All Shops: "A Millionaire in Minsk!" Belarus Shopping Tip by rboittier

Shopping in Belarus is a must. OK, so average monthly wages are $100-200 and the cost of living makes everything cheap to us Westerners. You really can feel like a Millionaire in Minsk! Don't feel that you are pillaging the locals, they will be grateful for your tourist cash...

When shopping for food or convenience goods, some stores operate a strange (to us) system. One store could have a long counter that is split into 5 sections. You have to buy your milk from one till, then your meat from another and so on. This happens in the smallest of shops. You are forever paying then taking 2 steps to the right, paying then another 2 steps and so on...

What to buy: Generally speaking, local goods are cheap. Eg: textiles, clothing, furniture, household, food & drink, cigarettes and gifts.

Imported electrical goods are expensive and why buy something that you can easily get at home?

What to pay: We bought some linen tea towells which were locally made and of excellent quality. They were about $0.50 each! The kids bought lots of gifts like Russian Dolls which cost between $3 & $7.

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