second hand

second hand clothes stores (known as 'sekond khend', a transliterated translation) are becoming more and more popular here in cherkassy. people say they are the only place to buy good (or at least, better) quality clothes, and beat the rising prices of products in the high street stores and markets.

this store, 'ekonom', has numerous branches which have cropped up in a very short space of time - they were not here when we visited at christmas. clothes are bought by the kilogram, with shoppers choosing the items they'd like to take, and weighing them when they are ready to make their purchase. prices are more expensive when a new consignment of clothes has just arrived, but on average it seems that prices are around 50 UAH (less than £5) per kilo.

most of the clothes seem to come from britain, and so my mother- and sister-in-law have been trying to pick up bits from marks & spencer's since they visited england last year. this also means that there are occasions when it is possible to witness a hilariously inappropriately dressed individual, emblazoned with a slogan unknown to them, but that is somewhat surprising to the english-speaking passer-by (see: http://t.co/6v1bto5).