Today, almost everyone can order pizza, sushi, rolls, and even ordinary products like bread and milk to their home. Home delivery is available not only in large cities, but also in small towns – this service is used every day by millions of people around the world. For many, this will be a big discovery, but even Soviet citizens could order food to their home. To do this, after the 1950s, you had to call the store and list the necessary goods. The next day, a courier would arrive at your home in a car and hand over the products directly into your hands. And this service was completely free, but there were two factors due to which only a few people used the service.
Often food products were delivered by Izh-2715 car. Source: drive2.ru
Contents
- 1 Food delivery to the USSR
- 2 Flowers delivered to USSR
- 3 Cost of food with delivery
- 4 Popularity of food delivery in the USSR
Food delivery in the USSR
The home delivery service for food products was provided in large cities like Moscow, Leningrad, Novosibirsk and so on. Such services appeared around the 1950s and existed until the collapse of the USSR.
To place an order, people called special numbers and said what they needed. The necessary goods were collected manually in stores and handed over to couriers the next day. Depending on the service, they delivered orders in cars or motorcycles. Sometimes there were also walking couriers with small boxes thrown over their shoulders using a belt. Transport for home delivery of goods was usually no different from that used to transport products to stores.
A saleswoman collects products for delivery. Source: fishki.net
For example, the Izh-2715 cargo and passenger vehicle was often used to deliver goods. In the 1980s, it was the only light delivery vehicle and was often seen on the roads – the Izhevsk Automobile Plant produced more than 2 million copies of this car. Because of its unusual appearance, it was popularly called a “shoe” or “heel.”
Izh-2715 car. Source: drive2.ru
Read also:Why in the USSR people looked older than their real age
Flowers delivered to the USSR
Citizens of the USSR could order not only food products to their homes. Couriers also delivered bouquets of flowers, furniture, household appliances and even construction materials. In Moscow and Leningrad there was even a service that delivered cinema and theater tickets to your home.
Delivery of tickets to your home. Source: fishki.net
Through delivery services it was possible to buy products that rarely appeared on store shelves. For example, it was possible to “get” very high-quality sausage – it is believed that in Soviet times it was much better than today. Sometimes couriers brought canned fish and other products with them, offering to buy them for an additional fee.
Flower delivery to your home in the USSR. Source: kulturologia.ru
Flowers were in short supply in the USSR, so they were expensive. For example, a bouquet of roses in those days could cost up to 10 rubles, which was a very large amount for Soviet people. And if you count delivery, the cost increased several times, so only the richest used this service.
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Cost of food with delivery
The home delivery service was free. But, in fact, the cost of the service was already included in the price of the goods. Bread, milk, sausage and all other things delivered to the door cost about 30% more than in stores.
In Soviet times, the cost of bread was consistently low. For example, a loaf of rye bread cost 16 kopecks, and people bought white bread for 20 kopecks. Availability was due to the fact that the authorities strictly controlled the cost of goods, and flour products were produced in large bakeries.
Sometimes food was delivered on motor scooters. Source: drive2.ru
But with home delivery, bread was more expensive – with a 30% markup, it turned out that people paid 26 kopecks for a loaf. Milk in a liter bottle cost 34 kopecks, but with delivery, the price increased to 44 kopecks. And this concerned all goods without any exceptions; even the legendary “Bird's Milk” candies cost more with delivery.
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The popularity of food delivery in the USSR
Perhaps the fact that food delivery services existed during Soviet times surprised you. And this is expected, because some people did not know about this even in Soviet times.
In the consumer corners of large stores one could see advertisements that groceries could be ordered home. Sometimes posters about this hung right on the streets. But they were rare and only in big cities like Moscow. Residents of provincial towns have not even heard about all this.
Home delivery of luggage. Source: drive2.ru
And in large cities, this service was used only by rich people like party workers and representatives of the creative elite. That’s why delivery “services” in the USSR are so rarely remembered.
Most Soviet citizens, in the old fashioned way, went to stores on their own. Perhaps some men and women even twisted their heads at the sight of those who used this service – it all looked like a waste of money, of which there was already little. In addition, during the Soviet era, people were accustomed to doing everything on their own, and going to the store was not even considered work. Rather, it was something ordinary and normal.
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A lot of interesting things can be told about the peculiarities of the times of the USSR. For example, on our website there is material about how Soviet scientists were going to launch a train on the Moon and build a base for astronauts. We strongly recommend reading!