSR - whoever wanted to fully enjoy it could go to the market, where the sellers were usually graciously kind and touted buyers with might and main. ("Hurry up, hurry up, buy a painting!").
They say that flaws are always a continuation of virtues, and vice versa. The current syrupy courtesy of the sellers is a continuation of their own incessant bourgeois "training" and humiliation. The ineradicable "Jacobin rudeness" of workers in the service sector in the USSR is a consequence of the fact that the Soviet ideal was the equality of all people, and "servants" or "servants" were not considered lower than those they served. Who likes more...

Agitation and political poster- main view Soviet poster. Various artistic techniques and means were used in the propaganda and political posters, in particular, they widely used the method of caricature, caricature, satire, etc. appeals of the Central Committee of the CPSU, the texts of the national anthem of the Soviet Union, etc.). In these posters, the expressiveness of the text was only enhanced by pictorial elements - ornaments, allegorical and symbolic images, etc.

The origin of the political poster goes back to the political cartoons and prints circulated in the countries Western Europe(Germany, England and France) in the XVII-XVIII centuries.

In Russia, the prototype of the poster is widely popular in the XVIII-XIX centuries folk pictures - popular prints and anti-Napoleonic sheets of 1812. The first revolutionary posters appear in Russia since 1901. The poster reached a huge development after the Great October Socialist Revolution. In the USSR, the political pact turned into a new independent form. visual arts who actively contributed to the development National economy USSR, responding to the most pressing issues of our time.

Poster "We will ensure the growth of the welfare of the people by exemplary trade!"

Instructional posters, at one time widespread in all sectors of the national economy, had as their purpose the dissemination of advanced labor methods in industry, in transport, in agriculture; they contributed to the implementation new technology and advanced technology, increasing labor productivity and production culture. Instructive posters also include health education and safety posters.

health education posters served to familiarize the population with the prevention and fight against diseases, called for the observance of sanitary and hygienic standards in everyday life and at work.

"Guys must brush their teeth thoroughly" poster

Safety Posters were widely used in industry, transport, state farms and collective farms. For city and railway. transport, posters were issued that explained to passengers the rules of safety or the use of transport (in particular, posters illustrating the rules of the road in an artistic form). In addition to the general short text, instructional posters could also contain descriptions of the ways and methods of carrying out the necessary activities. The group of safety posters should also include posters on fire prevention measures.

Poster "Check before leaving!"

Educational posters were issued in the most diverse branches of knowledge - geography, topography, botany, geology, astronomy, physics, chemistry, etc. These posters were widely used as visual aids in educational institutions, in industrial training. A special group of educational posters- aids consisted of posters produced on the instructions of DOSAAF for various defense circles (radio, aircraft and ship modeling, automoto, etc.) and for the population. Educational posters, as a rule, had a number of graphic and photo-illustrative drawings or diagrams, provided with explanatory text.

Poster "Fly with Aeroflot planes!"

"Textile workers! More durable fabrics and beautiful products!"

Poster "Oh, such fruits are harmful!"

Poster "Cultural trade is an honorable work!"

poster quality requirements. The main requirement: the printed version must correspond to the original made by the artist and the copy of the publication signed by the publishing house for printing. Defects were considered: incompatibility of colors in two- and multi-color printing, distorting the image; stains, streaks of paint, smearing of paints and “banding” in the drawing, as well as spots on blank areas of the print; oily, torn, dirty and crumpled sheets with the chalk layer torn out (in those cases when the posters were printed on coated paper), with clamps (wrinkles), sealed with bent corners, etc. Quantity and quality were checked by viewing and counting individual packs or tubes. The marriage was returned to the supplier.

Poster "If tomorrow there is war..."

Poster trade. Wholesale posters produced by central publishing houses were maintained by the All-Union Association of Book Trade - Soyuzkniga of the USSR Ministry of Culture ("Soyuzkniga", the All-Union Association of Book Trade, formed in 1958 for the centralized wholesale supply of book products. In 1973, the association became part of the Main Directorate of Book Trade and propaganda of the book of the State Committee of the Council of Ministers of the USSR for publishing, printing and book trade), and posters produced by republican, regional and local publishing houses - the corresponding book sales. Retail was carried out in cities and workers' settlements through a bookselling network, in stationery stores, newsstands of Soyuzpechat; in district centers and in the countryside - through the trade network of consumer cooperatives. In Moscow and in large republican centers there were specialized shops selling art products, including posters. The main types of notification trading network about the poster production being prepared for release were the annual thematic plans publishing houses with inserts for placing orders and regularly published “Order Forms” of Soyuzkniga, which published annotated titles of posters that were in print. In addition, publishing houses used to send information letters to the trading network with lists of political posters coming out and with their photocopies. Local booksellers had to timely inform institutions and organizations, large industrial enterprises and others about the upcoming receipt and in the future about the receipt of the relevant publications at the warehouse. In specialized stores, posters were hung in window display cases and in prominent places inside the store and provided with serial numbers, under which they were listed in the store's assortment. The buyer called the numbers he needed, and the seller selected posters using these numbers.

Poster "Cotton fabrics"

Packing, transportation and storage. Posters were packed by printing companies in packs or "tubes" weighing no more than 8 kg (for the convenience of mailing without repacking). The number of copies of posters in a pack or "tube" should be the same for the entire publication. Posters of ¼ sheet size and less were packed in closed flat packs with "split" laying; with a sheet format and more - in the same packs with laying in one or two parallel folds. Each pack had to be wrapped in two layers of wrapping paper and tied with twine. The edges of the pack were to be sealed with quick-drying glue. Transportation was usually carried out in cardboard boxes and containers in primary printed packaging. Posters were stored on racks in rooms protected from dampness and direct sunlight. Permissible relative humidity in the room should not exceed 70%.