Krasnodar’s Newest Supermarket

DSC00299 - 2007-04-30 at 03-33-46
Here’s a photo from Krasnodar’s newest supermarket in the Yubilanee neighborhood. It’s called Okei which is a bit confusing since IKEA will be opening soon in Krasnodar and the two names sound familiar in Russian. Okei is actually more of a hypermarket since it has both food, clothing, household, and consumer products. In Krasnodar there is a boom in the hypermarket space with a number of stores already in operation and many more to come. It will be very interesting to watch how my friend Sergei Galitsky’s Magnit chain does in competition with Okei and some others such as Auchon and Oz.

Regardless of whom emerges the “winner” (there’s certainly enough consumer demand to support many hypermarkets (Krasnodar has approximately 1 million people) the consumers of Krasnodar will certainly benefit. Okei is Western European in appearance and selection. I almost feel as if I’m in Newton Centre at the local Whole Foods when I walk around Okei. Like Whole Foods, there’s 25+ varieties of cheese and meters and meters of fresh produce from the farms around Krasnodar.

So if you still think of Russia as a land of consumer deprivation, think again. The new Russia looks and feels a lot like “home” back in the West.

// 05.15.2007 at 9:15 am // Tagged krasnodar, russia
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