Chen Lan and Xu Mingxuan, a couple, cooperated seamlessly. Xu Mingxuan placed the exchanged frozen fish into the two baskets he carried on his back, while Chen Lan used her mind to put them into the system's warehouse.
Of course, the couple operated this way because Chen Lan noticed that there were not many people on the street anymore. As long as no one was paying attention to them, they dared to use their minds to instantly collect all the frozen fish in their baskets into the system warehouse when no one was watching. Afterward, the couple prepared to leave Pogranichny town and head back.
On their way back, the couple passed by the town's consumer cooperative again and found that there was no longer a queue at the entrance. Chen Lan wanted to go inside and see what a rural consumer cooperative in the Soviet era looked like. Although the couple did not have any Soviet rubles to purchase goods inside, they still decided to go in and observe the price levels of the time. This way, they could know themselves and the enemy, and when they exchanged grain with the local farms later, they would have a clear idea and wouldn't be easily deceived.
The consumer cooperative in Pogranichny town was a standalone building made of brick and stone, a typical Russian-style brick and stone structure. The sky-blue and light beige exterior decoration was bright, very beautiful, and eye-catching.
A Soviet consumer cooperative was a rural collective economic cooperative organization. Its shareholders were composed of members of collective farms, employees of state farms, farmers, and representatives of the rural intellectual class.
It was organized and developed after World War II out of the Soviet Union's need for economic development, to encourage rural economic growth.
Consumer cooperatives reduced many intermediate links in the sales process, leading to relatively low prices and good quality for all products, which brought many conveniences to consumers and indeed attracted a lot of purchasing power from rural areas during this period in the Soviet Union.
Consumer cooperatives in various agricultural regions owned cooperative shops, cooperative restaurants, cooperative purchasing stations, cooperative bakeries, and other cooperative processing enterprises, such as: "sausage processing plants, candy factories, livestock slaughterhouses, flour processing plants, etc."
Some consumer cooperatives in remote areas even had kindergartens, primary schools, and secondary schools. These educational facilities were entirely free for all members of the collective farms!
The couple walked into the cooperative. The interior was not particularly large, estimated to be around 140 to 150 square meters. Except for the side near the entrance, the other three walls were lined with shelves, but the goods on the shelves were quite abundant!
The shelves displayed all kinds of canned goods, sausages, candies, pastries, hardware tools, pots and pans, and various types of bread, clothing, fabrics, shoes, and hats. In short, it had everything needed for daily life, like a general store.
When the couple first arrived in town, they noticed a long queue, so they didn't go in. Now, at this time, there were not many people in the store, and including the couple, there were only a few scattered individuals.
There were only four salesclerks and one cashier in the cooperative. The four salesclerks were currently serving customers at the counter, and no one was paying attention to the couple.
So, Xu Mingxuan took Chen Lan's hand and first went to the food counter. While looking at the goods, he whispered to Chen Lan about the price of grain: "Lan'er, the price of a kilogram of black bread in the cooperative is 1 ruble, and white bread is 3 rubles per kilogram."
Then he led Chen Lan to the beef counter and whispered the price of beef: "Lan'er, the beef here is 12.5 rubles per kilogram."
After walking around, Chen Lan learned that frozen fish was 7 rubles per kilogram, milk was 2.3 rubles per liter, and sugar was 9.5 rubles per kilogram.
And the light industrial products here were indeed as rumored, but they were really very expensive. A pair of high leather boots cost 249 rubles, and a pair of ordinary leather shoes cost 189 rubles, while a meter of velvet only cost 8 rubles.
At this time, the social status of workers and peasants in the Soviet Union was particularly high. The salary of an ordinary worker ranged from 900 to 1300 rubles. Therefore, a salary of 900 rubles at this time could buy 300 kilograms of white bread, about 75 kilograms of beef, 300 liters of milk, and 4 pairs of leather shoes.
It could be seen that at this time, an ordinary Soviet worker could relatively easily afford to feed their family with their salary, as long as they didn't have any other extra expenses.
The couple browsed in the store for a while and then came out. In Chen Lan's words, they didn't have any rubles in hand, and it was too frustrating to see things they wanted to buy but couldn't. They would be better off honestly exchanging things from the system for grain, sausages, and big fish.
Holding hands, the couple continued to walk back and noticed a stall not far ahead where many people were gathered, looking down and selecting something. Chen Lan was very curious and wanted to go and see, so the couple walked quickly and saw that it was a bookstall.
A crowd of people, both men and women, mostly around thirty years old, were gathered at the bookstall, browsing books.
Regarding reading, it is said that in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Soviet Union was known as the country with the highest reading volume in the world. Citizens of the Soviet Union at this time were very passionate about reading!
On the streets of the Soviet Union, it was common to see people taking advantage of the time waiting for a bus, resting on park benches, or even waiting for their food to be served in restaurants, all engrossed in reading. This was a common sight on the streets of the Soviet Union in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
The large number of people gathered at the bookstalls on the streets also indicated one thing: the living standards of Soviet people at this time were relatively high. It was evident that ordinary people in the Soviet Union at this time had already solved the problem of basic needs and had begun to pursue higher culture.
This period could be considered the "golden age" of the Soviet Union. During this era, the Soviet economy was relatively prosperous, and the living standards of the people had greatly improved.
Chen Lan felt that, in detail, the reason why Soviet people at this time were so enthusiastic about reading books and newspapers was also related to the lack of entertainment activities in daily life. Computers were not widespread, there were no online games, and no smartphones. People had nowhere to go to pass their free time, so reading books and newspapers naturally became the choice for many.
However, it must be said that without the mindset to settle down and absorb knowledge, and a deep inner craving for knowledge, the per capita reading volume of a nation cannot be increased.