It is when traveling that we notice most how things are different in Serbia to our former life. Suddenly, having crossed the Hungarian border, we remember the large hypermarkets that occupy the landscape of the west. Very few of them exist in Serbia, we know three in Belgrade, two of which are smaller than the local warehouse in Bingen. The usual way to do the shopping would be to go on the market. There are smaller ones, like the one in our neighborhood with maybe 150 stands. Or a big one, easy the size of a football field. And there you can buy maybe not everything, but most of the things you need. Agricultural products like vegetables, meat, fruit and bread of course. But also toilet paper, waste baskets, plugs, tools, clothes, mobile phone equipment, soap, cosmetics and everything else someone can imagine to buy and resell. Of course, the advantage of such markets is tremendous: they are cheap. No fancy floor or shelf system, no investment in Point-of-sales promotion or sales staff training. Just a metal box, lockable, where the dealer can keep his items. Marketing cost means that you can try a fruit for free. The logistic concept is an old van that shuttles everything from some far away farm or warehouse to the market.

But markets are not the only way to do your shopping. On many corners, you can find some small stores, mom and pop stores would be some good English term. Many of them are open 24 hours. You can buy all kind of food, some do snacks and drinks, the smallest ones have the size of a freezer and sell ice-cream, popcorn or nuts.

And there are regular stores. Most of them small, some in some former large stares converted into some type of shopping mall. Also the huge Belgrade fair ground has converted several halls into a collection of small boutiques, closer to a bazaar than to 5th avenue. It can be all or nothing. We have not found yet one serious toy store, but close to us is a shop with the most fantastic collection of lamps you can imagine. Difficult to find cheese, but a few meters from us a very good bakery, open 24 hours. But open does not necessarily mean that they have bread, “nema’ – we do not have it – is one of the first words you learn here. It looks like that many people started a shop instead of being unemployed. All this makes also that if somewhere is today a store for household appliances, tomorrow there might be nothing or a butcher. The Serbian saying is “lekar – pekar – apotekar”, someone is today doctor, tomorrow a baker and then a pharmacist.

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Upd. on 14. jan 2006